School Gardens in the United States: Current Barriers to Integration and Sustainability

Urban Farm DB summary

An online survey of 99 school gardeners from 15 U.S. states, conducted in June 2017, examined barriers of time, funding, staffing, and space to integrating and sustaining school gardens, using a 29-item survey analyzed with descriptive statistics and inductive content analysis. Barriers were ranked from greatest to least as time, staff, funding, curriculum, and space; the most frequently cited time-related challenges were insufficient time for classes to use the garden (66% of respondents) and insufficient time for staff training (62%). Respondents also reported low engagement within the school community, and while an overall lack of funding was the most common funding-related barrier, gardeners were largely unaware of how to obtain additional funding.