School gardens play a central role in helping meet the essential needs of school-age children. As powerful "hands-on" teaching tools for improving child nutrition and education, they make education relevant and promote active learning. At the same time, the produce from the gardens can help supplement school meals and improve child nutrition by adding variety and micronutrients and improving overall food security. Furthermore, they decrease the costs of schooling and school feeding programs - and can be an effective means to transfer appropriate agriculture technology within the community. The successes of the school garden can be promoted and replicated in community farms and gardens. In addition, students often take new learnings home to their parents and older siblings. Those members of the community who effectively employ the new technologies will also experience increased household nutrition and food security.

Volunteers are central in helping to establish and expand the capacity of school and household gardens. In addition to lending a hand to plant, maintain and harvest the gardens, volunteers can help build a garden shed, assist with facilities, supplies, and potential produce markets. Volunteers encourage students’ enthusiasm by helping them choose and display a name for their garden, and adopt a garden logo. Short-term volunteers are in a unique position to visit with the children about what they are doing in their garden, and to offer praise, rewards, prizes and other incentives for students, teachers and garden helpers. And, under the direction of the local headmaster/principal/director and in cooperation with local teachers, volunteers teach classes on applied science, e.g., ecology, biology, etc, basic garden management, nutrition, and organic gardening. They also set up experiments and observations, and conduct classes using the EarthBox® teaching guide.