School gardens are potentially a powerful force to inform children about the diversity of foods and thus to influence their food choices and preferences. This could help to mitigate some of the ill effects on food, diet and health associated with increasing urbanisation. The project uncovered very high levels of agricultural biodiversity in school gardens in two large Australian cities.

Lessons Learned

The project was an information gathering exercise.

Problem

Urbanisation is increasing rapidly. Moving to the city alienates people from food production and may lead to less nutritious diets, quite apart from any other effects. Preferences for specific foods start to develop early in life, which suggests that school gardens, as a source of dietary diversity, may help to steer children and parents towards better choices. Despite these perceived benefits, little research has evaluated actual agricultural biodiversity in school gardens.

The Project

The project focused on school gardens in Brisbane and Gold Coast, 80 km apart on Australia’s east coast. The project identified 23 school gardens in the two towns, all but one run by the Queensland government Department of Education. The most common motive for establishing a school garden was education (91%) followed by increasing health (44%) and “contributing to environmental sustainability” (40%). The oldest garden was established in 1991, and most were new, 80% having been planted since 2008. Average size was 646 (± 152) m2.
Surveys of staff involved with gardens revealed a large amount of biodiversity in school gardens: 230 different types of plants, representing at least 159 species in 66 families. On average, each garden supported 63 (± 8) different plant types, with a maximum of 139 and a minimum of 7. Diversity of fruits and vegetables was not correlated with either the size or the age of the garden, and there was no difference between school gardens that were explicitly motivated to increase health and those that were not.
The project assessed the functional diversity of the plants in the school gardens with a categorisation scheme based on the colour of the food, which in turn reflects aspects of the nutrition it offers. The 22 most common fruits and vegetables covered all the nutritional colours, and on this basis three-quarters of the gardens covered the entire spectrum. The rest grew plants from at least four different categories.

Impact

The project was a cross-sectional survey designed to gather data, and as such was not intended to have a direct impact on participants.