Many of the resources provided here are
downloadable PDF files. They require FREE Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Getting a free plug-In for viewing PDFs in your
browser is also a good idea.
Check out clips
from our Farm-to-School video, "Grow up Fresh!"
Introduction:
Community:
Cafeteria:
Classroom:
VT FEED 2006-2007 Schools
Vermont
FEED, the leading Vermont Farm-to-School program is busy
working with many rural Vermont
communities. In Spring 2006, the Vermont legislature passed
Act
145 which allowed for state money to assist with schools'
farm-to-school programs. Vermont FEED consults with the
recipients of the grant.
Here are just a few examples
of how schools are “planting” healthy
learning opportunities for students:
Orleans-Essex
Supervisory Union (Jay/Westfield Elementary School, the
Lowell Graded School, and the Holland Elementary School)
CLASSROOM
On farm field trips students have harvested onions and corn,
milked cows, picked apples and blueberries, and connected
to their local food sources. Students at the schools have
built and maintained school gardens and participated in
hands-on cooking activities through the Planting Seeds of
Change after-school program.
CAFETERIA
The three schools have spent over $3,000 on local food purchased
from 18 different local producers. The local foods have
been integrated into the regular school food program and
in over 18 local food recipes developed by the school food
staff. Monthly taste tests conducted by the food service,
teachers, and students, have gauged the student response
to the new foods.
COMMUNITY
Each school celebrated local food, farming, and community
at Fall Harvest Festivals. Activities at the festivals included:
apple cider pressing, local food taste testing, tractor
parades, produce competitiions, games, and music. A Farm-to-School
Calendar highlighting farm-to-school activities, local food
recipes and farm sources was sold at each school as a fundraiser
to support local food purchasing in the school food program.
For
more information about the OENSU Farm-to-School Program,
contact Katherine Sims, District Coordinator at ksims@northcountryschools.org
Rumney
School
CLASSROOM Rumney School in Middlesex is offering a weekly
snack featuring local produce, and creating the snack in
a different classroom each week.
CAFERTERIA The school food director is purchasing greens from
a local farmer and serving fresh salads and local vegetables
in the cafeteria every day.
COMMUNITY
Rumney will be celebrating this successful grant with a
community fall harvest dinner in November where proceeds
will be used to purchase more local foods and to support
the Middlesex Food Shelf.
Barre
Town Middle and Elementary School
CLASSROOM Barre Town had the Farmer's Diner owner come and
spend a day at school talking to our Family Consumers Science
classes, a major soup contest with eight graders with fifth
graders as the judges, and a new Cooking for Life class
for sixth graders after school.
CAFETERIA Barre's Crops By Kids garden produced
swiss chard and lettuce for use in the cafeteria to make
a great white bean and swiss chard soup. A local chef volunteered
his time to look at how Barre's kitchen set up and gave
a detailed report on how to redesign the kitchen.
COMMUNITY The eighth grade winners of the soup cooking contest
will go on television and be broadcast to over a million
people! In addition, a Service Learning Project engaged
students to visit farms and they will report back to our
community with large posters for display in our dining room.
The
Burlington School Food Project
CLASSROOM
Burlington classrooms have been taking advantage of trips
to the Intervale this fall. Ten different classrooms from
four different Burlington Elementary schools, including
Champlain, HO Wheeler, Edmunds and Barnes visited Healthy
City Youth Farm this fall and participated in Harvest Field
Trips and trips to Lucky Ladies Chickens, owned by farmer
John Cleary. These field trips are connected to the Burlington
science curriculum as a kick off to a unit, or a complement
mid way through. Teachers and Students have been excited
to take advantage of this great opportunity in their backyards.
CAFETERIA
Already this year, Burlington Schools Food Service has processed
and/or served over 6,000 lbs. of local produce in the schools’
salad bars and lunch lines, including local basil, broccoli,
green beans, strawberries, zucchini, lettuce, mesclun, tomatoes,
cucumbers, peppers, and carrots.
COMMUNITY
The Burlington Food Council is an open community group which
includes farmers, parents, Burlington School District employees,
students, researchers, and health and nutrition experts
and has met monthly since 2003 to improve the farm to school
food system and food, farm, and nutrition education in Burlington,
Vermont. Past events and activities have included a benefit
contra dance co-sponsored by City Market, a Great Veggie
Giveaway that bagged and distributed almost 3000 pounds
of carrots, potatoes, and cabbage to Burlington schoolchildren,
and a recent opening-night benefit performance of "American
Machine" by Burlington playwright Jim Lantz. In these
ways, the Food Council helps to connect the Burlington School
Food Project to local farms, businesses, City of Burlington
departments, and not-for-profit organizations interested
in a healthier Burlington.
Vermont Food Education Every Day
(VT FEED) is a community-based
approach to school food system change in a rural state
through a collaboration of three Vermont
non-profits: Food Works,
Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, and Shelburne
Farms.
CONTACT Vermont
FEED
Kim Norris, VT FEED Co-Director, 802-238-3585
knorris@shelburnefarms.org
