Veggie Tales: Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center starts kids’ garden

DOWNERS GROVE – A new garden at the Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center has kids excited about the unthinkable: vegetables. The garden program, started in early June by Kids Korner Supervisor Jenylle Rys, promotes healthy eating while teaching kids about the planting and harvesting of their food.

Located in front of the Wellness Center, the garden is filled with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley, and marigolds to keep away deer. Kids who attend Kids Korner, the Wellness Center’s child-care program, can plant, water, pick, and bring home the fresh produce to enjoy with their families. So far, kids have plucked up freshly sprouted green peppers for a taste test and brought home ripe cucumbers.

“Every time the kids come, there’s something new for them to see, such as a tomato turning from green to red,” Rys said. “Most of the kids are open to tasting, or at least smelling, all the vegetables.”

Rys is working with Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital dietician Jeannine Pfau, RD, LDN, to create fun and healthy recipes that utilize the garden vegetables the kids bring home. They are also working to create lectures on healthy eating, which is not always the easiest task for busy families and picky eaters. Pfau’s recipes, such as “Melty Monsters,” are easy for kids to make and packed with nutritious ingredients such as cherry tomatoes, green peppers, and basil leaves.

As the garden grows, Rys hopes to extend the program’s purpose and use it as an opportunity to build a partnership between kids and senior citizens.

“It’s my hope to turn it into an intergenerational program and get the seniors to interact with kids,” Rys said.

The garden has only just begun but has already proven to be a beneficial addition to the Wellness Center community.

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Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital is committed to providing excellent care and a high level of service. Over the past 35 years, it has evolved into a recognized leader in health care. Deemed one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics four of the past five years, Good Samaritan Hospital is the only health care organization in the nation to earn the prestigious 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Good Samaritan Hospital features DuPage County's only Level I trauma center and a certified Level III neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital is noted for cancer care, women and children's services and surgical services and has received the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet? designation, the highest honor and level of recognition awarded to nursing excellence in national and international health care. Good Samaritan Hospital is part of Advocate Health Care.