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"Surprisingly, not many kids are familiar with where our food comes from," said Paul Atkinson, former board member for Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District. "This is a rural district, with farm families, but very few of them even eat from their farms."
That didn't seem right to Atkinson and other district board members and administrators, who decided last August to start a program that would teach Crow-Applegate schoolchildren healthy eating habits and the benefits of growing their own food and supporting local farmers.
The plan approved by the board has five main steps:
- Create gardens and a greenhouse
- Take students on field trips to local farms
- Educate them about nutrition
- Set up subject-area studies using school gardens
- Integrate fresh food into the cafeteria menu
Atkinson, an activist for sustainable farming and owner of Laughing Stock Farm, and Kathi Holvey, elementary school principal, worked with parents and organizations including Willamette Farm & Food Coalition, Oregon State Extension Service and the School Garden Project of Lane County. So far, they have established gardens at the elementary schools and set up what Holvey calls the "Taj Mahal" of greenhouses.
This year, about 70 fifth- and sixth-graders took field trips to local farms where they saw and tasted farm products. Back in the classroom, teachers began incorporating science, math, social studies and nutrition lessons and conducted very popular local-produce tastings.
Funding the program and finding economically feasible ways to get local produce onto school menus continue to be challenges, but both Akinson and Holvey say that the kids are becoming more aware about food and where it comes from. The program has engaged the community in building deer fences, spreading manure, obtaining and planting seeds, and installing irrigation. Holvey and others are working toward raised garden beds, year-round crops, purchasing a rototiller, involving more class levels and integrating more garden-based lessons.
Beyond the local school level, Holvey and others have joined efforts to get legislators behind a shared "Farm to School" vision.
During the 2007 legislative session, like-minded partners in and beyond Lane County pursued an agenda to institutionalize farm-to-school concepts in Oregon.
The farm-to-school bills were designed to get the Department of Agriculture to ready the Oregon agricultural community to work with Oregon schools (HB 3307),
allocate up to seven cents per meal served to incorporate Oregon agricultural products into the lunchroom (HB 3476), and
provide resources to schools throughout the state to start or maintain school gardens
(HB 3185).Two of the bills died in Ways and Means; however,
lobbying by agriculture/education entities resulted in the
Oregon Department of Agriculture creating a farm-to-school
program with one full-time employee, beginning September 2007,
which was a successful outcome of HB 3307.
Atkinson admits that all their goals will not be achieved quickly. Off the school board in June, he
continues to lend what support he can. He wants to see a culinary arts program in the schools, as well as community meals.
And Holvey acknowledges that, at this point, the program can only supplement the school menu. But the program and the school gardens are thriving - and in true farming spirit, the organizers see tomorrow as a new day, ripe with opportunities. For
more information:
Kathi Holvey, Principal, Lorane & Applegate schools
Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District
541-935-2100
Megan Kemple
Willamette Farm & Food Coalition
541-341-1216 Information about school gardens
www.schoolgardenproject.org
Farm-to-School Initiative information
www.ecotrust.org/farmtoschool/
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