The Good Garden Helps Kids Understand World Hunger and the Challenge of Food Security

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ --  Stories about poverty and famine are often in the news.  Can one person make a difference? A new children's book, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough (Kids Can Press), gives kids a way to understand these stories and learn how they can help.  Written by author and non-profit consultant Katie Smith Milway, the book raises kids' awareness of the important global issue of food security, one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by the year 2015.

The Good Garden is the story of one poor farming family in Honduras, who, like their neighbors, cannot be sure they'll have enough to eat.  From a new teacher, young Maria learns farming methods and ways to sell crops that help give her family greater food security. As Maria's community sees the success of her "good garden," the new practices spread. The Good Garden is inspired by the work of teacher Don Elias Sanchez, who devoted his life to helping small farmers in Honduras.

Seventy-five percent of the poor in developing nations are farmers like Maria's family. Without food security, these farmers not only lack food, but money for necessities like health care. The Good Garden includes information about non-profit organizations that help poor farmers. Kids learn how to volunteer, fundraise, create gardens, and take political action. Learn more at www.thegoodgarden.org.

The Good Garden is another book in Kids Can Press' CitizenKid™ collection, which includes Katie Smith Milway's award-winning book about microloans, One Hen, as well as books about global community, biodiversity, and water conservation, such as If America Were a Village, If the World Were a Village, and One Well. Visit www.kidscanpress.com for teaching resource materials.

Katie Smith Milway has coordinated community development programs in Latin America and Africa for Food for the Hungry International and was a delegate to the 1992 Earth Summit. She is co-founder of One Hen Inc., a non-profit that uses microfinance stories, interactive games and downloadable classroom resources to teach children financial responsibility and giving back.  Katie's adult book on sustainable development, The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives and Changing Lands, documents the work of Don Elias Sanchez and Milton Flores.

SOURCE Kids Can Press