The Healthy Youth Program partnered with Corvallis High School (CHS) to develop the Spartan Garden, which serves as a place-based outdoor learning resource for the school. In the Spartan Garden, students of all ability levels learn where their food comes from and the value of eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Spartan Garden produce is used for healthy snacks during lunch and break, in the school cafeteria, and is given to any students helping to maintain the garden. Our Chefs in the Garden summer day camps help keep the Spartan Garden vibrant during the summer, and any excess produce is donated to area food banks.
Visit the sections below to learn more about the Spartan Garden!
The Spartan Garden provides an easily accessible outdoor learning resource, where classroom connections can be made to multiple disciplines. The Healthy Youth Program’s garden educators work with CHS students and teachers to make these connections. Below is a list of some of the CHS student projects in the garden:
Career-Related Learning
The Spartan Garden also provides students with opportunities for Service Learning, to fulfill their Career Shadow Experience and Extended Application requirements, and to earn credit for Internships and Structured Work Experience. Please contact the Healthy Youth Program if you are interested in incorporating the Spartan Garden into any of your required career-related learning experiences at CHS!
Many adolescents have developed unhealthy eating habits and eat few or no fruits and vegetables on an average school day. According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, only 18% of 11th graders in Oregon consumed the recommended 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Our children and adolescents are constantly exposed to fast-food commercials, snack and soda vending machines, and other unhealthy calorie-rich snack foods.
We need to find a way to teach our adolescents to make food choices that will nurture their bodies and help them stay healthy. There is no quick-fix for unhealthy eating habits, including the overconsumption of calories, but through a school garden we might get adolescents into another kind of relationship with food by teaching them where their food comes from, the value of eating healthy foods, how to respect and take care of their environment, and the nurturing effects of preparing and eating a meal together with families and friends at the table. In addition, studies have found positive impacts of school gardens on eating and exercise behaviors as well as improved academic performance and attitudes towards learning.
To address this, the Linus Pauling Institute's Healthy Youth Program partnered with Corvallis High School (CHS) to develop a school garden that will be maintained by the high school students throughout the school year. The garden is located on an empty lot south of the football field and the track.
Corvallis High School serves as the magnet school for all life skills students in the Corvallis School District. Construction of a paved area for accessible raised table beds was accomplished through volunteers of the 2012 OSU Alumni Association’s Community Day of Service.
More than 45 volunteers showed up for the 2012 OSU Alumni Association's Community Day of Service project at the Spartan Garden!