FOOD SYSTEMS
Neighborhood Nutrition Network
From 1998 to 2005, FOG worked with numerous local partners to operate
a nationally recognized, multi-faceted community
food program known as Neighborhood Nutrition
Network (NNN). NNN developed programs including
school gardening, community gardening, youth
entrepreneurship and food-gleaning and distribution.
FOG received a 2000 USDA Community Food Project (CFP) grant for the Alachua County
Local Food Project, which worked through the Neighborhood Nutrition Network (NNN)
to increase access to and knowledge of fresh, local, nutritious food in the community.
NNN worked intensively with youth and local schools, establishing gardens at three
schools in low-income areas of Gainesville. Students grew fruits and vegetables both to
serve in the lunchroom and to share with their families. Every student involved in the program brought home a total of 150 pounds of produce in the first year or the project.
Teachers incorporated the garden into lessons, working with FOG staff to develop a
school garden curriculum tailored to state standards (see below in Related Documents). Building on its success with school
gardens, particularly with "at-risk" students and those with disabilities, NNN expanded its work with youth.
FOG's second CFP grant, awarded in 2003, enabled the Youth Entrepreneurial
Farm and Food Preservation Project (FFPP) - begun as part of the school gardening
project - to expand and grow. FOG staff employ low-income high school students to
work on one of the last remaining farms in the Gainesville city limits. Youth grow food
both for donation and sale, connecting to their communities while learning to develop
their own business.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Project: School
Garden-An Elementary Primer (.pdf)
Written by Colin Colverson and based in part on the experiences of NNN’s
long running school garden program in Alachua County, Fla., the primer provides an
introduction to the history, benefits and challenges of developing a school
garden and provides specific lessons tied to the Sunshine State Standards, allowing
an elementary school teacher to tie specific school garden activities to their
curriculum. Support for this project came, in part, from several funders, including Newman’s
Own Organics Inc., the Agua Fund, The Presbytery of Saint Augustine and the
Lattner Foundation, who also supported the operational aspects of NNN’s
school garden program over the years. While the operational side of NNN’s
school garden project has been passed on to the schools, teachers, and volunteers
who were such a key part of its early success, FOG hopes Project:
School Garden-An Elementary Primer will be a valuable resource for teachers
and students exploring the idea of developing their own school garden.