Category — Children

The director’s observation of three community gardens in Shanghai

Provided by 2020 Looking China · Youth Film Project.
Frederik Vercammen, the director, from Belgium
Tang Yaxuan, the producer, from St. John’s College
Article Editor: Shen Ke
Shine
Dec 2020
(Must see film. Mike)

This documentary shows the director’s observation of three community gardens in Shanghai. Through close interviews with the staff, volunteers and residents who participated in the construction and maintenance of the gardens, a window is open for us to see how the simple and sincere connection among people in a busy and indifferent urban life is forming in everyone’s heart through simple acts taking place in small community gardens.

Link to the film here.

Focusing on two rooftop farms in Baoshan and Hongkou, this film explores the relationship between modern city and agriculture.

Film By Maya Torrens, the director, from the UK
Xie Zhiying, the producer, from Shanghai University
Article by Yang Meiping
Shine
2020-12-05

(Must see film. Mike)

As a new form of business combining city and agriculture, rooftop farm is in the stage of vigorous development in Shanghai.

Focusing on two rooftop farms in Baoshan and Hongkou, this film explores the relationship between modern city and agriculture and the new concept of green life by recording the stories of the founders of the farms and the children’s planting experience.

See the film here.

Preliminary findings suggest that there is great promise for small home and school garden projects to foster changes in food choice behavior and improve dietary quality.

Drivers of Food Choice
Krystal Rampalli, MPH,
Pepijn Schreinemachers, Ph.D
May 16, 2019

Excerpt:

To try to gain a clearer understanding of the impact of school gardening programs on food choices and nutrition in Nepal, WorldVeg recently piloted a two-year cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT). The researchers hypothesized that school vegetable gardens combined with nutrition education would improve the food consumption habits and subsequent nutritional status of Nepalese schoolchildren ages 10-15 years old. A secondary hypothesis was that their intervention would help raise awareness and preferences toward healthier foods and sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices (Schreinemachers et al., 2017).

By Elle J. McGuinness (Author), Heather Brown (Illustrator)
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Dec 20 2008

When a boy finds a bee trapped in his bedroom he hides in fear. But when the friendly bee explains how helpful bees are, he learns that great things sometimes come in little, buzzing packages. Bee & Me is also a great tool for helping little ones overcome their fear of bees, and learn about their importance in our gardens and orchards.

Link.

HG4RR Webinar Series: November at 14:00 Berlin Time

Guest speaker Pepijn Schreinemachers from the World Vegetable Center will present “School gardens and healthy eating in low-income countries: what does the evidence show?” drawing from examples in Burkina Faso, Bhutan and a pilot project in Nepal. After the presentation there will be a discussion moderated by Dr. Tilman Brück of IGZ.

School gardens have become a widely used approach to influence children’s eating behavior in high- and low-income countries; however, evidence for impact is very limited. This webinar discusses the global evidence and recent studies from Burkina Faso, Bhutan and Nepal. It then zooms in on a school garden pilot in Nepal that also trained parents. The webinar concludes with key lessons learned about implementing school garden programs in low-income countries.

It’s well observed at this stage that the Covid-19 lockdown brought about a boom in interest in gardening and growing your own food.

By Ellie O’Byrne
Echo Live
Oct 8, 2020

Excerpt:

Louise isn’t on some solo mission for suburban self-sufficiency: two years ago, she started converting her own garden into Patch na bPaisti, a community allotment where she runs food-growing workshops for children of four and up.

And she’s just been announced as the national winner of non-profit GIY’s annual Get Ireland Growing competition: the grand prize is €5,000 worth of garden renovations, including a polytunnel.

Louise’s garden is already home to six large raised beds for growing veg, and a treehouse with a storage area for children to keep their gardening equipment in, but for the many crops that do better indoors in the Irish climate, last year she and her little helpers were relying on a flimsy “mini-greenhouse” to grow in. So the polytunnel is going to be an exciting leap forward for Patch na bPaisti.

The Green Scheme delivered seedlings to youth at Lincoln Heights so that youth could grow fruits and veggies at home.

By Aja Beckham
Dcist
Sept 21, 2020

Excerpt:

As a teenager, Webb participated in summer programs at the U.S. Botanical Gardens and U.S. National Arboretum, where he learned about soil and plant maintenance. But he didn’t decide on agriculture as his career path until attending college, when Webb randomly added an agricultural economics class to his course load — he needed additional credits and it was one of the few courses with open seats. He became fascinated by food production and economics, and from there decided on a profession in the field of agricultural business.