Community Engaged Learning Project

Collaboration with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health

Allison Baker
Madeline Kirton
Stephanie Wood
Samantha Pereira da Silva

SECTION 1: Project Overview

1.
Group: Madeline Kirton, Allison Baker, Stephanie Wood & Samantha
Pereira da Silva
2.
Selected topic area: Healthy eating
3.
Proposed strategy and goal of your strategy (i.e. what is the
specific objective of your strategy?):
Our proposed strategy of a garden-based multi-component nutrition education
program will incorporate education lessons focusing on proper nutrition and cooking
strategies, peer-mentored hands on gardening opportunities, and weekly family
online newsletters and discussions. The components will directly provide fresh
vegetables and empower children to make their own eating habits choices, while
encouraging parental involvement and healthy eating in the home environment.
4.
Target audience:
Students in grade 4 classes will receive supplemental nutrition lessons to improve
knowledge of vegetable types, as well as how to grow and prepare them. Grade 4
classes were chosen based on a study suggesting that the years between
kindergarten and grade 5 are a critical time to focus on forming the knowledge,
understanding, and skills for further learning (British Columbia Ministry of Education,
2012).Grade 4 children should be a primary focus because they are within this age
range, yet at the upper end of this bracket and more mature and are more likely to
possess the required skills to effectively participate in this multi-component
intervention. Targeting the grade 4 children will also allow other students within this
critical age range (the grade 5s) to be their peer mentors and receive the beneficial
effects of this intervention, as well.
5.
Description of budget:
To initiate this intervention, a sufficient budget will be required to support
advertisements, fundraisers, garden supplies and education lessons. Newsletters will
be sent electronically by teachers or volunteers, to eliminate costs of printing. Initial
startup costs of the garden would reflect previous garden interventions,
approximately $1500; including costs of tools, seeds/food supply, rakes, shovels,
soil, hose/sprinkler, soil, etc. Food donations as well as grown crops from the garden
will provide vegetables and other healthy foods to distribute to the children.
Accepting donations and partnerships as well as initiating fundraisers will offer a
source of income to sustain the intervention costs long term; i.e.: offering
advertising spaces at a cost to health promotion companies in the newsletters and
at the schools or garden areas. Volunteers, teachers, parents and community
members will be encouraged to take on responsibilities without additional pay.
6. Approximate timeline:
This intervention will run during an entire school term from September June. Grade
4 students will receive continuous nutrition/cooking lessons 2 days per week in
collaboration with garden visits 3 days per week. During the cold winter months,
smaller plants can be moved indoors to give students a realistic experience as to
how they can continue to grow their own vegetables at school and home despite the
Canadian climate and weather. During these months intervention will focus heavily
on extensive nutrition lessons to ensure students are able to maintain healthy eating
habits throughout the winter months if the garden requires closure. Utilization of a

greenhouse can be proposed if intervention shows success and sufficient funding is

available.

7. Key community partners who should be considered and how you will
engage them and/or build on their strengths.
Involving the community and receiving support and/or funding from local partners
including; local farms and food shares, WDGPH and the Elementary School Board
(within range of WDGPH), is crucial to the success of our intervention strategy. We
have proposed our idea to numerous elementary schools within the WellingtonDufferin-Guelph district, via email, in hopes to obtain interest and commitment from
4 schools. Emails will allow for mutual communication to gather responses of future
interest in participation or feedback and suggestions to improve and ensure optimal
effectiveness of our strategy. To support evidence and ensure equality we targeted
schools from each division of the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph district including;
Drayton Heights Public School, Minto Clifford Public School, Elora Public School,
Arthur Public School and Harris Mill Public School. Schools will represent different
sections of the district and results of the intervention will allow us to ensure equity
by focusing on specific needs of each section. Determining which schools to target
was based on a specific criteria, including schools that; are already implementing
some healthy eating programs and will be likely to adopt different strategies,
schools that have a strong parent counsel, as well as a group of parent volunteers
and/or teachers who want to be involved and take on responsibility throughout the
duration of the program. The criteria is essential, as our intervention requires hands
on help with building, preparing and maintaining the garden as well as fundraising
money, and supervising the children. During the beginning stages of
implementation, it could be helpful to incorporate members previously involved in
other community interventions such as, volunteers from WDGPH Farm to School
Workshops or The Garden Fresh Box Program, who will have more specific
knowledge and interest. These partners will be informed of the intervention proposal
via email prior to start-up. The email will include details using WDGPH statistics and
evidence to express the communitys need, previous work that has been done to
address this issue, as well as how our strategy will help address the issues from
previous intervention attempts.

8. Rationale for how your choices consider the specific needs of WDGPH:

WDGPH works hard to improve the health of communities and individuals in the
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph community through promotion, protection, and
prevention; specifically targeting school aged children to achieve the highest level of
health through healthy eating education. Providing a strategy that incorporates inclass and hands-on nutrition education in elementary schools as well as increasing
availability to fresh fruits and vegetables will assist WDGPH in promoting and
establishing healthier eating habits in school aged children. After a Community
Partner Consultation in regards to the WDG Health Community Project in 2012, it
was determined that healthy eating was ranked in the top three priority areas for all
three WDG communities (BOH Report, 2012). According to the 2012 Health Status
Report, statistics from a Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2008 state that
less than half (47%) of the WDG residents self-claim to eat the Canadas Food Guide
recommended amount of fruits and vegetables each day (Wellington-Dufferin-

Guelph Public Health, 2012). Results from the CCHS also state that only 39-53% of
the residents from all sections; Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph are consuming the
recommended intake of 5 servings of vegetables/fruits per day (Wellington-DufferinGuelph Public Health, 2012). This evidence express the severity of insufficient
vegetable intake and supports our decision to intervene in all three communities of
the WDG district.

SECTION 2: Support For Strategy

1.
What evidence is your strategy based on? Best practices
currently being followed by other health units with this type of
strategy?
Studies have shown that students who participate in a garden based nutrition
intervention in combination with a nutritional education program have a significant
increase in their fruit and vegetable consumption as well as an increase in vitamin A,
C and fiber intake, compared to students who only participated in the nutrition
education (Mcaleese & Rankin, 2007). A multi component strategy that involves a
range of components such as nutrition education (nutrition/cooking lessons),
improvement of school environment (garden with access to fresh fruits and
vegetables) and communication with parents (emailed newsletters and discussions)
are proved to result in a larger improvement in fruit and vegetable consumption
(Evans, Christian, Cleghorn, Greenwood, & Cade, 2012). Targeting elementary
schools is appropriate, as this is where students spend the majority of their day, and
at this age they are easily influenced and have shown to allow adaptation of healthy
habits (Sharma, 2011). Grade 4 students are also within the age at which forming
skills is crucial to ensure further learning (British Columbia Ministry of Education,
2012). Incorporating the use of older peer educators (grade 5 students) to support
learning, activities and food acceptance are suggested to have more effective
results compared to solely authoritative educators (Hendy, 2002). Newsletters may
encourage parental involvement, which is suggested to be the most influential factor
of health and nutrition behaviour among children (Story, Kaphingst & French, 2006).
The behaviours of children have been associated with home-related factors such as:
parental feeding styles, availability of healthy food (income), role modeling as well
as parental support and encouragement of healthy behaviours (Birch & Ventura,
2009). Engaging in hands on experience while growing fruits and vegetables allows
the children to increase their confidence in food preparation and identification of
vegetables, which can promote further engagement and participation to their home
environments (Mcaleese & Rankin, 2007; Ratcliffe, Merrigan, Rogers, & Goldberg,
2011). Exposing children who disliked vegetables for 14 days has been reported to
increase liking and consumption of vegetables (Evans, Christian, Cleghorn,
Greenwood, & Cade, 2012). This evidence shows that exposure is a very important
aspect and that the responsibility of growing healthy foods and maintenance of the
garden can give students the exposure they require. Consumption of fruits and
vegetables after a school garden program has been shown to increase due to
increased availability from the garden (Ratcliffe, Merrigan, Rogers, & Goldberg,
2011). It is also recommended that implementing a strategy that is based on a
theoretical model, specifically the social cognitive theory allows you to target

specific behaviors and motivating actions (Morris, Briggs, Zidenberg-Cherr, 2000).

Our intervention is based on the social cognitive theory incorporating the three
factors that are believed to be involved in altering health-related behaviors: personal
(improving knowledge of vegetables); behavioral (improve skills of how to
prepare/grow vegetables); and environmental (direct access to vegetables, peer
modeling and parental support) (Morris, Briggs, Zidenberg-Cherr, 2000). Overall, our
public health strategy follows the evidence-based suggestions for efficient schoolbased nutrition intervention strategies.
2.
How does your strategy consider health equity and the social
determinants of health?
This strategy allows all students within the target grade to participate, learn and
benefit from the intervention, allowing them to attain their full health potential. By
implementing our strategy in schools and providing all the necessary tools and
information to the students, we are able to eliminate restrictions the students may
have regarding income and social status at home. By providing the children with
fresh vegetables and fruit they do not need to rely as heavily on their parents
providing them with sufficient and healthy food. A combination of food donations
and
grown vegetables from the garden will be prepared by children/teachers in class and
dispersed during lunch hours. Newsletters will also emailed to parents to improve
knowledge of healthy eating, food preparation and assisting in promotion of healthy
lifestyles, physical home environments, and personal health practices (Morris,
Briggs, Zidenberg-Cherr, 2000).
SECTION 3: Action Plan!
1.
How will your strategy be operationalized? Discuss all
necessary steps in detail.
In the early stages we will implement the program in schools that have the
available land space for the garden. If the program is shown to be effective, we will
obtain government grants and use these to assist in the cost of producing more
gardens in other schools. The first four schools to take part in our intervention will
need to have the available space to prepare the garden and will be chosen based on
interest and strong parent and/or volunteer involvement. A target garden will
measure around 6x4 meters. During the summer before the program begins,
advertisements for community volunteers will be posted, and the parent council and
local farming community will be involved in making and maintaining the garden so
that it can be harvested for the children starting school in September. Starting in
September the grade 4 students will begin by having a few lessons regarding their
role in taking care of the garden. They will then have the opportunity to visit the
garden 3 times/week in order to maintain the garden and observe how the plants
have changed. During this time, short nutrition lessons (~15 minutes) will be
incorporated into the beginning of their science classes 2 days/week. The weekly
online newsletters and discussion questions will be based on the lessons taught that
week to ensure the parents are involved and promoting healthy eating at home.
During the first year, the grade 4s will be mentored mainly by their teachers and the
parent council, however, if the program is successful and continued the next year,
the new grade 4 class will be mentored by the grade 5 class, who had the
opportunity the previous year to go through the same program. Each year the

program progresses and becomes more successful and popular we will incorporate
other aspects such as cooking class, field trips, and guest speakers.
2.
What are the key strengths and limitations of your strategy?
What steps have you put in place to minimize foreseeable challenges?
Strengths:
Multi-component strategy (focusing on different components at most
appropriate times), school based intervention during critical years (Grade 4 with
grade 5 peer-assisted), implementing in stages, hands on experience, direct
exposure/access to fruits & vegetables daily, parental involvement/support, and
based on social cognitive theoretical model.
Limitations:
Slow implementation/increased duration due to growing time of fruits
and vegetables
Lack of interest in gardening/cooking activities
Unable to directly affect at home behavior/eating habits
Ensuring teacher/peer knowledge before implementing strategy
Weather/growing environments: Consider building small
greenhouse for winter months once program has increased government funding.
Focus more heavily on education during the winter months and gardening during
the spring and fall.
Summer maintenance: Encourage community and parent
involvement during summer months by getting parent or teacher volunteers to
look after the garden in the summer. Involve the use of community members
from Garden Box program.
Time and money needed to build, plan and maintain garden:
Apply for government grants with proven success. Advertise around community
and accept donations from local business, foodshares and families. Work with
parent council and piggyback off their fundraising strategies. Garden will be built
in the summer before beginning the program.
Scheduling time for nutrition lessons and garden visits:
Incorporate additional information into lesson plans into science, health, and/or
PE classes. In science class the lessons can be incorporated into learning about
the environment and within health class and focusing on maintaining healthy
lifestyles. Designate small groups of children to visit and maintain gardens
during class times.
Ensuring teacher/peer knowledge before implementing
strategy: WDGPH members providing teachers and peers with lectures of
general gardening, healthy eating and cooking knowledge. Encourage teachers
who have a background or interest in gardening and cooking to participate in
sessions.
Student attention and engagement: Use the older children to help
direct activities and ensure children always have something to look forward to
such as watering, weeding, harvesting, and picking. Encourage parents to
discuss and continually support and praise children for their hard work, hoping
to keep the children excited and interested.
3.
How have you designed your project to be sustainable?
(Consider financial, personnel etc.)

As the children progress through elementary school, their role as part of the
intervention will change. Groups of both grade 4 and 5 students will receive the
additional education on nutrition and garden maintenance, but grade 4 students will
be primarily responsible for monitoring and maintenance of the garden, in
collaboration with external volunteers. The grade 5 students will hold the
responsibility of peer-mentors, supporting and motivating grade 4s during gardenwork sessions. After the first year of implementation, the initial grade 4s will now be
in grade 5 and hold new responsibilities as peer-mentors to ensure successful
learning and participation of the new grade 4 students. As this process continues,
more students will have received the garden-based education and the opportunity to
hold responsibilities of both garden-maintenance and peer mentor, creating a higher
percentage of children with extensive knowledge of vegetable consumption, growing
and preparation strategies. This knowledge and experience can help establish
healthy eating habits long term, which can be translated back to the home
environment. As the program shows success in the healthy eating habits of school
aged children, it is more likely that interest will peak in local partners, who will be
willing to invest more resources to allow for larger gardens, additions of greenhouses
and expansions into other schools.
4.
How will you know if your strategy is successful? (HINT: this
should link back to your project goal/objective!)
The success of the strategy will be determined through a survey similar to the CCHS,
as self-reports are obtained in regards to vegetable and fruit uptake. When the
children return to school the following year we will provide them with a test
measuring their knowledge of different vegetables their health benefits, as well as
their daily intake. Test scores will be used to determine the success of the
intervention.
5.
How has your project improved in response to the feedback
that you received (either from WDGPH or instructor/TA feedback)?
After meeting with the WDGPH mentors changes to our intervention were made to
become more realistic and sustainable. WDGPH stressed that we must implement
the program in stages rather than all at once. Prior to the meeting we did not
consider which schools we would implement first. After our meeting it was decided
that we will implement the strategy to 4 out of the 60 schools in the WDP region,
and from there, if the program is successful we would expand the program to other
schools based on interest, need, funding and equity factors. Overall, WDGPH
provided us with insight to proper implementation to ensure successful outcomes.

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