Students at Mansfeld Magnet Middle School – and across Tucson Unified – have a beautiful new space for learning. The Sprouts House is a new school garden campus located at Mansfeld. On November 7, the community was invited to an open house, which included tours of the garden and interactive food literacy activities.
The new garden space was made possible thanks to the district's partnership with Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. The organization is dedicated to supporting students' health through nutrition education and school gardening programs that cultivate learning. Currently, the foundation works with over 10,000 schools across the country, including several in TUSD. Their most recent project, the Sprouts House, was conceived a year ago, according to Lyndsey Waugh, executive director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.
"Moses and I were visiting Mansfeld Middle School, and he pulled me to the side and he looked across the street and he said, 'Lyndsey, imagine what it would look like for us to transform these two houses that are here into a thriving center of school garden education for these middle school students.'"
Tucson Unified's school gardens are also supported by the University of Arizona School Garden Workshop program, which includes collaborations with TUSD Food Services for the Garden to Cafeteria initiative, as well as offering professional development opportunities for teachers.
Research shows that kids are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables when they help in the planting and harvesting process. And by learning about how to care for plants, they develop a connection to the natural world around them."Gardens to me are a superpower," said Moses Thompson, executive director of the UofA School Garden Workshop. "Gardens have the ability to reflect our students' lived experiences. Gardens have the ability to connect students with their food systems. Gardens give students early exposure to healthy eating that will last along their lifetime."
The Sprouts House will serve as a hub for school garden programming for students across the district. The site includes a culinary center, extensive gardens and an outdoor classroom – where kids will learn how to grow and prepare food and connect with the community.
