The Hindu            20.11.2013

Now, schools impart lessons in kitchen gardening

In an attempt to re-connect urban students with their
food, select city schools, including a school run by Chennai
Corporation, are encouraging their children to grow vegetables and
medicinal herbs in small patches of gardens created on their premises.
“Observing the growth of plants teaches students patience and prepares
them to face challenges,” Grace Alwyn, principal of Gateway
International School (CBSE), Padur said. The bulk of the lady’s finger,
brinjal, and a variety of greens and gourds that they are growing will
go to the home for destitute and orphaned girls run by the Brotherhood
Education Trust.

Students of Sacred Hearts
Matriculation School now know how to sow seeds and nurture plants as
part of their ‘Field-to-Table’ programme, where students will be cooking
the vegetables they grow. Once a week, the students take to the
school’s spacious backyard armed with shovels, buckets and manure.

Sri
RKM Sarada Vidyalaya Model Girls Higher Secondary School in T.Nagar,
and Chennai Corporation Higher Secondary School in Thiruvanmiyur run
similar programmes.

On Monday, Sarada Vidyalaya
School students handed out one kg of lady’s finger to the noon meal
centre attached to the school, said headmistress Kannaki Prabakaran. V.
M. Arya, a student of the school, said she started growing brinjal,
chillies and tomatoes in her house now.

S.
Kathiyayini, a class VIII student at Sacred Hearts, said: “We have
learnt more about soil types, seasonal plants, and we also a got an idea
of how our vegetables are grown.”