The hook was simple and introduced what herbs were. We asked the children if they had ever had a homecooked meal or even if they had ever ate out at a restaurant. As the children answered their scattered responses we asked if they knew that herbs were what made the food taste good. Our activity came next as we showed the students the herbs growing in the garden outside our "D" Building. Two volunteers were chosen and they used mortars and pestles to mince two sample herbs. This released more of the herbs' soothing scents and allowed us to remind the kids that these are in fact added to food for fragranced flavor. As the activity wore down, we brought out three papers to show visually our presentation's environmental aspect. One had a plate of food, another had a food truck spewing pollution, and a third had a garden. With these we made it clear that bringing a garden closer to the food on their plates takes out pollution from the equation. All the pictures had been lined up, with the food truck in the middle. The plate picture and the garden picture were moved closer together, ousting the pollution food truck from the line. After letting the students rifle through additional bags of herbs, we made sure to question if they remembered the main idea of our presentation. To our surprise, the kids were very receptive to our project's theme and were able to grasp it nicely.

We did have a lot more time left over so perhaps a more extensive activity would have been more appropriate. We really wanted to persuade these kids that planting herbs is not only good for the environment but also really fun, easy, and "cool". A longer activity might have helped to push for small examples of activism.

Eating locally grown food in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transportation methods. Also to connect people to where their foods are grown in order to encourage interest in the growing processes.

Shipping food from across the country to one's home is an unnecessary comonality: due mostly to the recent (past century) popularity of mass production. This pollutes the air even more as tons of food trucks are added to the multitude of everyday transportation.

As of 2003, "the weighted average source distance (WASD) for locally locally grown produce to reach institutional markets was 56 miles, while the conventional WASD for the produce to reach those same institutional points of sale was 1,494 miles, nearly 27 times further"* Also, air planes produce almost three times as much pollution as transportation trucks. Driving to a local farmers market (or better yet, walking to one's own garden) instead of a supermarket which either has food flown or driven in, cuts down on pollution. *Study as reported by Carm Paynter on http://ezinearticles.com/?Food-Miles---Food-Transportation-and-Our-Environment&id=1792425

Planting an herb garden in one's own back yard (herbs being this project's main focus) allows for consumers to consume less from transportation-heavy supermarket chains.

Start individual herb gardens and learn to value homegrown produce.