Nurseries in Athens teach children how to plant fruits and vegetables

The municipality wants to have gardens in all 68 of its nursery schools by the end of the year

On 20 April, the Mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyannis visited the Botanical Nursery School on Spyrou Patsi Street. There, he planted the first citrus fruits, herbs, and vegetables in the nursery’s “junior” garden alongside children and teachers. The Botanical Nursery School is one of seven that has a courtyard garden where children can learn about sustainable food systems.

FUSILLI programme

The establishment of the seven junior gardens is part of the municipality’s participation in the European programme, FUSILLI (Fostering the Urban food System transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation). According to the Greek capital, one of the main goals of the FUSILLI programme is to teach children, from a very young age, about the production of food with high nutritional value in urban areas.

“The needs of the children show us the way and lead us to innovative practices. Today, I had the pleasure of standing next to the little gardeners of the Botanical Nursery School and planting vegetables, aromatic plants, and citrus fruits with them, learning from them the benefits of urban cultivation as a good practice for everyone and especially for the children themselves,” Mayor Bakoyannis shared in a press release.

Going further, he explained that the municipality’s aim is to expand the project by establishing “junior” gardens in all of the 68 nursery schools in the city. In this way, the capital seeks to ensure that all preschool children have the opportunity to learn about the production of food and the benefits of sustainable nutrition in urban areas. 

It is important to note that, in addition to Athens, 11 other cities are also being supported by the FUSILLI programme. More specifically, the 12 participants are Tampere, Oslo, Kolding, San Sebastian, Castelo Branco, Turin, Rijeka, Rome, Kharkiv, Nilufer-Bursa, and Athens.