Updated November 2023
Developed with the LAND Project and Kidlinks World in mind, the new Food Up! urban agriculture curriculum is an easy to use, modular lesson plan for anyone interested in teaching urban agriculture to at-risk or special needs youth. Food Up! focuses in part on soil health in urban gardening and was created by the Soil Health and Agroecological Living Lab (SHALL) at the the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is funded in part by the Soil Health Alliance for Research and Engagement (SHARE).
Many existing curricula rely heavily on classroom activities, reading/literacy skills, and long-term time investments. Reaching diverse audiences, such as at-risk or special needs youth, may occur via less formal or structured interactions—with churches, non-profit organizations, community groups, neighborhood gardens, or after school programs. Adult leaders in these settings may not be trained in agriculture or have backgrounds in education. Thus, Food Up! is a flexible, easy to use, activity-based curriculum that can support better engagement and greater impact.
Food Up! includes nine modules that cover a wide range of topics from food security and food justice to marketing and soil health, along with farming basics, climate change, and even nutrition. Intended for use by a wide-range of garden projects, nonprofits, and community organizations in Wisconsin and beyond, Food Up! utilizes games, hands-on activities, visuals, personal reflection, and group discussion to reach a wide array of students with variable educational backgrounds. Importantly, the modular design allows for drop-in participation, as students need not complete all modules (or complete them in any specific order) to benefit. Each lesson includes teacher instructions, a teacher print kit and materials list, student handouts, and bonus cards that can be used to supplement activities. Additionally, specific tips for working with special needs and at-risk youth are provided to support educators. Food Up! builds on and adapts existing, similar programs, providing clear references to relevant sources where teachers can obtain additional information.
- Module 0: How to use the Food Up! curriculum—tips, tricks, and background
- Module 1: Winning Us Over – Food Marketing & Food Choice
- Module 2: Our Food System – From Farm to Table
- Module 3: How to Feed a Plant – What Our Crops Need to Grow
- Module 4: Food Desert to Food Oasis – Food Security and Urban Farming
- Module 5: Make it Last – Sustainable Agriculture and Agroecology
- Module 6: Animals in Agriculture
- Module 7: Heating Up — Why a Changing Climate Matters to You
- Module 8: Mental Health and Urban Agriculture
- Module 9: The Value Within Our Food
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MODULE 0: How to use the Food Up! curriculum—tips, tricks, and background
Everything you need to know about how to use this curriculum can be found in Module 0.
Mod 0: GETTING STARTED – TIPS AND TRICKS
Module 1: Winning Us Over— Food Marketing & Food Choice
Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Optional additional activities: 40 minutes
This lesson focuses on the power of advertisements in driving food choice. Students will gain an understanding as to how advertisements and marketing impact food choice, particularly as they relate to processed and fresh foods. Students will also explore motives, given that profits routinely drive what foods companies advertise most and what marketing strategies they apply to influence our choices. Students will be encouraged to think critically about their own dietary choices considering these realities. To help students apply their knowledge, this lesson concludes with a group activity whereby groups will create their own advertisement for healthy fresh food.
MOD 1: LESSON PLAN
MOD 1: TEACHER PRINT KIT
MOD 1: STUDENT HANDOUTS
Module 2: Our Food System – From Farm to Table
Time: 1 hour
Optional additional activities: 1 hour
In this lesson, students will explore the steps involved in moving food from the farm to the table, as well as the role of money in the process. Students will be introduced to the broader impacts of our food system on human health, the environment, and the economy. Additionally, students will investigate the relationship between the capital distribution o across the food chain and the nutritional value of products by comparing the farmer’s share of retail prices for a variety of products and setting up a mock food chain to illustrate where money is allocated along the journey from farm to table.
Mod 2: Lesson Plan
Mod 2: Teacher Print Kit
MOd 2: STUDENT HANDOUTS
Module 3: How to Feed a Plant – What Our Crops Need to Grow
Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Optional additional activities: 35 minutes
What is required to grow healthy food? How does one “feed a plant”? What type of environment—soil, temperature, precipitation—is optimal for crops? Why does this matter? In this lesson, students will explore the necessary elements for plant growth and consider how each relates to photosynthesis, energy storage, and energy transfer in crops. Students will gain a basic understanding of how environmental factors, such as climate zones, influence plants and crops across the globe. Using a hands-on hydroponic activity, students will have an opportunity to think specifically about the importance of water. In Activity #3, soil type and texture will also be addressed, helping students make connections between soil health, agriculture, and human health. Students will also be introduced to the concept of companion planting, which can be demonstrated via a tour of a Three Sisters garden (where squash, beans, and corn are planted together). The lesson ends with a card game that will help students further consider how plants work synergistically to support one another through companion planting.
MOD 3: LESSON PLAN
MOD 3: TEACHER PRINT KIT
MOD 3: STUDENT HANDOUTS
Module 4: Food Desert to Food Oasis – Food Security and Urban Farming
Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Optional additional activities: 15 minutes
During this lesson, students will identify structural and environmental circumstances that influence their own dietary choices and food access. They will examine the components of a healthy meal through a neighborhood food security lens. Students will also identify the geographic and socioeconomic characteristics of a neighborhood that contribute to and are reflected in its calculated food security status. Lastly, students will examine how urban agriculture can lead to community food security and resilience.
MOD 4: LESSON PLAN
Mod 4: Teacher Print KiT
MOD 4: STUDENT HANDOUTS
Module 5: Make it Last – Sustainable Agriculture and Agroecology
Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Sustainability is a term applied across industries and academic disciplines. But what does it mean in the case of farming? In this lesson, students will explore what makes a system sustainable and apply this definition of sustainability to agriculture. The commonly used Three Legs of Sustainability: Economy, Environment, and Community will be used to evaluate the sustainability of various crops as they move through processes in our modern food system. As an alternative to conventional, industrialized agriculture, students will learn how ecology and agriculture can be paired to create a more sustainable food system through agroecology. Four tenets of agroecology will be presented: efficiency, self-sufficiency, diversity, and resilience. Students will then use the Healthy Eating Plate to design a nutritious and sustainable meal. The lesson ends with a brainstorming session on how students can take action to create a more sustainable food system.
Mod 5: Lesson Plan
Mod 5: Teacher Print Kit
MOD 5: Student Handouts
Module 6: Animals in Agriculture
Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Animals—from livestock to honeybees—play a critical role in agricultural systems and human diets across the globe. Their cultural, social, nutritional, and environmental benefits and impacts vary widely. Humans have a unique relationship with animals in the food system, and both farmers and consumers need to understand their role to make informed decisions. In this lesson, students will examine several food pyramids, and determine how animal product consumption recommendations have changed over time and across cultures, and why. Students will explore the effects of industrial animal farming on the three legs of sustainable agriculture: community, environment, and economy. During a garden activity, students will catalog and consider other animals—including pollinators and decomposers—important to agriculture. Lastly, students will learn about ecological animal farming as a way to address the ills of modern industrial animal farming.
Mod 6: Lesson Plan
Mod 6: Teacher Print Kit
Mod 6: Student Handouts
Module 7: Heating Up — Why a Changing Climate Matters to You
Time: 1 hour
Optional additional activities: 1 hour
Climate change is widely considered the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. In addition to an increase in the frequency of extreme (and dangerous) weather events and the spread of infectious disease, climate change is and will continue to have a dramatic impact on agriculture. Concurrently, conventional agricultural practices are actually driving climate change by burning fossil fuels to generate synthetic fertilizers, operate machinery, and releasing carbon dioxide via poor land management. The connection between climate change and food is a paramount, personal reality that will impact all consumers during their lifetimes. In this lesson, students will refresh their understanding of the difference between climate and weather, explore the basics of climate change and greenhouse gases, the relationships between climate change and agriculture, as well as related connections to their diets and the garden.
Mod 7: Lesson Plan
Mod 7: Teacher Print Kit
Mod 7: Student Handouts
MOD 7: Climate Food Flash Cards
MODULE 8: MENTAL HEALTH AND URBAN AGRICULTURE
Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Nature-deficit disorders, defined as health disorders caused by decreased access to nature and the outdoors, can include ADHD, stress, anxiety, and depression. Children that live in cities experience more nature-deficit disorders because they grow up in areas that have low biodiversityand don’t get the same exposure to nature as other children. In this module, students will learn about their emotions and understand how emotions change without a connection to nature. Students will also explore mindfulness techniques practiced in nature or the garden to understand how their emotions and feelings change when they get outside. Students will reflect on their experiences within nature and the impacts on their mental health. Lastly, students will learn about the various aspects of healing gardens and gain an understanding of plants that promote healing
Mod 8: Lesson Plan
Mod 8: Student Handouts
MODULE 9: THE VALUE WITHIN OUR FOOD
Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Optional additional activities: 1 hour
Students will explore the value of food and the ramifications of food loss and waste, particularly regarding consumer-based responsibility. Students will learn of the global burden of food loss and waste and how it interrelates to the food supply chain. Students will brainstorm preventative solutions of all scales at each step of the food supply chain, as well as what they themselves can do to make a difference. Students will discover the hidden resources that are discarded as waste and will engage in critical thinking regarding the essential inputs required for food production and the extent of loss resulting from food waste. To help students apply their knowledge, this lesson concludes with an activity for students to reflect on messaging strategies and design their own poster to guide consumer behavior.
The LAND project 