September '05

Welcome to the newly minted, Farm-to-School E-Newsletter! We hope that this publication can be a virtual bulletin board for farm-to-school related news and events, that it can serve as both an inspiration for new projects and a celebration of existing projects, and perhaps most importantly, that it can act as a sounding board for new ideas and creative ways of tackling the inevitable challenges of farm-to-school work.

We recognize that farm-to-school projects come in many forms: school gardens, cafeteria purchases, agriculture curricula and more. Each of these examples alone is important, and together they build a more complete farm-to-school picture and thus stronger, more sustainable long-term farm-to-school programs. Through articles on the Cafeteria, Curriculum, and Community aspects of farm-to-school and farm-to-college work, this e-newsletter will celebrate the creative farm-to-school programs in New England.

Our inaugural issue features a story about a CT Farm-to-School Program Food Director Training and highlights lessons from participating farmers and food directors about buying direct. An article by high-schooler Wil Lambek from Montpelier, VT recounts an educational event, fundraiser, and meal put on by students at Montpelier High School as a fundraiser for the School’s Solar Greenhouse. I think this event is an inspiration for student groups and educators who want to develop learning opportunities outside of the classroom. Finally, an article about Seeds of Solidarity’s Elders and Youth Breaking Bread event showcases an effort to reach out to the community.

At CISA, we’ve learned a lot about the challenges and joys of farm-to-school work through our partnerships with people and organizations who work on these issues every day. In particular, we appreciate our collaboration with Deb Habib at Seeds of Solidarity Education Center and Catherine Sands at Fertile Ground, with whom we founded the Local Hero Schools Network. In-person networking opportunities allow us all to gain from our various experiences and approaches to connecting kids, schools, and farms. We hope that, with your help, this newsletter will offer many of these different perspectives.

As administrators, teachers, parents, staff, and students, you, readers, will help this publication reach its potential. It will be stories about the events that you organize, the gardens that you plant, the food contracts that you sign, and the challenges that you face, that fill these pages. Therefore, I invite you to contribute story ideas, event announcements, and articles.

Grow well!
Kelly

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Cafeteria: Feeding the Directors-
The CT Farm-to-School Program Gives Food Service Directors a Taste of the Country
By Kelly Coleman, CISA Program Coordinator

Joe Dondero shows off his orchard (Used with permission from the Ct Farm-to-School Program)

Field trip participants listen to George Purtill in the Old Maids' packing shed (Used with permission from the Ct Farm-to-School Program)

It was the beginning of a blistering hot day when a bus-load of Food Service Directors pulled up to the Dondero Orchards’ Farmstand in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Out bounced Elizabeth Fleming, the enthusiastic CT Farm-to-School project coordinator, followed by upwards of 15 Food Service Directors and purchasers. They were gathered to learn more about CT grown products and CT agriculture through a day of farm tours and a farm-fresh luncheon.

The CT Farm-to-School program fosters links between farms and schools, develops resources for participants, creates promotional and marketing materials, and conducts research to support the Farm-to-School effort in CT. To date over 25 school districts purchase locally grown food from 15 farms throughout the state. The tour was an opportunity to get school food service directors into the field to explore starting or expanding their own local buying programs.

This tour solidified through example what many of us already know: local food purchases provide school children with fresh, nutritious, and great tasting food options, while supporting local farmers financially. But more importantly, it demonstrated how feasible local purchasing is. The tour featured two farms that sold to local schools, Dondero’s Orchard and Old Maids Farm, and a number of the food service directors that have experience purchasing from local schools.

Some of the lessons:

1. Often purchasing from local farmers is competitive or even cheaper than buying through existing produce channels. As Brad Devlin of Glastonbury stated, “We can’t even get canned fruit for (Dondero Orchard’s) price.” Jackie Schipke of Tolland agrees, “$15 a bushel for apples (Dondero’s price) is very competitive, I was paying 19 from a distributor.”

2. Many local farmers are willing to distribute. Farmer George Purtill of Old Maids Farm in South Glastonbury, CT feels that many local farms would be willing to distribute to schools that they drive by every day. To make his point he listed off the schools that fall into his own daily path.

3. Many distributors already distribute local products. Old Maids Farm sells to the University of Connecticut through their distributor. Although food bought through a distributor may be more expensive, distributors generally offer farmers and school districts more delivery and payment options.

4. Integrating cafeteria purchases with the classroom is still important. Brad Devlin of Glastonbury has been buying from local farmers for 10 years and feels like the next step for his program is connecting the kids he feeds with the farms through tours and curriculum development. He says “to really close the loop we need to get kids out to the farm.”

To learn more about the CT Farm-to-School program contact Elizabeth Fleming at 860-296-9325 or efleming@hartfordfood.org.

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Curriculum: Hunger Banquet
at Montpelier H.S. Highlights
Global Food Inequity, Local Solutions
By Wil Lambek, Montpelier High School,
reprinted with permission from Food Works' Newsletter "The Confluence"

On Thursday, December 9th, over 200 guests attended the Montpelier High School Food and Nutrition Council’s Hunger Banquet. The Council, in conjunction with Community Connections and Food Works, planned the event to combine education, entertainment, and a meal. Advertised as a night intended to “show how the world eats,” some attendees were surprised to find the differences in meals served. Broken down to represent wealth distribution worldwide, 15% were given a gourmet meal on candlelit tables, 25% ate rice and beans, and the remaining 120 guests fought over rice and water on gym mats scattered around the cafeteria floor.

While some were understandably unsatisfied with their meals, any uneasiness was soon quelled by emcee and Twinfield Principal Owen Bradley. He combined humor and solemnity in discussing the roots of the problem while relating to the crowd some of his personal experiences with hunger. Guests then heard a variety of speakers explain how they help fight hunger in the community and around the world. Keynote speaker Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajority, condemned the political causes of hunger.

The event was also a fundraiser for several causes. While a portion of the ticket price was donated to the Vermont Foodbank and Oxfam International, the major beneficiary was the Montpelier High School Solar Greenhouse. With the money raised, the greenhouse will be completed this winter, and by the spring, it will be supplying the school cafeteria with fresh, organic greens. The intention is to increase the focus onto local, sustainable sources of food.

“The greenhouse will not solve the problem of hunger,” said high school senior and event organizer Elisa Otter, “but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Editor's Note: To learn more about Food Works see www.tworiverscenter.org. The Montpelier High School’s home page (www.mpsvt.org/mhs/mhssite/index.html) highlights the composting program through which “a total of 22,385 lbs. of scraps were diverted from the landfill this year. Some was used to grow 40lbs of organic greens which produced 330 salad bar meals.”

Community: Breaking Bread
Seeds of Leadership Youth Serve Their Harvest
By Kelly Coleman, CISA Program Coordinator

The mid-August heat and humidity didn’t deter a crowd of seniors gathering for dinner in the Orange Central Congregational Church, nor did it smother their appetites for the local honey–gingered chicken and cornbread that they were about to be served.

In honor of “Eat in, Act out” week, Seeds of Leadership youth, all members of a youth training program run by Seeds of Solidarity, hosted a meal for North Quabbin area seniors. The seniors participate in the Senior FarmShare Program, a program sponsored by Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture that provides low-income seniors with free weekly shares of produce. Seeds of Solidarity is one of 9 farms in the program and provides 35 seniors with shares. “Elders and Youth Breaking Bread” showcased food from area farms, as well as produce grown by the Seeds of Leadership (SOL) gardeners.

As Deb Habib, who runs Seeds of Solidarity (SOS), remarked “elders and teenagers are my two favorite groups of people to hang out with.” It is no wonder that she created this event to do just that: celebrate food as a gathering force to bring younger and older generations together.

The night started with an ice breaking game of human Bingo where players had to find other participants who “liked to cook”, “can name two local farms”, or “were born in a North Quabbin town”. Introductions followed by Deb Habib, the Seeds of Leadership youth, and State Senator Steve Brewer, who commented that some of his favorite memories were of growing up on a dairy farm in Barre, MA. The evening’s highlight was the meal of chicken from Diemand Farm, pasta salad with SOL Garden produce, local-corn cornbread, salad, and string beans. A youthful helping of Johnson’s Farm ice cream topped with Bullard Farm blueberries finished off the night.

The Seeds of Leadership program engages North Quabbin teens in a multi-season program to inspire service and activism. During the school-year members work on the farm after-school once a week gaining hands-on knowledge of farming and energy conservation. They spend the summer educating at conferences, events and markets, carrying out service activities in their community, and participating in team and leadership building activities.

For the SOL Gardeners, “Breaking Bread” was an opportunity to give back to their community and share their gardening and cooking skills, for the seniors the meal was a treat to be remembered. And they didn’t even have to do the dishes.

To learn more about Seeds of Solidarity see: www.seedsofsolidarity.org/.

Events

October 5th, 10 am, Gardner Auditorium, The State House
Help Our Kids Eat Right!
Public Hearing on An Act to Promote Proper School Nutrition
Join Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA) in combating childhood obesity by getting junk food out of schools! For more information, contact Roberta Friedman at MPHA: RFriedman@mphaweb.org

October 5th, 3:30 – 5:30 pm, Amherst, MA
Cultivating Hope, Educating for Change
A workshop featuring activities from our newly released curriculum kit of sustainable food and energy teaching resources. Hosted by the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst MA. Geared towards grade 5-12 educators, all are welcome. PDPs available. Free, but please pre-register by calling 413-256-6006.

October 6-9, Atlanta, GA
Ninth Annual CFSC Conference
It's Homegrown: Cultivating the Roots of Real Change
Amongst the myriad of workshops offered at this year’s Community Food Security Coalition Conference is a series on Farm to Cafeteria work. This track features speakers from both the inside and the outside of dining services. For more information: www.foodsecurity.org/event_cfsc_conf05.html.

October 10-14, A school near you?
School Lunch: It’s Instrumental, National School Lunch Week
School nutrition professionals are planning to celebrate National School Lunch Week October 10-14 in their effort to promote school lunch. The musical theme of this year’s event (“School Lunch: It’s Instrumental!”) is expected to grab students’ attention and help raise awareness of the important role of school nutrition programs for generations of young Americans learning, playing, and being active. The website, www.schoolnutrition.org/nslw, provides resources for National School Lunch Week enthusiasts, including menus and recipes, promotional toolkits, and templates for crafting press releases, public service announcements, and fact sheets. To learn more visit: www.asfsa.org/Printerfriendly. (From the Food Research and Action Center news digest)

October 15, 9:00 AM -3:00 PM, Stone Barns Center, Pocantico Hills, NY
Starting from Scratch - Growing School Gardens, School Garden Conference
The event, sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County and the Stone Barns Center, is intended for teachers, PTA members, school administrators and community members. It will include a panel discussion on how to get started - getting permission, making the curriculum connections, finding a site, and getting help from the community for labor and funding and three one-hour workshop sessions with farmers, teacher, Extensions staff, and Master Gardeners. For more information, to receive a flyer, and/or to register, contact Judy Fink of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture at 366-6200 ext 113 or judyf@stonebarnscenter.org. www.stonebarnscenter.org/.

October 25th, 9:00 am – 3:30 pm, Worcester, MA
Communities and Schools Working Together for Wellness
This forum will provide an opportunity and practical guidance for schools and communities to collaborate towards the development and implementation of School Wellness Policies. The day will include case studies, keynote addresses, break-out sessions and workshops. It is sponsored by the Massachusetts Partnership for Healthy Weight and the New England Coalition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Stay tuned for more details.

November 14th, Burlington, VT
Weaving Schools into Wellness Conference
VT FEED and Action For Healthy Kids will host a conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Burlington, VT. The conference’s goal is to continue supporting school wellness teams to create nutritious and active school environments. For more information see: www.nofavt.org/event.php?e_id=266

Announcements

School Contest
Organic School Garden Competition
This contest was started 7 years ago in Pennsylvania by The Rodale Institute, to inspire youth to garden organically, and to promote regenerative gardening practices. Any school within the 50 United States with an organic garden may enter the contest by submitting an essay and a poster. Three winning schools will receive cash prizes of $250, $500, and $1,000. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2005. For more info, see: www.kidsregen.org/gardens/index.shtml

New Publication
Feeding Young Minds: Hands-on Farm to School Education Programs
“Feeding Young Minds: Hands-on Farm to School Education Programs,” is the latest publication of the Community Food Security Coalition. Focusing on educational activities that complement local purchasing for school meals, this booklet highlights farm to school experiential education programs from around the country. These range from cooking classes in New Mexico, to school fundraisers in Ohio, to kindergartners tasting watermelon radishes in Pennsylvania. Each program is unique, yet offers insights and possibilities of what can be achieved when farm-fresh products in the cafeteria are linked with experiential education activities. A resource section is also included. To order contact CFSC: www.foodsecurity.org/pubs.html#feeding.

New York Times’ Marian Burros kicks off an informal series on school and college buy-local efforts: Fresh Gets Invited to the Cool Table.“YOU don't usually find a college tour guide showing off the school cafeteria to prospective applicants. But at Middlebury College in Vermont this summer, that was where a student guide made her four-star sales pitch. "The food here is amazing," she said. "When I went home for spring break, I actually missed it."

At a time when many school cafeterias are still serving traditional, mass-produced food, Middlebury has replaced "mystery meat," canned vegetables and other institutional menu staples - the butt of freshman-year jokes for generations - with locally raised chicken and lamb, and heirloom tomatoes, emerald green broccoli and plump ripe strawberries grown within a few miles of the campus. Full article here: www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/dining/24school.html

Widespread state actions on school meals reported. State legislatures across the nation are getting involved in school nutrition issues and efforts to address childhood obesity, healthy foods, and the lack of physical exercise. Bills on school nutrition, childhood obesity, and competitive foods have been proposed in 38 states this year, and have passed in 14, according to a tally by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). For more details, see: www.ncsl.org/programs/health/ChildhoodObesity-2005.htm. (From the CFNP Report of the Community Nutrition Institute, www.communitynutrition.org)

Well-placed nutrition information helps students make better food choices. On-site, point-of-selection information seems to influence teenagers and aids them in opting for foods with less fat and fewer calories, according to a recent article in the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management. Nutrition information cards placed in the lunch line at four school districts in Pennsylvania made a difference. (From the CFNP Report of the Community Nutrition Institute, www.communitynutrition.org)

Studies show healthy food can reduce aggressive behavior. Marco Visscher’s article in "Ode Magazine" discusses recent studies on the relationship between healthy food and behavior. To read the article see: www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4143

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Special thanks to Foster's Market for supporting the Farm-to-School ENews!

You can find Foster's at 70 Allen St. Greenfield

413-773-1100

Funding for CISA’s 2005 Farm-to-School program is provided by CISA’s community and farm members and by grants from agencies including the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Frank Stanley Beveridge Foundation, and the Lawson Valentine Foundation.

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