HonorHealth, Sprouts Team Up to Build Community Garden for Children
HonorHealth teamed up with The Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, a charitable arm of Sprouts Farmers Market, on Nov. 9 to build a learning garden for students at Desert View Elementary School in Phoenix.
The garden build was part of Sprouts’ Day of Service, an annual volunteer day consisting of 40 events from coast to coast, and marked HonorHealth’s inaugural Ambassador Give Back Day, an employee-driven volunteer initiative with several community events taking place simultaneously throughout the Valley.
Nearly 100 volunteers from HonorHealth and Sprouts spent the day transforming a portion of the school’s school yard into an outdoor learning lab, complete with garden beds, plants and interactive learning features. HonorHealth and Sprouts each contributed $5,000 to cover costs for the project. Sprouts invested an additional $20,000 to have Fort Worth-based Out Teach bring their learning model to the project, which focuses on the subjects of nutrition, math, science and language arts. More than half of the materials for the garden were sourced from local Sunnyslope small businesses, including Preach Landscape and Building Supply and Heldt Lumber.
Students at Desert View Elementary will begin using the new learning garden immediately, while teachers and staff work with the nutrition outreach team at HonorHealth Desert Mission Food Bank to adopt and incorporate an evidence-based nutrition and garden curriculum for the classroom.
“Connecting Desert View Elementary and HonorHealth with Out Teach is what the Foundation is all about,” said Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. “Our work with nonprofits like Out Teach across the country has provided schools, children, and families new opportunities to explore hands-on nutrition education outdoors to support a healthy future for everyone.”
“As a nonprofit, community-based hospital system, HonorHealth is committed to the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve, including our John C. Lincoln Medical Center neighbors at Desert View Elementary,” HonorHealth Vice President of Government & Community Affairs Michelle Pabis said. “We’re also proud to be one of only a few health systems in the U.S. with its own food bank and Snack Pack programs for schools. We are steadfast in our commitment to increasing access to fresh produce and healthy nutritional choices.”
HonorHealth Desert Mission Food Bank currently serves a number of children at Desert View Elementary through its Snack Pack program, which provides Valley schools with weekly bags of nutritious, kid-friendly food – ensuring the students have enough food to eat over the weekends. Those students currently enrolled in the program at Desert View Elementary will also be eligible to participate in an upcoming pilot program offering “Fresh” Snack Packs, which will include current menu items along with fresh fruits and vegetables.
