In In 2023-24 we continued to realize our mission of making healthy connections to food and the natural
world, reinforcing academics through hands-on lessons, building community, and fostering a love of
new and familiar foods. We are excited to showcase some examples of the garden-grown snacks and recipes students tried across all schools in our classes and events. We continue to cultivate biodiverse habitats and culturally diverse kitchens in service of our students.
Thank you to all of our teachers, gardeners, supporters, volunteers, neighbors, school staff, students and families who advance our mission and vision each and every day!
We listen, we reflect, and we respond. We are always growing.
Evaluating our process
As a team, we use a review process to create continuous growth with curriculum, professional development, event planning, staff performance, student success, and so on. We appreciate the beauty and the grit of every major event and interaction. The stronger our team, the better we serve children.
Evaluating program outcomes
Our three main focus areas of evaluation are food behaviors, student learning, and social emotional learning.
We do this through the following methods:
- Student interviews
- Food preference surveys
- Student Learning Target (SLT) Assessments
- Willingness to taste data – observing and documenting the percentage of students who are willing to taste new foods
Here are outcomes from our qualitative evaluation:
- Parents report that their kids are more interested in cooking at home and eating new nutritious foods. A parent described, “My son who was in Edible Schoolyard last year said it was his resolution to cook one meal a week for his family, and he’s kept that up.”
- Academic teachers report that garden and kitchen classes help reinforce core academic concepts: “If there is something that they need to be taught or re-taught, or anything that we haven’t gotten to yet, they help us turn it into a real-life situation. It helps the kids understand.”
- The role of ESYNOLA in developing food-related life skills such as growing produce, grocery shopping, and cooking, is highly valued by students, parents, and teachers.
To read students’ words, click here.
To read more stories of ESYNOLA’s impact, click here.
To see the results of our internship program, click here.
