AtlantiCare healthy school edible garden startup grants: A content analysis of post-grant follow-up reports

The purpose of this article was to identify some of the implications, challenges and benefits of edible gardens cultivated at schools located in southern New Jersey, USA.

Over the course of three academic years (between 2014 and 2017), 73 schools received start up monies for school gardens from AtlantiCare Health System. The schools, located in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean Counties in New Jersey, were required to complete an Edible School Garden Mini-Grant Follow-up Report.

A content analysis was conducted on responses to 12 open-ended questions from these reports in order to highlight some of the implications, challenges and benefits of gardens within these schools.

Basic descriptive statistics provided logistical information such as those involved in the school garden, including community partnerships and garden maintenance, along with the harvest and outcomes of those harvests. Results provided valuable insight into the impact of school gardens on curriculum and policy change; benefits to knowledge, attitudes and behaviour change among participants; and areas in need of improvement. Frequency distributions identified any unexpected outcomes schools may have experienced, along with additional needs and schools’ future plans for their gardens.

Overall, results indicate that schools were appreciative and excited about the opportunity to create school gardens and plan to continue these efforts. The implications of these results along with suggestions for future grant making, school garden efforts and research are discussed.