The TX Sprouts programs offered elementary-aged children a chance to experience hands-on garden, nutrition and cooking experience during the school day! This program ran from 2015-2020. Please visit the Results page for our outcomes!

This is a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is a randomized controlled school garden intervention, where 16 elementary schools across the Austin area are assigned by chance to either the 1-year garden intervention or control group.

We measure the effects of the program on childhood obesity markers, dietary intake, dietary related behaviors, physical activity levels and school performance. 

The intervention schools received e a garden designed and built at their schools (~$5K each, paid for by the grant), weekly garden/nutrition/cooking classes taught during school hours to 3rd-5th grade students (which will be taught by a garden/nutrition educator provided by the grant), monthly garden/cooking/nutrition parent classes, assistance forming and resources to support a Garden Club at each school (consisting of interested teachers, parents, children, and staff) in the first year.  

All curriculum taught is already mapped on current TEKS standards and developed by UT Austin and the Davis Lab.