Meghan O’Connell

GFI Fellow - Class of 2017

Graduate Student, Community Health Sciences
UCLA

PROJECT

Seeds to Plate

DESCRIPTION

Meghan will assist the Seeds to Plate Program in developing and finalizing a garden-based curriculum at Mark Twain Middle School: a Title 1, ethnically diverse school within Los Angeles Unified School District. Already in development for the past five years, the curriculum uses the garden to bring core subjects of math, science, history and language arts to life by pairing in-class instruction with hands-on gardening experience and taste tests of fresh produce grown in the garden. Lessons promote a connection to nature, environmental awareness, and healthy eating and physical activity habits.

Seeds to Plate will pilot test their finalized curriculum at Mark Twain this year, with the intention of expanding the program to neighboring middle schools by the 2017-18 school year and eventually making their program available online. An evaluation plan will be designed and implemented at Mark Twain during the 2016-17 school year in order to assess if the garden and corresponding curriculum have positively impacted Seeds to Plate’s outcome variables of students’: (1) fruit and vegetable consumption, (2) nutrition knowledge, and (3) attitudes towards fruits and vegetables.