Helping kids develop a green thumb: Mark Cullen
How one organization in Toronto is getting city-dwelling children excited about growing their own food.

Photo: The kids and volunteers at Green Thumbs Growing Kids are encouraged to taste, harvest and take food from the school garden home. (DREAMSTIME)

Kids take their lead where they find it. Parents steer kids in one direction, sometimes their school lives steer them in another.

When it comes to food there is little doubt that every child, for better or worse, develops eating habits from a very early age. After all, we love to eat.

Sunday Harrison is the co-ordinator of the Green Thumbs Growing Kids program in Toronto. She works — collaboratively, with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) — in a cluster of elementary schools in high-need neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto.

“Children are growing up in highrise communities without access to green space and fresh, growing food. Research shows that positive attitudes toward nature are formed in childhood,” Harrison says, explaining her motivation for the program. READ MORE…

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