Each year the Long Beach Island Consolidated School District, comprised of the LBI Grade School and the Ethel A. Jacobsen Elementary School, applies to AtlantiCare’s Healthy Schools, Healthy Children grant program. Recently, AtlantiCare has embraced “a whole child model, and in doing so, expanded funding categories beyond schoolyard gardens,” said Bianca Aniski, E.J. School nurse, who has helped oversee past grants for garden-related projects.

In 2019, as part of the grant qualifying process, the district was required to form a Wellness Committee composed of…