March '06

In early February, when the groundhog is supposed to roust itself from its winter slumber and rub its winter eyes for shadow viewing, I do not envy its position. February in the northeast usually brings cold weather and I think any reasonable groundhog would be much better staying in for another month, shadow or no. But by March I am singing a different tune: one that is echoed by the crocuses as they push their way out of the ground and by the birds that begin trickling back to their summer haunts. As spring approaches my thoughts turn to getting out of doors.

In celebration of the coming spring, this issue takes a look at some of last year’s great activities and events that got kids outside and on to farms: Anna Hanchett gives us a virtual tour of the Southern Berkshire’s Regional Agriculture Careers Fair in our Community piece and Kristin Getler’s Cafeteria article takes us on a farm-to-restaurant field trip with Culinary students from Dean Tech in Holyoke. In Curriculum, Amir Flesher shares with us the process used by Four Rivers Public Charter School students for creating their Keepers of the Soil book. All of these activities bring students out of the classroom walls and face-to-face with farmers and producers, further enriching classroom education and, I hope, inspiring us all.

As always, I invite you to share your own Farm to School story ideas, event announcements, or articles.

Grow well,
Kelly Coleman

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Curriculum: Captivating Students, Capturing Farmers
By Amir Flesher

Last June the eighth grade class at Four Rivers Charter Public School in Greenfield, MA researched, designed, and published a book called Keepers of the Soil that profiles twelve small-scale farmers in Western Massachusetts. The story of how this book came to be offers a practical model for farm and garden education that is rigorous, engaging, and hands-on.

Four Rivers is part of a growing network of schools across the country that follows an educational model called “Outward Bound Expeditionary Learning” in which units of study, called “learning expeditions,” are framed around several large conceptual questions. Before the students at Four Rivers published their book, they delved into questions such as, “what are different ways in which people deal with the loss of their lands?” and “where does food come from?” To probe these questions, the eighth grade had a variety of tools at its disposal.

Students began the expedition with academic work guided jointly by a science and a social studies teacher. Both teachers wanted the expedition to be centered on first-hand experience placed within a larger historical context. They wanted students to interview local farmers, but they wanted them to go into these interviews with an understanding of food production as intimately connected with human civilization. Themes explored were that the advent of agriculture fundamentally changed communities, and that more recently, the industrialization of agriculture has forever transformed rural locales.

During the more academic phase of the expedition the class used a variety of innovative texts and outside resources. They read a chapter from the book When the Levy Breaks about the takeover of a family-run farm by an agribusiness firm. They also compared two divergent views on land-use and ownership in order to prepare for an in-depth pro and con research paper on genetic engineering. When studying a pro-development letter written by Greenfield mayor Christine Forgey versus a proclamation by Chief Seattle that land ownership is an oxymoron, the students studied things such as narrative voice, diction, and persuasive technique. To practice persuasive and analytical skills, each student wrote a letter to one of the two figures from the opposite point of view. In order to inform their students on genetic engineering, the co-teachers utilized a hallmark of Expeditionary Learning—outside professionals. They brought in a panel of experts to discuss and debate a variety of views on the issue. At one point during this phase of the expedition the students volunteered on a local vegetable farm to see what it was like to get their hands dirty for a day.

So, by the time it came to talk to the farmers for the book, the students were primed to collectively formulate a series of questions. The students based their questions on their knowledge and were guided by the idea that they both wanted to tell the individual stories of the farmers, while reporting the farmers’ views on issues such as land use and genetic engineering. Another outside expert, Peggy Gillespie (co-founder of Family Diversity Project), was tapped to train the students in interviewing technique. Two photographers instructed the students in how to shoot professional quality photos. Finally, in groups of three and four, the students visited farms for a tour and tape-recorded interview with the farmers.

The final month of the expedition was spent transforming all the primary and secondary research into a finished group product. Photographs were chosen and the layout was designed and redesigned. Rough drafts were peer-critiqued and read by three faculty members to insure quality. They were then sent to the farmers to assure accuracy and fairness. Lastly, all the various materials were assembled into a single final draft.

Three factors made the book a pedagogical success. First, when researching, editing, and designing the book, students had a sense of purpose because they knew they were writing for a wider audience than their teachers alone. Second, the students felt an awesome responsibility to accurately represent somebody else’s views. Third, students got the chance to work on skills that interested them. Some got to concentrate on photography, others on design software, and others on editing. With a smorgasbord of tasks to complete and integrate, there was something captivating for virtually everyone.

Compiling farmer interviews is a great activity that can be done at a much smaller scale as well. The Whately Elementary public school recently performed a similar exercise. To learn more about Four Rivers Public Charter School visit their webpage: http://fourriverscharter.org/. You can see a copy of Keepers of the Soil at CISA or at Four Rivers.

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Cafeteria: Out of the Field, Into the Frying Pan
By Kristin Getler

In June 2005, ten aspiring chefs from Holyoke's Dean Technical High School (DTHS) Culinary Program got into the fields and on the grill of Local Hero businesses to learn the value of cooking with local, fresh food. Dean Technical Culinary Arts, a certified program of the American Culinary Federation and the Federation of Dining Room Professionals at DTHS, provides Holyoke youth with kitchen and service skills to pursue a culinary career. This field trip was intended to educate youth about the benefits of buying, eating and cooking locally grown food; to provide an opportunity for urban youth to visit surrounding rural farms; and to encourage culinary students to pursue a culinary career.

Students began their educational farm and restaurant crawl at Ol’Turtle/Mountain View Farm where they were greeted by farm manager Ben Perrault and Apollo Grill chef and owner Casey Douglass, not to mention a stampede of free range chickens and friendly farm dogs. Students, farmer, and chef walked the rows identifying different lettuces, hardy greens, and shoots of summer vegetable crops to come.

The group stopped often to discuss what it means for a chef to buy locally and for a farmer to secure local markets, from logistics, to economics, to farmland preservation. Tracing the farm to restaurant connection allowed Dean students to observe both benefits and challenges of successful relationships, and made them appreciate the commitment of both sides to the farm to school connection.

Following the Ol’ Turtle/Mountain View Farm tour, students traveled across town to the Apollo Grill kitchen where they prepared lunch alongside Casey. Casey sources local foods from a half dozen local farms in an effort to serve up tasty, fresh dishes at the Apollo Grill year-round. Students tossed a salad of local greens and flipped burgers made from local grass-fed beef from River Rock Farm in Brimfield, MA. “I can't think of a better way for kids to learn about local farming then to pick the produce from the field and bring it to my kitchen,” says Chef Casey Douglass. “The produce will be top quality and absolutely fresh. And that makes for a better meal.” Indeed, all plates were left cleared and crumbless as students remarked that the greens tasted more “alive” and “fluffier” than what they were used to eating.

After lunch, Dean students piled back into the van and headed to Hadley cow country for a visit to Mapleline Farm, the final stop. Mapleline Farm is a fifth generation dairy farm that started delivering glass-bottled milk to home doorsteps again in 1998. Mapleline Farm produces milk and cream on the farm and sells their products at an on-site farm store in addition to grocery stores and restaurants.

Dean students toured the farm's grounds and bottling facility with farmer Paul Kokoski. Students peered into the bottling room, a system of hoses and conveyor belts, observing the behind-the-scenes bottling process few get to see. Although Mapleline served up milk trivia and plenty of ice cream, students spent most of their time in awe of Mapleline’s herd, visiting calf pens, and full grown Jersey cows in the pasture. Mapleline’s family farm “complex” spans production, processing, and retail to give students the full experience.

“This was a great opportunity for our kids to learn how to find and use high-quality local farm products,” said Ralph Webb, Director of Dean Tech's Culinary Program. “Five students in the co-op program currently work in local restaurant and food service businesses. By teaching them about the benefits of local farm products we will help bring more local food from fields to tables.”

The trip was co-sponsored by the Holyoke Food Policy Council, a collaboration that fosters food system connections and supports policies and programs that increase access to healthy, nutritious food by all Holyoke residents and, CISA, and was made possible through grant funds received from the Department of Health and Human Services' Community Food and Nutrition Program.

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Community: Doctor, Lawyer, Farmer?
By Anna Hanchett

Last June, Southern Berkshire Regional School’s yard was filled with squawks, chirps, and moos, as farm animals, and their farmers, demonstrated farm life and agricultural careers. Developed cooperatively by the regional school district and Sheffield Land Trust as part of their Agricultural Education Program, the annual Agricultural Careers Fair is both a learning opportunity and a celebration. It offers students, parents, and the public an opportunity to meet and talk with farmers and producers who make local agriculture a success, while demonstrating how local products can be used in businesses beyond the farm, further enhancing the local economy.

Last year’s Fair gave students from kindergarten through high school a chance to talk directly with people who work in agriculture, to see some of their tools and methods, to experience some of the animals which are on their farms, and to taste some of the locally produced products. The Fair put faces on the professions they had been learning about in the classroom though the Agriculture Education Program and introduced students to a variety of agricultural internships offered through the high school. Many traditional job fairs lack professional agriculture representation, while community agriculture fairs often minimize the need for future farmers or the potential for agriculture-related jobs.

The Agriculture Careers Fair aims to bridge this gap by bringing a festival-like atmosphere to celebrate agriculture and educate students about agriculture careers. Exhibitors at the Fair included dairy, beef, and vegetable farmers, horse breeders, beekeepers, storeowners, chefs, foresters, and maple syrup producers representing everything from a venerated farm which still bottles its own milk to the local Farmer’s Coop. Sheep, llamas, dairy goats, rabbits, and chickens were available for the students to pet and learn about, often from other students who had raised them. Hay, feed, and bins of grain were part of the exhibits by businesses which serve farmers. A beekeeper spoke about the essential role of bees in agriculture and shared some of their tasty honey. Chefs, the local Coop, and Farmer’s Markets illustrated how local products are sold and demonstrate the quality advantages of local foods. Local museums displayed tools and foods of the past and partnered with the land trust to illustrate changes in the landscape over the years. The school’s educational hydroponics and aquaculture greenhouses were also open for tours.

While the Fair is going on outside, there were all-day showings of films about local agriculture (“Sweet Soil,” “Doing It in Cow Time,” and “Berkshire Grown.”) In the future there are plans to show films about other agricultural issues which affect us nationally and globally.

The Agricultural Careers Fair brings us all face to face with our neighbors who are actually producing the food we so often take for granted. As large companies and external influences increasingly dominate many aspects of agriculture, food processing, and land use, we need to educate ourselves and our children about the important role local agriculture of all types plays in sustaining a healthy and sustainable use of our earth. Most of young people are relatively unaware of the rich agricultural heritage of our area and the importance of the agricultural community to the sustenance of our locally- based way of life. The maintenance of our local farms depends on future generations of young people who will work on them, buy their products, and protect the land they use. However, agriculture is rarely represented at job fairs or actively encouraged as a profession. We hope that the Agriculture Careers Fair helps bring more people into agriculture professions while encouraging others to support their local agriculture businesses.

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Events

March 30, 2006 Fish & Wildlife Building Hadley, MA
Drafting Your School Wellness Policy: Samples and Structures
As many of you are well aware, the deadline for establishing school wellness policies required by the Child Nutrition reauthorization bill signed into law in June of 2004 is fast approaching. The conference will feature a bird’s eye view of the school wellness efforts including state based physical education and nutrition initiatives. A panel of Western Mass. individuals that are working on policies will offer their insight and review policy models. In addition, we will focus on going beyond the wellness policy initiatives and learn about farm to school programs. RSVP to AJ Juarez at ajjuarez@verison.net or 413 750-2060.

April 2-3, 2006 Shelburne, VT
Stories from the Soil: Exploring Growth on Your Farm
Shelburne Farm invites all farmers and non-formal educators for a weekend exploring the farm’s garden and surrounding forest with an emphasis on healthy soil. Investigate through hands on activities, songs, and stories the role that soil plays in the plants we grow and the food we eat. See how much fun your farm can be for your visitors. $150 includes all materials, meals, and one overnight stay at Shelburne Farms. For more info contact Dana Hudson at 802-985-8686 ext. 25 or dhudson@shelburnefarms.org.

April 1, 2006 9:30AM to 6PM The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave (34th St.)
Schools and Food: Innovation, Opportunity, and Wellness
Join us for stories, challenges, successes, and proven strategies for implementing change in the school food environment from pre-K through college, from experts, practitioners, and activists. Research, legislation, local and state policies, new menu items, effective food, nutrition, and gardening based curricula, tool kits for advocacy, farm to school and college programs, and how to build coalitions for change will be presented. Cost is $35 (includes lunch). For more information call 212 817 8215 or visit www.baumforum.org or CUNY.

Announcements

New Funding
Thinking of starting or expanding a summer food service program?
Project Bread has funding available to help new or expanding summer food service sites. Funds can be used for promotion, buying supplemental materials etc. For more information contact Project Bread at 617-239-2539 or Christina_Jordan@projectbread.org.

New Funding
Increase Participation in USDA Afterschool and Summer Nutrition Programs
The Great American Bake Sale program will be accepting grant applications from current sponsors of summer and afterschool meal programs for children that utilize USDA reimbursement and advocacy organizations that provide technical assistance to these programs. For more information about the program and to access the application form, visit the great American Bake Sale web site. Deadline is April 15th.

New Online Magazine
reap/sow
BLAST, a national initiative of The Food Project, is launching an online magazine called reap/sow that they hope to have up this April. It is intended to be a forum for creative thinking and expression, both for and by young people working to change food systems. A great opportunity for young people to submit art, poetry, or writing and have it be seen by a large audience. Coming in April 2006… For more info visit BLAST.

New Resource
School Wellness Policy and Practice: Meeting the Needs of Low Income Students
FRAC has just published School Wellness Policy and Practice: Meeting the Needs of Low Income Students, a guide for anti-hunger advocates, parents, and school community leaders that addresses the special concerns of low-income students in local school wellness policies. The guide provides sample policies, model programs, and key research information.

New Policy
Woodbury County, Iowa mandates the purchase of local organic foods!
A new law requires that food service contractors for the county purchase locally grown organic foods as long it is competitively priced and of good quality. The resolution could potentially shift almost $300,000 a year in food purchases to local farmers. This law not only boosts the local farm economy, it provides fresh, healthy food products to recipients of county food services. For more information see the Woodbury County Local Food Purchase Policy. (Source: National Gardening Association – Regional Reports)

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Lower grocery prices for fruits and vegetables were found to deliver a significantly lower gain in body mass index (BMI) among elementary school children in a study reported by Rand Corporation researchers in the December 2005 Public Health magazine. Lower produce prices reduced weight gains by half, while lower meat prices had the opposite effect. “The estimated effects were meaningfully larger for children in poverty, children already at risk for overweight or overweight in kindergarten, and Asian and Hispanic children," according to the study findings, which may be reviewed here.

Nearly half of the children in North and South America will be overweight by 2010 and about 38 percent of all children in the European Union will be overweight if present trends continue. “We have truly a global epidemic which appears to be affecting most countries of the world,” said Dr. James Phillips, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force. “They’re being bombarded like they are in the West to eat all the wrong foods. The Western world’s food industries without even realizing it have precipitated an epidemic with enormous health consequences,” Phillips said and continued, “There needs to be a ban on all forms of marketing, not just television adverts.” Dr. Phillip Thomas, a surgeon unconnected to the study, states that, “This is going to be the first generation that’s going to have a lower life expectancy than their parents.” See the article by Danica Kirka at Associated Press.

News

UCONN is using eggs from a farm in NH that does not cage its chickens at the request of student activists. “I eat them at home so I was really glad when they started having them here” said one senior student. The act is part of a movement of many campuses toward socially conscious foods. UCONN is among at least 75 schools and prep schools nationwide whose dining-hall directors or food vendors have partially or fully ended their use of eggs from caged hens according to the Humane Society of the United States. Story by Stephanie Reitz of Associated Press.

The nation’s single biggest “food” is soda. Reports published in science journals add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don’t just go hand in hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that they are the only cause, but that they are perhaps a leading cause. This AP story provides more support to schools for limiting access to caloric soft drinks as part of an overall wellness policy. Story by Marilyn Marchione, AP Medical Writer.

In her New York Times op-ed essay, "Eating for Credit," Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café, founder of the Chez Panisse Foundation, school garden pioneer, and food activist, explains “We’re not forcing them to eat their vegetables. We’re not scaring them with the health consequences of their eating habits; we’re engaging them in interactive education that brings them into a new relationship with food. Nothing less will change their behavior.” She adds, “At King School today, 1,000 children are involved in growing, preparing, and sharing fresh food. These food-related activities are woven into the entire curriculum. Math classes measure garden beds. Science classes study drainage and soil erosion. History classes learn about pre-Columbian civilizations while grinding corn.” Read the entire essay by logging into the NYT.

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Funding for CISA’s 2006 Farm-to-School program is provided by CISA’s community and farm members and by a grant from the Lawson Valentine Foundation.

Pictures in header are used with permission from The Food Project, CISA's Local Hero Campaign, and parents.