15th Street Farm - Nutrition Education Program
Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (GRANT135334385).
PURPOSE
We offer vertically integrated comprehensive health and wellness education programs placing agriculture and nutrition within the context of life cycles.
We propose a novel education approach that consists of placing agriculture, nutrition, and wellness within the context of the natural world illustrating that in the natural world everything is interdependent.
By explaining how the whole system functions we provide in easy-to-understand terms, how organic matter is broken down into nutrients by soil microorganisms and absorbed by plant's roots. Those nutrients combined with solar energy allow plants to grow, expand in a continuous cycle of life.
We remove silos between agriculture nutrition and wellness and replace them with bridges within a larger system where agriculture creates healthy food resulting in human and environmental wellness.
We explain a truth that until mid 20th century was obvious to all humans which is that “We are a part of and depend on the natural world.“ and that "We are what we eat, therefore we should eat well"
We use engaging and dynamic hands-on farm-based teaching tools illustrated by metaphors and storytelling. We explain the parallel between functions of natural systems and the human body and their impacts on wellness.
