Midway Hills Academy has been selected to receive a $3,200 award by the Georgia Shape School Physical Activity and Nutrition Grant Program for the 2019-2020 School Year to help expand the district’s school-based garden expansion.

“This is another step toward seeing our schools having operational and productive gardens for our students and staff to enjoy,” said Superintendent Dr. Noris Price. “This program will help introduce our students to gardening at a very young age and hopefully help spark an interest in the multi-billion dollar agri-business sector that is so important to our economy.”

The grant funds will go toward the additions of a Junior-Master Gardener program and a cooking school that will be embedded into the school’s after-school program. The Junior-Master Gardener program will introduce the students to the hands-on concepts of raising a successful garden from start to finish. The program’s cooking school will then teach our students how to cook what they have grown and even offer special taste tests of certain recipes to see if they should be included on the school’s menu.

Georgia Shape is a statewide, multi-agency and multi-dimensional initiative that brings together governmental, philanthropic, academic and business communities to address childhood (0-18) obesity in Georgia. Efforts focus on schools, communities, early care sites, government and policy agencies, businesses, hospitals, and medical practices. Georgia Shape and the grants program is coordinated by the Georgia Department of Public Health.