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Growing, Cooking, Eating Sweet Potatoes : the magic of Eastdale Collegiate and Growing Green Thumbs

By: Amna Malik, Masters in Public Health, University of Toronto 

Rooftop garden at Eastdale Collegiate Institute in Toronto, where students grow and harvest vegetables through a hands-on food literacy program.
Rooftop garden at Eastdale Collegiate Institute in Toronto, where students grow and harvest vegetables through a hands-on food literacy program.

Many children and youth do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. In Canada, only 22.1% of children and youth eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables each day (Government of Canada, 2024). Healthy eating habits begin long before food reaches the dinner table. They start when children learn where food comes from, how it is grown, and how to prepare it.


At Eastdale Collegiate Institute in Toronto, students are doing exactly that through a unique rooftop gardening and cooking program that combines food literacy, nutrition, and hands-on learning. Supported by Green Thumbs Growing Kids; the program gives students the opportunity to plant, harvest, and cook their own food while developing lifelong skills that promote healthy eating and community connections.

Eastdale Collegiate Institute demonstrates how gardening and cooking can work together to create meaningful learning experiences. The school’s rooftop garden was originally established by FoodShare in 2012, and inherited by Green Thumbs TO in 2024. The garden is managed by Executive Director Sunday Harrison and supported by garden educator Aiden Crosby, a full-time staff member at Green Thumbs TO who works part-time with Eastdale Collegiate Institute students several days each week. Together, they guide students through planting, maintaining, and harvesting herbs and vegetables, including chives, mint, rhubarb, green beans, and sweet potatoes.


Sweet potatoes were selected because they fit perfectly within the school calendar and are widely adopted in various parts of the world as part of their cuisine (Npr, 2013). Sweet potatoes  are grown throughout North America and became a staple in American cuisine centuries ago (PotatoPro, 2025). Students plant sweet potato slips in June before summer break and return to harvest their crop in October. This allows students to experience the complete growing cycle, from propagating slips and planting them in the soil to harvesting mature sweet potatoes several months later. Experiencing every stage of food production helps students understand how food is grown and the care and effort involved in growing healthy food. 


After harvesting, the sweet potatoes become the centrepiece of Eastdale’s cooking program. Chef and teacher Sean Meikle works alongside Chef Gary Hoyer of George Brown Polytechnic to teach Grade 9 students how to transform their harvest into nutritious meals. Students prepare dishes such as sweet potato fries, ravioli, and tacos, with the tacos becoming one of the program’s most popular recipes. They also make authentic taco shells from scratch using masa purchased from Kensington Market, developing practical culinary skills while learning about different food traditions.


Beyond cooking, the program teaches students valuable lessons about sustainability, teamwork, and food systems. They learn how healthy soil supports plant growth, why pollinators are essential for gardens, and how locally grown food can contribute to healthy and sustainable communities. Working together in the garden and the kitchn allows students to gain confidence, practise teamwork and see the results of their collective efforts. 


Like many school garden programs, Eastdale faces challenges. Because schools are closed during the summer growing season, maintaining the rooftop garden requires dedicated staff and reliable funding. Green Thumbs TO relies on grants and community partnerships to keep the gardens thriving throughout the year. Sean Meikle emphasizes that strong partnerships between schools and community organizations are essential to creating sustainable programs that can continue to benefit students year after year.


Sweet potatoes are one of the program’s featured crops because they are both nutritious and easy to grow within the school calendar. They are an excellent alternative to regular potatoes because they have a lower glycemic index, meaning they are digested more slowly and provide a steadier release of energy (Booth, 2025). Sweet potatoes are also high in fibre, which supports healthy digestion, and are rich in beta-carotene, an important nutrient that promotes healthy vision and supports the immune system. These nutritional benefits make them an ideal ingredient for teaching students about healthy food choices.


Cooking with sweet potatoes provides an engaging way to introduce children and youth to food preparation. Recipes such as baked sweet potato fries, tacos, and ravioli are simple enough for students to prepare while helping them build confidence in the kitchen. Research consistently shows that when children participate in preparing meals, they are more willing to taste and enjoy healthy foods. Meehan, Yeh, and Spark (2008) found that children and youth who participated in shopping for ingredients, preparing meals, and eating together developed healthier attitudes toward food and stronger relationships with nutritious eating. Rather than simply being served a meal, students become active participants in creating it.


Additional research supports the importance of involving children in cooking. Horst, Ferrari, and Rytz (2014) found that many children do not consume the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Their study demonstrated that involving children in food preparation increased their understanding of where food comes from and improved their knowledge of nutrition and healthy eating. Likewise, Chu et al. (2013) found that children who regularly cooked had stronger preferences for fruits and vegetables and greater confidence in making healthy food choices. Together, these findings highlight how cooking experiences build food literacy while encouraging lifelong healthy eating habits.


The benefits of cooking can also extend into the home. Parents who cook alongside their children can create valuable opportunities to teach practical life skills and spend time together. Lavelle et al. (2023) found that community cooking programs improved children’s cooking skills while fostering stronger parent-child relationships. Preparing meals together allows families to introduce healthy foods in a positive and supportive environment, making cooking an enjoyable shared experience.


Looking ahead, the program at Eastdale Collegiate Institute continues to grow. Through a new grant-funded initiative,students will learn food-preservation skills, including canning tomatoes and preserving fruit, expanding their food literacy beyond gardening and cooking. These new experiences will further equip students with practical skills that support healthy eating and reduce food waste.


The Eastdale Collegiate Institute gardening and cooking program demonstrates that school food initiatives can accomplish more than simply providing healthy meals. By connecting students to the entire journey of food—from planting seeds to sharing meals—they build confidence, practical life skills, nutritional knowledge, and meaningful relationships with their peers, teachers, and community partners. Programs like this show how gardens can become classrooms, kitchens can become places of discovery, and food can become a powerful tool for building healthier futures.


The garden and kitchen program at Eastdale Collegiate Institute is open for visits. You can register here.

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