WINNER: Growing Nutrition (and Business)

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Question: How do you teach kids about farming, nutrition, and business all at the same time?

Answer: A school garden!

The “El Jardin, La Cocina y El Mercado” school garden at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas, teaches students how to farm and grow plants like their ancestors, how to prepare healthy traditional Latino favorites, like nopales, and how to learn business skills by selling their produce at their own market.

The garden just won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes video voting contest!

Read their story or watch their winning video about the steps they took to plan, mobilize support for, design, and implement the garden, which is a outgrowth of collaboration among teacher Anna Suffle, school and district administrators, a local policymaker, and community groups and activists.

“We’re showing kids how to use the vegetables in a creative way and giving them alternatives to grabbing a bag of potato chips or candy,” said Sam Attel, student activities manager at Bowie and a big champion of the school’s garden program.

Salud America! is a Latino childhood obesity network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Salud America! runs a periodic voting contest.