School Vegetable Gardens and Their Effects on Children's Diet, Health, and Well-being: A Systematic Review

Abstract

School-based garden programs are increasingly promoted to enhance children’s nutrition, knowledge, dietary behaviours, and psychosocial well-being. To systematically review and synthesize evidence on the potency of school garden interventions in improving children’s well- being. A systematic search was conducted in databases like Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed using combinations of keywords related to school gardens, nutrition education, and dietary behaviour. Studies were included if they were published in English, focused on children aged 3–18 years, used a school-based gardening program, and measured at least one outcome such as fruit and vegetable intake, nutrition knowledge, food preferences, BMI (body mass index), physical activity, or psychosocial factors. All study designs such randomized control trial,quasi-experimental were included. A total of 14,967 articles were identified through database searching and cross-referencing. After deduplication, applying inclusion/exclusion criteria and screening, 29 full-text articles were identified and analyzed. Most studies reported statistically significant improvements in children’s nutrition knowledge, vegetable preferences, and willingness to taste vegetables, with many showing small-to-moderate increases in vegetable intake, particularly when gardening was combined with nutrition education or cooking. BMI effects were mixed and generally small. Although school gardens are a promising, multi-component strategy for improving children’s dietary behaviours and health-related knowledge, their long-term success depends on sustainable implementation, longer program duration, and active parental engagement.