The study proposed as a best practice model is the Food Intake and Resilience Support: Gardens as Taught by Educators (FIRST-GATE) research project. The FIRST-GATE project explored how the implementation and outcome of a teacher-to-teacher intervention on school-based vegetable gardens can support resilience (as indicated by unpredicted positive outcomes for education, wellbeing and health) in vulnerable primary school-communities in South Africa. The sample included 37 purposively selected teachers from nine primary schools in the Eastern Cape Province.
Fidelity of intervention was evident in the following: (i) multi-sectoral provincial government participation (education, agriculture); (ii) teachers in multiple primary schools sustained vegetable gardens over time; (iii) schools crafted communities of practice where teachers transferred evidence-based, contextually relevant school-vegetable garden models to neighbouring schools; (iv) fidelity of intervention maintained; (v) schools mobilised as hubs for quality education, wellbeing and health of children (and their families) due to adversities caused by structural disparity
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