New research shows school gardens can have a positive effect on children’s health, and the environment as well.

A recent study has found children who are involved with school gardens eat more fruit and vegetables.

The team from Australia’s ACU also found that these children are willing to taste and cook a greater variety of fruit and vegetables and demonstrate improved behaviour both at home and in the classroom.

Researchers assessed 13 school garden programs to examine their impact on children’s dietary behaviour and to find which strategies were most helpful in the programs.

All of the school garden programs were conducted during school hours or in after-school settings, with children ranging from kindergarten to year 8.

Some of the common strategies used in the programs included ‘hands-on’ elements, cooking components, food provision and support for parents and teachers.

ACU Associate Professor Shawn Somerset, an expert in Nutrition and Public Health, said the research proved that school gardens have positive implications for sustainability, as well as children’s health.

“School gardens are a great model to integrate nutrition, environmental sustainability and education objectives,” Associate Professor Somerset said.

Further research was needed to understand how to achieve long-term improvements in dietary behaviours and how to sustain and develop the programs in schools, he said.

“Installing and using school gardens is not complicated, and many successful gardens have run purely on the energy of local school communities.

“Our study showed that international research in this area is sparse, but encouraging.

“Such community-based initiatives are highly cost-effective and can potentially yield a raft of long term health and wellbeing outcomes. They therefore deserve a far larger share of the national research budget.”