How can school and home gardens improve children's nutrition, strengthen agricultural education, and help families gain access to fresh, nutritious food?
Huertos Escolares y Domésticos: Guía provides a practical, step-by-step approach to establishing and sustaining school and home gardens as sources of nutritious food, hands-on learning, and community participation. Published in Spanish in 2025, it is a translation of SEARCA's School-Plus-Home Gardens Guidebook (2019), developed from a participatory action research project jointly implemented by SEARCA, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), and the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) in six pilot schools in Laguna, Philippines from 2016 to 2017.
The project demonstrated how school gardens could serve multiple purposes beyond vegetable production. The six participating schools improved their gardens using ecological agriculture and edible landscaping principles, while teachers developed 125 lesson plans integrating nutrition, agriculture, climate change, and environmental management. During the 2016–2017 school year, the gardens produced 1,397 kilograms of vegetables, helping supply school feeding programs. The project also reported increased vegetable consumption among participating schoolchildren, including an increase in the proportion consuming leafy vegetables from 23 percent to 35 percent.
Drawing on these experiences, the guide presents a 10-step process covering project organization, garden design and establishment, nutrition education, curriculum integration, household participation, institutional partnerships, monitoring and evaluation, and expansion to other schools and communities. It includes sample planning tools, implementation templates, and monitoring instruments that readers can adapt to their local circumstances.
The guide is intended for teachers, school administrators, education authorities, local governments, community organizations, and development practitioners seeking to integrate food production with education and nutrition programs. Its participatory approach emphasizes cooperation among schools, families, agricultural specialists, and local institutions to support the long-term sustainability of garden initiatives.
Prepared in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, FPEmpresa, and IES La Zafra, the Spanish edition makes the model and its practical lessons accessible to educators, development organizations, and communities in Spanish-speaking countries.
