Camden Children's Garden

At the Philadelphia International Flower Show (February 28 – March 7, 2010), the Camden City Garden Club, operator of the Camden Children’s Garden, will present “Soup & Salad: From Camden to the World”. This exhibit will address food security and sustainability. The display will educate Flower Show visitors about how easy it can be to grow their own produce and motivate families to prepare fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables to enjoy these meals together.

The reference to “Soup and Salad” pays homage to two healthy meals that are enjoyed by most cultures in various ways throughout the world. Also, “Salad” specifically symbolizes the mission of the Camden City Garden Club and its ever-expanding Community Gardening Program. With 26 years of experience helping to grow and feed the City of Camden, the Garden Club’s Community Gardening Program strives to provide sustainable urban agriculture, food access and nutritional education to the people of Camden. This exhibit celebrates the Club’s creation of 31 new community gardens in the year 2009 alone. At a time when greening our lives, eating healthy natural food and saving money are very relevant issues, vegetable gardening is helping to satisfy the need in the struggling City of Camden for fresh, inexpensive food. Moreover, the Camden City Garden Club also celebrates nutritious eating through its GrowLab programs, which offers Camden children hands-on education while they grow produce in their classroom’s mini-greenhouses. Students harvest the crops to enjoy at Salad Parties. Additional background information about the Camden City Garden Club’s programs can be found after.

The “Soup” component of the exhibit represents the Campbell Soup Company and its Foundation, long-time sponsors of the City of Camden, the Camden City Garden Club, Camden Children’s Garden and community gardening nation-wide. In addition, Campbell’s Soup partnered in 2009 with the Future Farmers of America in the “Help Grow Your Soup!” campaign, through which Campbell’s Tomato Seeds are distributed across the nation so that people can grow their own specialty Campbell’s Tomatoes.

The 2010 Flower Show exhibit, “Soup & Salad: From Camden to the World” represents a children’s vegetable garden that will promote nutrition. The exhibit focuses on the kinds of vegetables that are grown in gardens throughout the Greater Philadelphia and New Jersey Region. A larger-than-life sculpted soup bowl and salad plate will serve as fanciful containers for the plants that will become the delectable, nutritious ingredients often found in soup and salad. Blended throughout the display will be plump tomatoes, spicy peppers, mineral-laden potatoes, vitamin-rich lettuce, carrots, Swiss chard and other high-fiber plants such as broccoli and cabbage. This productive children’s vegetable garden is infused with savory herbs such as purple basil, oregano, rosemary and sage. Garden-fresh herbs are not only flavor enhancers, but also rich sources of, they allow chefs to create delicious, low-calorie and sodium-light dishes. This exhibit will represent the beauty and practicality of vegetable gardening in urban settings, in addition to promoting healthy eating for children. To enhance the whimsy of this children’s exhibit, the garden will also include flowers such as tall mallow, snapdragons, astilbe, Persian shield, clematis, impatiens and a children’s favorite, lamb’s ear. Throughout the exhibit will be educational signage to educate visitors about the nutritional value of plants.

The exhibit also represents Camden, N.J. The iconic Soup Factory and water tower signify the rich industrial history of this struggling city. The windmill with the Camden Children’s Garden logo symbolizes the old-fashioned farm machine’s revival as a great way to reduce our carbon footprint. Once used on farms and in factories for pumping water or milling grain, windmills are now utilized around the globe as a green source of energy generation.

Unlike past Flower Show exhibits by the Camden City Garden Club, this piece will not be installed later at the Camden Children’s Garden in its entirety. However, part of the display will find a permanent home at the new Campbell Soup Company World Headquarters, which is currently being expanded in Camden, N.J.