Encouraging children to eat vegetables, is a task in itself. Parents and family members face a tough time feeding children with greens. What if it comes to them naturally?

Schools are the bedrock for children where they acquire knowledge, discipline, and life skills to become responsible citizens. What if schools promote children to grow their vegetables as part of their regular activity.

Working on food and nutrition security, the Caritas India FARM Northeast programme initiated this pilot model to promote school gardens in the programme villages. The model was envisaged to enhance nutrition among students by supplementing freshly grown organic vegetables from their school garden which can be served in their Mid-day meals. As a practice, the vegetables for Mid-day meals were procured from the markets with funds provided by the Government. Apart from being a source of nutrition, this initiative is envisioned to be a platform to aid children’s learning and experience of gardening and knowledge about the concept of organic farming.

“School garden is one of the activities that the FARM programme and whenever we go to the field, we always talk about the importance of nutrition to tackle the problem of malnutrition and anaemia in the village” informed Evanswiedor Lyngdoh, Coordinator of Social Service Centre (SSC), the implementing partner of Caritas India. “People of Jaud village in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya were aware of the importance of kitchen gardens but they had less understanding about the importance of having school gardens in the village schools” Evanswiedor added.

SSC had taken the initiative to encourage the headteacher of Government L.P Jaud school, a primary school from class Nursery to Class IV and there are 36 students to start school garden which is the first school garden ever promoted in Jaud village. The Covid-19 first lockdown has delayed the process of setting up of the school garden but after the relaxation when schools re-opened, the staff reinitiated the dialogue with the head-teacher and parents to promote the school gardens.

The parents willingly supported the idea to promote the School garden and extended manure and seeds from their home. The school now have 9 crops including Beans, Pumpkin, mint, Jaut (local herb), Jatira, Jamyrdoh, Jyllang, mustard, and carrot.

On 1 June 2021, when the Government announced the total lockdown due to the second wave of COVID-19, the people of Juad village faced huge challenges. The shutting down of the market and the price rise of vegetables and other basic commodities made people’s life more vulnerable.

Even during the pandemic, the headteacher, parents, and students had collected Beans from the school garden and distributed them to 36 students of the LP School. This initiative has not only helped the nutritional requirement of the children during normal times but also provided food security during the lockdown. The parents of the students were very happy to get these nutritious vegetables from the school garden especially during the pandemic. Through the achievement of the first-round of school gardens, the head-teacher and the parents got inspired to continue to cultivate vegetables in the school garden. On 12 July 2021, the head-teacher and the parents had cultivated a second round of vegetables like Beans, Coriander, and beets. The parents expected that the vegetable that they cultivated will grow very well.

“I am happy to share that the school garden and the vegetables give advantages to all the students of the government L.P. School Jaud which I never expected. We will work hard and encourage the parents to be united to work together to nurture this initiative,” says Aidamary Marbaniang, the headteacher of the school.