“They Find Ways to Make the Vegetables Taste Nicer” – Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption with the Garden to Table Programme in Four New Zealand Schools

Author Info

Amber Parry Strong Cecilia Ross Tessa Clarke Mark Weatherall Jeremy Krebs

Corresponding Author

Amber Parry Strong
Centre for Endocrine, Diabetes & Obesity Research, Wellington Hospital, Wellington, New Zealand

A B S T R A C T

Aim: This project aims to evaluate the Garden to Table programme in low decile Wellington schools. Methods: In a non-randomized evaluation over three years, schools that enrolled in Garden to Table in Wellington, New Zealand, were invited to participate. Eligible students attended two measurement days per year, for anthropometric measurements and a focus group. Dietary questionnaires were completed by a guardian. Results: Four schools and 124 children participated in the evaluation. Fruit and vegetable consumption significantly increased with exposure to the program. After at least one year children were able to name more vegetables and had tried more vegetables than at baseline. Children were more willing to try new foods, but this did not reach significance. BMI was not affected. Conclusion: The Garden to Table programme is well received by children and schools. The programme increased children’s knowledge about and exposure to different vegetables and increased fruit and vegetable consumption.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Tue 28, Jul 2020
Accepted: Tue 11, Aug 2020
Published: Fri 21, Aug 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Amber Parry Strong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JFNM.2020.02.06