Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program teaches kids about gardening, healthy eating

A great way to get kids started in the garden is the National Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program.  It’s free to any third-grade classroom in the country, and teachers can register now through Feb. 1, 2013, at bonniecabbageprogram.com.

In 2002, Bonnie Plants initiated the Third Grade Cabbage Program with a mission to inspire a love of vegetable gardening in young people. Each year, Bonnie trucks more than 1 million free OS Cross cabbage plants to third-grade classrooms across the country. (OS stands for oversized. These cabbages can grow to upwards of 40 pounds, making the initiative engaging and fun for kids.)

Teachers distribute two-inch plants with instructions, provided by Bonnie, to students to carry home and grow.  When the cabbage is ready for harvest, each child must take a digital photo of himself or herself with the cabbage for online submission to the contest.  Teachers select a class winner based on size, appearance and maturity, and that submission is entered in a state scholarship drawing. The state winners are randomly selected by each state’s director of agriculture, and Bonnie Plants awards a $1,000 scholarship for education to one student in each state.

As one of the first companies to sponsor a national vegetable gardening initiative for kids, Bonnie Plants has delivered more than 11 million cabbage plants nationwide in the past 10 years, fostering an interest in gardening, healthy eating and the environment.

“The Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program is a wonderful way to engage children’s interest in agriculture, while teaching them not only the basics of gardening, but the importance of our food systems and growing our own," said Stan Cope, president of Bonnie Plants. "This unique, innovative program exposes children to agriculture and demonstrates, through hands-on experience, where food comes from. The program also affords our youth with some valuable life lessons in nurture, nature, responsibility, self-confidence and accomplishment.”

Why cabbages? Cabbages were the first plant sold by Bonnie in 1918.  The biggest cabbage grown in the contest weighed in at 65 pounds.