Our Spring SPROUTs have Sprung

To clarify the title: Last week, had our first SPROUT program of the season. SPROUT (Science Program Reaching Out) is the Washington Youth Garden's one-time nutrition and environmental science outreach program. Students and teachers join us in the Youth Garden for a few hours to get their hands dirty during an engaging outdoor lesson while exploring and enjoying the garden.


The focus of this program is on soil and plant science, insect life cycles, and nutrition. We also offer a watershed activity where we take a trip down to the Anacostia River waterfront via the Asia Valley collection in the Arboretum.

We rung in our SPROUT program this spring with a visit from Sidwell Friends Elementary School. In our lesson, "Where Does Our Food Come From?", we acted out the dramatic life story of a local, organic tomato and a conventionally produced tomato. By going through all the steps involved in getting these two tomatoes from the farm to the table, we were able to learn more about our food system and the actors involved in producing our food. To cap off our lesson, we harvested arugula and herbs from the garden, which Sidwell Friends students took back to their school and turned into a tasty seasonal salad.