The Good Garden helps kids understand world hunger and the challenging issue of food security.
Stories about poverty, famine, and food shortages are often in the news. Can one person, even one child, make a difference? A new children’s book, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough (Kids Can Press), gives kids a way to understand these stories and learn what they can do to help. Written by author and non-profit consultant Katie Smith Milway, the book raises kids’ awareness of the important global issue of food security, one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by the year 2015.
The Good Garden is the story of one poor farming family in Honduras, who, like their neighbors, cannot be sure they will have enough to eat. When a new teacher comes to town, young Maria learns new farming methods and ways to sell the crops at market that help give her family greater food security. As Maria’s neighbors see the success of her family’s “good garden”, the new practices spread through the community. The Good Garden is a fictionalized story inspired by the work of teacher Don Elías Sanchez, who devoted his life to improving the lot of small farmers in Honduras.
Seventy-five percent of the poor in developing nations are farmers like Maria and her family. Without food security, these farmers not only lack food — they also lack money for necessities such as health care and school uniforms and often become trapped in a cycle of poverty.
In addition to Maria’s story, The Good Garden includes facts about world hunger and information about non-profit organizations that help poor farmers. Kids also learn how they can make a difference by volunteering, fund-raising, creating their own gardens, and taking political action. Learn more at www.thegoodgarden.org, an interactive website built in partnership with educational nonprofit One Hen Inc.
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