Atlanta Public School Students are Growing Veggies for their School Cafeteria!

May 4th, 2016

Captain Planet Foundation’s Garden-to-Cafeteria Pilot has launched with great success in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).

With the success of Project Learning Garden across over 50 schools in APS, the next logical step was to work with the school district and cafeteria staff to begin serving student-grown, school garden produce in the cafeterias!

During the school past year, Captain Planet Foundation formally partnered with APS Nutrition and Sodexo to pilot the Garden-to-Cafeteria program in Beecher Hills Elementary, Martin Luther King Middle and Maynard Jackson High Schools.

With support from CPF’s FoodCorps service member, Bang Tran, the after-school garden club at King Middle, and the Jackson High School Urban Ag Club, the school gardens at King Middle and Jackson High School are thriving with radishes, spinach, carrots and peas – all destined for the school cafeteria salad bars this Spring! [Beecher Hills will start producing for the cafeteria in the fall.]

All the produce is served on the salad bar, and CPF will collect data to determine the impact of school garden–grown produce on student consumption of salad. We expect to see more students eating salads [from their gardens] and becoming more involved in their school gardens!

Congrats to the student garden club members, Bang Tran (CPF FoodCorps member), Dr. Hughes (APS Nutrition Director), Sodexo, and Ashley Rouse for making this a success!