Help Tackle the Root Causes of Food Insecurity
At the school where Ruth Fyten teaches, in the Northern Lights Public School District, a number of families face the challenges that come with food insecurity. For a variety of reasons, they don’t have reliable access to healthy meals. And they aren’t alone; children account for 36% of food bank visits in Alberta every month.
While donations to food banks, including our own Fill Our Fleet food drive, help address immediate hunger emergencies—embracing opportunities that tackle the root causes of food insecurity can improve the long-term wellbeing of our local communities.
It’s why teachers like Ruth want to bring gardens into their classrooms. Because it’s one thing to tell a student where good food comes from, but it’s way more impactful if that student is the one who produces the good food in the first place.
Food Literacy in Schools
Strong food literacy and gardening programs in schools are a powerful way to improve food security. As Ruth explains, having the chance to literally get their hands dirty can “help foster a sense of pride and responsibility as [children] learn to plant and tend their own garden.” That feeling of pride can inspire students to “develop an interest in growing their own food to help support their families.” And that’s why teachers, like Ruth, run school gardens.
The reality is that school gardening projects come with real costs and finding the funding for them isn’t always easy. That’s where the AMA Community Foundation and our AMA School Garden Studio Bursary program come in.
At Ruth’s school, the AMA School Garden Studio bursary will help students learn how to turn their freshly grown produce into healthy meals that are easy to produce. They’ll also share the literal fruits of their learning (well, maybe more like the veggies of their learning) with their classmates who do experience food insecurity. Ruth hopes that the lessons learned in class will eventually sprout “a new hobby or possibly a future career” for some of her students.
How to Support the AMA School Garden Studio Bursary
AMA School Garden Studio bursaries are intended to cover equipment and/or tool costs needed to make classroom gardens work. Thanks to the bursary, so far projects at 31 schools from around the province have already received support—but we want to get more growing. And you can help!
Donate to the AMA Community Foundation between now and the end of May and you’ll help support school gardens around Alberta. You can donate online or in-centre including through topping up your transaction.
Get Support for a Gardening Project at Your School
We’re encouraging any principals and/or teachers who have or who are looking to start a grade 7 gardening project to apply for the Winter 2025 edition of the bursary before April 15, 2025. Each bursary could be worth up to $2,500!