Marbles creates space to promote healthy eating

by Catherine Currin

Sparking creativity with education is no new task for the team at Marbles Kids Museum downtown. Their latest initiative brings the outdoors inside: Seedlings, the museum’s new garden classroom, is lush and plush – faux squash hangs from a greenhouse ark and vinyl seed packets and crops are all designed and sewn in house. There, kids can plant pretend fruits and vegetables before heading to the adjacent outdoor garden for real fresh kale, collards, and carrots.

Seedlings is meant to create an immersive, start-to-finish cooking experience, say the exhibit’s masterminds. Created in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina, the museum will add on a new pop-up cooking program this spring. “Research shows that when kids understand where their food comes from, they are more likely to make healthy eating choices,” says Taylor Rankin with Marbles. “We hope Seedlings will help children simulate the process from seed all the way to crop.”