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Results from a Survey on School Food Gardens in South Africa: Perceptions of Teachers, Learners and Parents S.M. Laurie1, M. Faber2, M.E. Malebana1 and E. van den Heever1 1 Agricultural Research Council (ARC) – Roodeplaat, Vegetable and Ornamental Plant

Institute, Pretoria, South Africa 2 Nutritional Intervention Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South

Africa Keywords: cross-sectional survey, curriculum, national study, school nutrition Abstract

School food gardens can play an important role in teaching learners about gardening concepts and skills with the aim of increasing home production for household food and nutrition security. A cross-sectional survey (funded by the FAO) was conducted in ten schools in each of the nine provinces of South Africa to assess the perceptions on food production by learners, teachers and parents. Structured questionnaires were completed, for each school, of all grade 0 to 7 teachers, the school garden administrator, the volunteer food handler, 30 randomly selected grade 5 to 7 learners and 10 parents. Of the 2546 learners that completed the questionnaire, 77% indicated that their school had a food garden, while 68% indicated that their families grew vegetables/fruit at home. Learners predominantly perceived garden work to be fun (57%). Just over 50% of learners were involved in school garden activities, and of these, 56% talked at home of what they had learned at the school food garden. According to the garden administrators (n=55) garden produce was mostly taken home by learners (85%). Of the teachers (n=683), 96% perceived school food gardens as a means to improve children’s health. Two thirds of schools integrated gardening into the curriculum, predominantly in life orientation (82%), but also in natural sciences (46%) and reading (35%). In addition, just over 40% of parents (n=704) detected behavioural change in their children (e.g., taking part in home gardens and passion for gardening) since involvement in school food gardens, with 42% indicating that learners talked about the school garden activities at home. It was concluded that learners and teachers were positive about school food gardening, and that information flow on school garden activities occurred from learners to parents. More efforts should be made to strengthen school-based food gardens and their integration into the curriculum.

INTRODUCTION

School food gardens can play an important role in teaching learners gardening concepts and skills, with the aim to increase home food production to ensure household food and nutrition security. Garden-enhanced nutrition education in schools was shown to positively affect children’s attitude, nutrition knowledge, food preference and consumption patterns in terms of vegetables and fruit (Somerset and Markwell, 2009; Parmer et al., 2009). Blair (2009) reviewed the literature and reported that quantitative studies showed positive outcomes of school food-gardening initiatives in the areas of scientific achievement and food behaviour.

In South Africa, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is responsible for the National School Nutrition Program (NSNP). The NSNP has three sub-programmes, namely (Department of Education, 2008a): (i) Feeding programme, which aims to reduce short term hunger by providing nutritious

meals to learners on all school days, thus enhance the child’s learning capacity; (ii) Sustainable Food Production in Schools (SFPS), which promotes the implementation

of sustainable food production initiatives in order to provide knowledge and transfer skills to schools and communities, thus improve household food security; and

(iii) Nutrition Education (NE), which strengthens nutrition education, to improve

Proc. 2nd All Africa Horticulture Congress Eds.: K. Hannweg and M. Penter Acta Hort. 1007, ISHS 2013

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nutritional knowledge as well as healthy eating and lifestyles among school communities.

The main drives for this focus are concerns in public health and food insecurity which include the following national statistics: 1) only 20% of South African households appeared food secure, 2) 64% of 1- to 9-year-old children suffered from vitamin A deficiency, and 3) 9% of children 1 to 9 years old were underweight and 4.5% wasted (indicating acute malnutrition); while 18% were stunted due to chronic malnutrition (Labadarios et al., 2000; Gericke and Labadarios, 2007; Kruger et al., 2007; Labadarios et al., 2007).

The key objective of the SFPS sub-programme of the NSNP is to promote and support food production initiatives in schools. By 2007/8 a total of 6503 schools nationally had school food gardens, which is a steady increase from the 3058 gardens in 2004/5 (Department of Education, 2008b).

As part of a Technical Cooperation Program between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and DBE, the FAO funded the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to conduct a situation analysis in 90 schools that participated in the NSNP. The ARC invited the Medical Research Council (MRC) to assist with nutritional aspects of the study. The overall aim of the assessment was to collect information on school feeding, school food vending, food gardens and nutrition education activities, as well as the knowledge, perceptions and practices regarding relevant agricultural and nutritional issues for educators, learners and parents. The study will support the DBE with the NSNP.

Due to the magnitude of the survey and its results, this paper will only deal with results on assessing the perceptions of learners, teachers and parents on food production in schools.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in ten schools in each of the nine provinces of South Africa as selected by the DBE. The selection was purposive to mostly include schools with food gardens representing rural, urban and peri-urban areas as well as dry, high rainfall and coastal zones.

The aim was to complete, for each school, self-administered structured questionnaires for all grade R to grade 7 teachers, the teacher responsible for the administration of the food garden (garden administrator), and 30 randomly selected grade 5 to grade 7 learners. The latter completed the questionnaires under supervision of the field workers. The aim further was to complete an interview-administered structured questionnaire for one food handler and a convenience sample of 10 parents per school. All questionnaires were tested for face validity and piloted beforehand. The teachers completed the questionnaires in English. The questionnaires for the parents, learners and food handlers were translated into six local languages. The translations were verified through back translation by independent persons familiar with the local vernacular and who were not involved in the original compilation or translation of the questionnaire. Corrections were made where necessary. The translated questionnaires were piloted and revised where needed.

Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the MRC (EC09-015). The DBE obtained permission to do the study from the relevant senior managers in the provincial Departments of Education and school headmasters. Written informed consent was obtained from adult respondents before completion of the questionnaire. Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of the selected learners, and the learners gave written assent.

Data collection was done by trained fieldworkers from DBE from March to October 2010. Data capturing and cleaning was done at the ARC and MRC, and frequency analyses were performed using the statistical package SAS.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Perceptions of Learners

During the survey, 2546 learners completed the learner questionnaire. Of these, 77% indicated that their school had a food garden. It is encouraging that 68% of the learners indicated that their families grew vegetables and/or fruit at home. Most of the learners had a positive attitude towards working in a food garden (Table 1). Learners perceived garden work to be fun (57%) and their duty (22%). Only 6% of the learners regarded garden work as punishment. Just over half (54%) of the learners at schools with food gardens were involved in school gardens, and of those, 56% talked at home of what they had learned at the school food garden. Learners indicated that the main purpose of school food gardens was to learn about healthy eating (36%) and to produce food (32%) (Table 1).

Food Garden Administrators

According to the teachers responsible for food garden administration (n=55) garden produce are primarily given to learners to take home (Table 2).

Volunteer Food Handlers

The food handlers (persons responsible for preparing the school meal; n=84) were asked for what purpose a school food garden could be used. Answers given by at least 5% of the respondents were: produce to be used in the school meal (27%); to produce vegetables (18%); to provide fresh vegetables (12%); for the health of the children (7%); to teach learners about gardening (6%); and to save money (6%).

When asked which foods they thought could be grown in the school garden that could be used in the school meal, 10% did not answer the question, 6% gave an irrelevant answer, and 11% gave a more general answer (vegetables and/or fruit). Specific foods listed mostly were carrot (58%), cabbage (50%), spinach (37%), onions (30%), potato (26%), tomato (25%), pumpkin (19%), beans (17%), and beetroot (15%). Planting a variety of micronutrient rich crops to be used in the school meal can potentially help to add variety to the school meal, and increase the micronutrient content of the meal.

Perceptions of Teachers

Of the teachers (n=683), 96% perceived school food gardens as a means to improve learners’ health, for reasons presented in Table 3. Two thirds (68%) of the teachers integrated gardening into the curriculum, predominantly into life orientation (82%), but also into natural sciences (46%), reading (35%), mathematics (30%), economic and business science (26%), technology (25%), arts and culture (19%), and social science (17%). Graham and Zidenberg-Cherr (2005) reported that teachers identified a strong need for multiple resources to enable them to effectively teach nutrition through school gardens. These included e.g., curriculum materials link to academic standards, teacher training in gardening, and lessons for teaching nutrition in the garden.

Most teachers felt that it was good for learners to be exposed to garden work (77%), it being a valuable teaching tool (83%), and children could learn as much from it as from classwork (63%) (Fig. 1). Only 11% of the teachers perceived gardening as a low-status activity.

Perceptions of Parents

The questionnaire was completed by 704 parents. There was some level of information flow from the learners to the parents; 40% of the parents reported that their child has shown or taught them something that he/she has learned through the school food garden. Children mostly showed their parents how to grow/plant vegetables (48%), or more specific information such as how to water/irrigate the plants (14%) and planting methods (10%). Another value of the school food garden was that the children brought

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home vegetables, showing parents the vegetables and letting them cook it at home (14%). The transfer of the awareness and knowledge of vegetable production and consumption to the household level is a key finding, as vegetable and fruit consumption in South Africa is generally low (Vorster et al., 1997). Affordability and availability are the main reasons for the low intake of vegetables and fruit. Poverty was perceived by the teachers as one of the problems affecting nutrition of the learners in their school, and most households will therefore not be able to purchase vegetables and particularly fruit regularly. Through the NSNP, households can be encouraged to plant a variety of vegetables and fruit for home consumption.

According to 42% of parents, the school food gardens had an influence on their children’s behaviour. Children primarily started to take part in the garden (47%), but also showed love for gardening, showed more passion about it and were more responsible about gardening (24%) (Table 4). In addition, 88% of parents thought that food gardens at school made a difference to children’s health. E.g., children stayed healthy, it helped them grow and not to get sick easily (16%).

Most of the parents agreed that children can learn a lot about healthy eating through gardening (90%), and can learn as much from garden activities as from participation in class work (85%). However, some parents had a negative perception of gardening activities (Fig. 2). Gardening was perceived as a low-status activity by 29% of the parents, 21% perceived gardening as boring, 29% thought that children should work in the food garden as punishment, and 33% of the parents indicated that primary school children should not be working in the school garden. When children are expected to take part in gardening activities at school, it should be taken into account that a third of the parents were negative about children working in the gardens. Awareness campaigns are needed to change these perceptions of parents.

CONCLUSIONS

Both learners and teachers perceived food gardening positively, creating a conducive environment for gardening activities and garden-enhanced nutrition education in schools. Regarding parents, efforts should focus on awareness creation of the importance to learners of involvement in garden activities, and to change the perceptions of parents on gardening.

Strengthening of gardening activities and integration thereof into the curriculum and other school activities is needed to encourage planting of vegetables and/or fruit for home consumption. To ensure that schools have the capacity to do this, education material needs to be developed and teachers need to be trained in gardening.

A systematic approach is needed for institutionalizing and sustaining school food gardens (Castle and Bialobrzeska, 2009). For the school food gardens to thrive and sustain a high level of productivity, it is critical that training, gardening equipment and technical advice and support be provided, either by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries or other service providers such as, for example, non-governmental organizations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of Department of Basic Education, funding received from the FAO and the cooperation of respondents taking part in the survey.

Literature Cited Blair, D. 2009. The child in the garden: an evaluative review of the benefits of school

gardening. J. Environ. Educ. 40(2):15-38. Castle, J. and Bialobrzeska, M. 2009. School-based nutrition programmes: an intervention

for mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS on vulnerable learners. Online at http://www.saide.org.za/repsurces/newsletters/Vol_15_no.1_2009/content/School%20Nutrition20%article%20Feb%2009.doc.

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Department of Education. 2008a. National guidelines for the implementation, monitoring and reporting on the National School Nutrition Programme Draft 5, National Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa.

Department of Education. 2008b. National School Nutrition Programme. 2007/8 Financial Year Report for Sustainable Food Production in Schools, National Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa.

Gericke, G.J. and Labadarios, D. 2007. A measure of hunger. p.313-386. In: D. Labadarios (ed.), National Food Consumption Survey - Fortification Baseline (NFCS-FB): South Africa, 2005. Directorate Nutrition, Department of Health, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Graham, H. and Zidenberg-Cherr, S. 2005. California educators perceive school gardens as an effective nutritional tool to promote healthful eating habits. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 105(11):1797-1800.

Kruger, H.S., Swart, R., Labadarios, D., Dannhauser, A. and Nel, J.H. 2007. Anthropometric status. p.121-160. In: D. Labadarios (ed.), National Food Consumption Survey - Fortification Baseline (NFCS-FB): South Africa, 2005. Directorate Nutrition, Department of Health, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Labadarios, D., Steyn, N. and Maunder, E. 2000. National Food Consumption Survey of 1-9 year old children in South Africa, 1999. Department of Health: Directorate of Nutrition, Pretoria, South Africa.

Labadarios, D., Moodie, I.M. and van Rensburg, A. 2007. Selected micronutrient status: vitamin A. p.409-446. In: D. Labadarios (ed.), National Food Consumption Survey - Fortification Baseline (NFCS-FB): South Africa, 2005. Directorate Nutrition, Department of Health, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Parmer, S.M., Salisbury-Glennon, J., Shannon, D. and Struempler, B. 2009. School gardens: an experiential learning approach for a Nutrition Education Program to increase fruit and vegetable knowledge, preference, and consumption among second-grade students. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 41(3):212-217.

Somerset, S. and Markwell, K. 2009. Impact of a school food garden on attitudes and identification skills regarding vegetables and fruit: a 12-month intervention trial. Public Health Nutr. 12(2):214-221.

Vorster, H.H., Oosthuizen, W., Jerling, J.C., Veldman, F.J. and Burger, H.M. 1997. The nutritional status of South Africans. A review of the literature from 1975-1996. The Health Systems Trust, Durban, South Africa.

Tables Table 1. Learners’ (n=2441) perceptions on food gardening. Garden work is: % Main purpose of school food garden % Fun 57 Learning about healthy eating 36 My duty 22 To produce food 33 An achievement 15 Learning how to grow vegetables 23 A punishment 6 School income 9

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Table 2. Use of produce from the school food garden, according garden administrators (n=55).

Uses % Children take it home 85 Sold on regular basis 29 Used in the school meals 26 Sold at special events 18 Food production in general (use not specified) 15 Other, e.g., when teaching 8

Table 3. Teachers’ opinions on differences the school food garden can make to learners’

health (those who perceived gardens as a means to improve children’s health; n=636). Opinion % Produce from the garden adds variety and nutrition to the school meal 20 Provide a balanced diet to needy children 19 Food gardens can be used to teach learners about healthy eating 19 Educate learners to plant; learn garden skills; teach love for gardening; teach importance of food gardens

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Good for their bodies, more active, better minds 12 Fresh vegetables for learners 9 Can be used in NSNP; feed learners 5 Enhance frequent consumption 2 More cost effective than to buy; good value 2 Table 4. Difference in learner’s behaviour since becoming involved in school food

garden, for those who perceived school gardens as influencing children’s behavior (n=140).

Behaviour % Take part/help in the garden 47 Love gardening, passionate or more responsible about it 24 Gained knowledge 11 Started his/her own garden 7 Buy more fruit/eat more vegetables than snacks 5 Show interest in the garden 2 Talks about gardening 2 None 1 Increase in production 1

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Figures

Fig. 1. Teacher’s (n=683) perceptions on school food gardening (%).

Fig. 2. Parents’ (n=704) perceptions on school food gardening (%).

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