Creating Edible Gardens in Muslim Schools

From Muslim Voices | 28th June 2010 | By Yvonne Maffei (My Halal Kitchen)

Photo: USDAgov (via flickr)

First Lady Michelle Obama works in the White House Kitchen Garden with Washington, D.C.-area elementary school children.

Over the last several months I’ve been paying pretty close attention to the movements surrounding the creation of better food in school lunches and the subsequent education for kids on the origins of food.

I pay close attention because I was once a teacher and have witnessed the horrors of middle, junior high, and high school students’ diets, not to mention what it does to them after lunch.

I’ve worked in many different schools in my teaching days and one thing I observed most often was whatkids ate and what they didn’t eat. Everything from the packed to the bought-lunches were full of sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup and other highly-processed ingredients.

Where was the nutrition in all of that?

Taking Action

Most  of the time when I tried to talk to the kids — or anyone who would listen — about the importance of eating fruits, vegetables, and grains and avoiding what they were eating, it was basically laughed off.

How could they possibly be expected to stop drinking soda? How could the school afford to stop selling these items in their vending machines?

Thankfully, alhamdullilah, (all praise be to God), I am not alone in my pursuit to get kids (and their families) to recognize what they’re eating now isn’t so good for them.

What I hope to do next, insha’allah, is to take action towards offering Muslim schools the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle for the children whereby everyone recognizes the importance of knowing food comes from and the engagement of growing and cooking that food together, all the while taking advantage of the educational opportunities interwoven in such a pursuit [...]

Read in full on Muslim Voices