The mission of the MID-CAROLINA GARDEN BASKET is to educate and unify the community through environmental literacy, financial economics, cultural diversity, and to provide an immersion style learning environment for the community it serves.

The right to food is a human right derived from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The United Nations Special Report in 2002 defined it as follow: “Right to adequate food is a human right, inherent in all people, to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.”

Due to economic factors in this area, over seventy-five percent of school age children receive free or reduced lunch, and a high percentage of this group receive weekend backpacks to feed their families. SC Ready test scores show a large majority of children failing to meet state readiness, and most alarming, is several elementary school’s test data confirmed less than ten percent of the students in this area are prepared to move forward in ELA and Mathematics.

Community Gardens and outdoor learning areas increase educational access to children and adults of all learning styles, foster results in student achievement, nutrition, and physical wellness, and provide mechanisms to enhance internal and external partnerships within the community as shown in research. By connecting children and adults with the natural world, our programs will develop an understanding of the true source of their food, and teach valuable gardening and agriculture concepts. Students will also learn personal and social responsibility as well as the importance of recognizing and respecting other cultures and traditions, and gain an understanding of the value of farming and farm land.

The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.