Howard Brosius

Howard Brosius strives to improve and strengthen early childhood nutrition education within existing daycares and preschools by offering hands-on gardening and harvesting experiences and integrating fresh vegetables into daily meals and snack time. Through his program, his students learn about the connections between food, agricultural systems and the natural world. In addition to educating his young students, Howard sends recipes and newsletters home with the children, thus helping to inspire healthy eating for entire families within the underprivileged neighborhoods he serves.

Recognizing that “the nutrition a child receives during the critical transition from birth, through early and mid-childhood affects their ability to focus, learn, and grow,” Howard’s program provides nutritious fresh produce to his students and equips early childhood teachers, administrators, and guardians with the knowledge and tools they need in order to continue preparing healthy meals and snacks. This access to nutritious meals “increases early childhood success in all areas of growth and learning and helps prevent children from entering elementary school with inhibited learning abilities.” Compelled by a profusion of research that indicates that “direct, frequent experience with the natural world produces positive physical, mental and emotional benefits in children and adults,” and that “regular contact with the natural world is essential to the emotional development of children,” Howard Brosius encourages his Pre-K students to “be curious, get dirty, and use their ‘listen,’ ‘smell,’ and ‘watch’ senses.