Building on a successful garden program with five Head Start centers, Gabriela Perez, nutrition coordinator for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Solina Rulfs, PSE specialist with the UF/IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program (FNP), expanded to 22 centers. Rulfs and Perez provided materials and assistance throughout the 2023-24 school year, while FNP educators, Terri Schroder and Daniella Voltaire, taught lessons to young students, connecting gardening with nutrition.
Along with nine gardens supported by The Education Fund Food Forests for Schools program, these efforts ensured that all Head Start classrooms in the school district received garden support.
“Students LOVE planting the seeds and coming every morning to check on them. We love our garden, and we feel proud when other classes come to see it.” Maria Santacruz, Head Start teacher, Zora Neale Hurston Elementary School, Miami
