Cookie preferences

HundrED uses cookies to enhance user experiences, to personalise content, and analyse our web traffic. By clicking "Accept all" you agree to the use of all cookies, including marketing cookies that may help us deliver personalised marketing content to users. By selecting "Accept necessary" only essential cookies, such as those needed for basic functionality and internal analytics, will be enabled.
For more details, please review our Cookie Policy.
Accept all
Accept necessary
keyboard_backspace Back to HundrED
Lasse Leponiemi

Chairman, The HundrED Foundation
first.last@hundred.org

Creation of Orchards in Public Elementary Schools

We improve the Environment and Children´s health by creating School Orchards

Through our Environment line of Action we build and take care of our school orchards. Students will also learn how to make small orchards in their backyards at home to have safe produce constantly.

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated December 2025
Web presence

2017

Established

1

Countries
Community
Target group
To help students become independent, learn a new trade, learn the importance of including fruits and vegetables in your everyday meals, help them grow an orchard at home for their personal use.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Our Integral School Model MEI, has 8 lines of action that we implement in each public elementary school that we accompany for an initial 6 year period. One of them is ENVIRONMENT. Through this line of action we implement and construct school orchards. This allows the whole school community to grow healthy fruits and vegetables and to learn how to do it in their backyards at home. This allows them to include fruits and vegetables in their everyday nutrition, to grow healthy food for their livelihood and to eat fresh every day to combat obesity.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

In practice it is a wonderful activity. The whole school community participates and benefits from it. It is a healthy way to teach students how to include fruits and vegetables into their daily nutrition, and also these orchards are a source of self generated income for their families, as they apply these tactics to create backyard orchards in their homes even if they do not have the space to do so. Students learn from seed types, to soil types, to how much water this vegetables require. They also learn from how harmful pesticides could be in fruits and vegetables.

How has it been spreading?

In 2025 we accompanied 146 schools in rural and urban areas in Mexico. We accompanied this year 5 school orchards in 2 states of the Mexican Republic. We started this program since 2017.

How have you modified or added to your innovation?

Each year we accompany new schools and through our Integral School Model we implement our 8 lines of action, one of them is Environment. In this line of action, we recycle paper, we implement school orchards and we separate trash in public and middle elementary schools who are accompanied by our Integral School Model.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Contact us through our web page:
https://www.proeducacion.org.mx/

Implementation steps

Creation Of School Orchards
Find a space in the school backyard
Soil
Prepare the soil and build a square of a rectangle and prepare the soil
Seeds
Select which seeds you can plant according to your regional area, to the type of weather and create committees among students for each type of fruit or vegetable.
Riping
Each committee will collect the fruits and vegetables when they are ready, and will distribute to the school cafeteria and among students.

Spread of the innovation

loading map...