Kingston, Jamaica: The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Social Services has embarked on an ambitious research project aimed at improving nutrition for more than 200 children, ages 3-6 years, in its neighbouring Mona Commons community. The Kitchen Gardening project is expected to provide increased insight into the correlation between nutrition and academic performance amongst children in low-income environments. At the same time, it may offer an understanding of the economic barriers women face, and the effects on their children.

The initiative is based on the kitchen or backyard gardening model which has been successful in improving nutrition in other parts of the world. Under the project, kitchen gardens will be established in eight (8) basic schools across five (5) communities in the Mona Valley. Vegetables reaped from these gardens will feed into the school’s breakfast and lunch programmes, providing a sustainable way to ensure good nutrition.

Dr Olivene Burke, Mona Social Services (MSS) explained the significance of the initiative.
“Through preliminary research, we found that the performance of students at basic schools in the  Mona community was below average, and nutritional deficiency was possibly a contributing factor. Our investigations showed that the kind of food provided by parents for their children did not provide proper nutrition – things such as bag juice and cheese snacks for breakfast. Persons who are hungry usually cannot perform well and tend to be irritable. With this project we intend to find out both the extent to which proper nutrition will aid children’s academic performance, and also the effects on the parents in terms of reducing their stress,” she said.
 
The project sits well within international thought on the linkages between nutrition and education. The World Bank reports that not only are malnourished children more prone to diseases, but their systems go into survival mode where the body reduces the release of energy to stunt growth and lower thought processing.
A key element of the Kitchen Gardening project is its holistic approach. Parents and teachers will be pivotal to the project’s success and will assist in tracking the health benefits to the children. Additionally, parents will receive training in ways of improving their child’s nutrition. The quantitative study will assess the children’s progress for two years monitoring this against their pre-test scores taken before joining the programme.

The project, aimed at children attending basic schools within the Mona Valley, emanates from the UWI’s thrust to remain an engine of innovation and change in the wider society by leveraging practical applications from its regionally and internationally acclaimed research. 

This idea is exemplified in the UWI’s Research Day 2015 theme: ‘Innovating for Development Through Science, Creativity, Production and Governance’. The highly anticipated annual event allows policy makers, investors and other private and public stakeholders to explore practical solutions to everyday challenges, engendered from research at the UWI.

The Shalom Pre School located in African Gardens, Greater August Town, has proved a successful pilot for the project, in partnership with the Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee.
Research Days 2015 will showcase additional practical ways in which the Mona Campus is impacting the wider community in the basin of the Mona Valley. The institution is undertaking four projects aimed at transforming the Mona Valley into a microcosm of Jamaica’s Vision 2030, becoming a preferred place to live, work and raise families.

Each project tackles a key concern for the community. As such, along with the Kitchen Gardening Project, the UWI is establishing The Mona Valley Innovation Centre to drive entrepreneurship, The Mona Valley Heritage Tourism Centre and The Source in Mona Commons which will improve the computer skills among residents in the Mona Valley. 
Research Days 2015 takes place February 9 – 11 at the Mona Campus and will feature some 150 research projects currently underway.