If Kids Plant It, They’re More Likely to Eat It

For most kids, lunch means chips, sodas, and fried snacks, but schools are now pushing to swap those ultra‑processed foods for home‑grown veggies like chaya, sweet potato, and pumpkin.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), working with the Ministry of Education and the National Healthy Start School Feeding Program, is expanding school gardens across Belize to encourage children to try more locally grown fruits and vegetables. Six schools, one in each district, will get covered garden spaces with raised beds.

The idea is simple: if kids plant it, they’re more likely to eat it. Right now, many students reject vegetables in their free school meals because they are unfamiliar with the taste. By working in the gardens, children get hands‑on experience with foods like cassava and okra alongside familiar crops like tomatoes and lettuce.

FAO is also providing hands-on school garden training for 20 schools across Belize. Fourteen sessions have already been completed, with the rest expected to wrap up by the end of the month.

Teacher Audra Manzanero from Eden SDA Primary said, “The training bridged the theoretical understanding of planting and caring for plants in the classroom with practical application in the field.” Students are also excited. Aden from Holy Angels Primary shared, “[The] explanation of the different soils and how animals contribute to the plants let me feel excited about our gardening project.”

Along with the training, schools are receiving fruit trees, vegetable seedlings, seeds, and gardening tools so students can immediately start growing food.

The participating schools include Eden Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, Belize Rural Primary School, San Antonio Government School, Trinidad Government School, San Felipe Government School and Holy Angels Roman Catholic Primary School.

The National Healthy Start School Feeding Program already provides free meals to more than 15,000 students every day, and with these gardens, the hope is to make those meals healthier and more appealing.