Archived News
Can Digging in the Dirt Keep Kids Healthy?
Source: ACH Pediatric Commentary
Published: October 2010
Did you know that the country that produces the most tomatoes per year is China? Or that if your water faucet leaks at a rate of one drop per second, five gallons of water is wasted each day? That there are more than 2,700 different kinds of earthworms? That red beets have high levels of anti-carcinogens? Students at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School in Little Rock are discovering all of this and more this fall, as they begin participating in the pilot site of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) Delta Garden Study. Read more.
Delta Garden Study teaches teens about healthy produce
Source: Today's THV
Published: October 25, 2010
"With the Delta Garden Study, our two primary outcomes that we're shooting for are to increase fruit and vegetable intake in kids and to increase their physical activity." Read more.
Four-Star Dining in the Garden
Source: ACHRI Research Update
Published: September 2010
During the Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit (OPRU)Annual Meeting held in Little Rock, Dr. Judy Weber and her Delta Garden Study team hosted “Dinner in the Garden” at their premiere garden at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School. Among the 40 guests were First Lady Ginger Beebe, The Biggest Loser’s Jaron Tate, Mabelvale Middle School administrators, USDA officials from the National Program Office in Washington, DC, and USDA Agricultural Research Service Area Directors from the Southern Plains and Mid-South Areas. Though the heat index was well above 100° on the early August day, a rain shower cooled the air for a perfect evening. Guests first toured the study garden and greenhouse at Mabelvale. Dinner was prepared by the staff of Forty Two from the Clinton Presidential Center and served under airconditioned tents in the Mabelvale garden. The meal featured produce from the Mabelvale and Dunbar school gardens and watermelon and peach teas. Dinner in the Garden left all in attendance impressed by the gorgeous garden and delightful dining.
Read the article.
Fighting Childhood Obesity: Delta Garden Study
Source: Arkansas Matters.com
Published: Monday, August 4, 2010
The Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) will unveil progress on the pilot site of the $2 million Delta Garden Study at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School during a dinner on the garden’s grounds for the Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit (OPRU) on Thursday August 5.
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Photo of the Week
Source: Vital Signs Weekly
Published: Monday, August 2, 2010
Claudia Utley, curriculum development consultant for the Delta Garden Study, explains pollination to her children Louisa and Lucas in the garden at Mabelvale magnet middle school last week.
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ACHRI Delta Garden Study Receives Cooking Grant from Arkansas Community Foundation
Source: ACH PRESS ROOM
Published: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A groundbreaking Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) school garden study has been awarded a grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation (ARCF) to support kids’ cooking. The grant will pay for kitchen equipment used during cooking classes held with middle school students participating in the program.
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Groundbreaking at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School!
Source: Dr. Judith Weber
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
It was a picture perfect day for the groundbreaking of the Delta Garden Study's first pilot school garden! The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing and the bermuda grass was just begging to be transformed into a beautiful, biointensive, magical source of healthy fresh veggies! Over 70 Mabelvale Magnet Middle School students, staff and administrators, plus Little Rock School District Superintendent Dr. Linda Watson, as well as other LRSD Administrators and numerous community collaborators were present to participate in the ceremony with Delta Garden Study investigators, staff and partners. Arkansas First Lady Ginger Beebe, Surgeon General Dr. Joe Thompson, and the USDA's Dr. Margaret Bogle all honored the proceedings with words of support and encouragement following opening remarks by the study's Lead Investigator, Dr. Judy Weber. Multiple representatives from the press were there to capture and share the story.
Additional Quarter Million Dollars Awarded to Delta Garden Study
The Delta Garden Study has been awarded an additional $248,300 by the USDA-ARS. These funds will expand the study to include six more schools, three with garden intervention programs and three comparison schools. The addition of these schools will strengthen the study design and results will be even more scientifically rigorous than before. We are to expand this program to more of Arkansas' schools!!Mabelvale Magnet Middle School Groundbreaking News Interview with Dr. Judith Weber
Source: Today's THV and KATV
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Watch Video Now 6 pm Coverage
Watch Video Now 6 am Coverage
Watch Video Now 5 pm Coverage featuring Mrs. Beebe
Mabelvale Magnet Middle School Groundbreaking Ceremony Opening Remarks by Lead Investigator, Dr. Judith Weber
Source: Dr. Judith Weber
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the groundbreaking ceremony to initiate the first Delta Garden Study school garden at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School. My name is Dr. Judy Weber, and I am the Lead Investigator of the study, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UAMS and the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute.
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RWJF Center Director at Ground Breaking for Delta Garden Study
Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Center Director and Arkansas Surgeon General, Dr. Joe Thompson, joined Arkansas First Lady, Ginger Beebe, for the Delta Garden Study’s official ground breaking ceremony at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School in Little Rock. The project anticipates including 24 middle schools, Mabelvale Middle School is the pilot school.
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Delta Urbanism and the Delta Garden Project
Source: Grown in the City
Published: Saturday, April 10th, 2010
It’s fitting that I just learned of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $2M Delta Study Grant while I’m down here in New Orleans for the American Planning Association’s Delta Urbanism Symposium, a project I’ve been coordinating for about a year now that kicks off this morning. Read More
ACHRI Breaks Ground on Delta Garden Study Pilot Project at Mabelvale Magnet Middle in Little Rock
Source: ACH Press Releases
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Students at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School who have yet to discover their green thumbs were already digging in the dirt on Wednesday after they joined scientists and state officials in breaking ground on the pilot site of the Arkansas Childrens Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) Delta Garden Study.
Mabelvale Middle School breaks ground on Delta Garden Study Pilot Project
Source: Little Rock School District
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Students at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School were happily digging in the dirt after they joined scientists and state officials in breaking ground on the pilot site of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) Delta Garden Study.Read More
Can You Dig It?
Can you Dig It? After a full day's work and many, many helping hands, Mabelvale has expanded its garden into two new courtyards! The previously empty courtyards quickly became defined pathways and raised beds as more than 300 students, teachers, community volunteers, and DGS staff dug their way through the day in Mabelvale's first ever "Dig Day." The students have spent the last two and a half months working in the initial section of the garden which was created for them by Mabelvale's Garden Manager, but the school bonding component of the Delta Garden Study requires them to build the rest of the garden themselves from the ground up. The new beds will be amended with compost, mulched and planted with late fall and early spring crops. During the Dig Day students also participated in hands-on Thanksgiving recipe demonstrations and taste-testing. The Sweet Potato and Rosemary Soup, Braised Greens, and Simple Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette recipes were developed by Winthrop Rockefeller Institute's Chef, Terese Post. (The braised greens were by far the students' favorite!) Dig Day was a success thanks to the Mabelvale Middle School students and staff, as well as the many DGS interns and volunteers who came out to help. Many thanks to everyone. Visit this news article for more details about Mabelvale Magnet Middle School’s first Dig Day!
Delta Garden Pilot Study at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School Kicked off September 2010
The end of the 1st semester is almost to a close and the Delta Garden Study is now well under way at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School. Classes began September 20 and students have been visiting the garden twice weekly during their science classes. 6th, 7th and 8th graders have been applying their science lessons to gardening with the help of the DGS curriculum. Every lesson engages the students in academic learning while getting their hands dirty and their muscles working. Although 1/3 of the garden was established for the students as a model by the Garden Manager, Chris Hiryak, during the summer months, the expansion of the rest of the 1 acre garden and greenhouse is being developed, planned and planted by the students themselves. Mabelvale’s inaugural Dig Day helped expand the garden to adjoining courtyards and will hopefully encourage stronger student ownership of the space as they build it themselves from the ground up. The students are showing tremendous enthusiasm to be involved in the garden and we are pleased to see their excitement.
USDA Funds ACHRI $1.8 Million to Build 1-Acre Gardens at Delta Middle Schools
Source: ACH Press Releases
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Middle school students in the Delta will have the opportunity to work in new one-acre gardens with greenhouses thanks to a cooperative agreement between the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) and the USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit.
