Local Food 101, With a School as His Lab (Farm to School Food Program)

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/13colct.html

TALL, bald and of robust appetite, the chef Timothy Cipriano is casting an appreciative eye at the young free-range chickens clucking in their moveable, open-air run outside the Agriscience and Technology Center at Bloomfield High School. “By fall, I can give you three dozen eggs a week,” predicts Joseph Rodrigues, the agriscience teacher who oversees greenhouses, raised-bed gardens and a set of big, burbling aquaculture tanks.

snip

The two men are amiable and enthusiastic co-conspirators. Mr. Cipriano, the food service director for the Bloomfield school district, is also a committed activist for the Connecticut Farm-to-School program, which advocates serving students fresh, locally grown and sustainable food. He is clearly delighted by Mr. Rodrigues’s next promise: “We’ll be raising tilapia. It’s a good, mild fish the kids like. I’m hoping to give you a couple of decent harvests.”

Having cajoled a few students out of study hall, Mr. Rodrigues has set them to transplanting heirloom tomato seedlings in the greenhouse. He walks between potting benches reciting tomato varieties: “Moskovich. First Ladies. Juliets. The Great White ... .” The crops also include snap peas, leeks, broccoli rabe, carrots, herbs, lettuce, arugula, okra and squash. Crews of volunteer students will tend the beds over the summer, with early harvest going to a local food bank.

Students also test recipes, from watermelon gazpacho to Mexican pizza, and Mr. Cipriano has gathered the favorites in a self-published compendium intended for the delectation of “Not Your Average Lunch Lady.” His most popular dish is Squapple Crisp, a toothsome bake of winter squash, apples, cinnamon and brown sugar topped with crushed cornflakes. Has he had some losers?

Farm to School http://www.farmtoschool.org

related: Local Harvest - look up nearby farmer's markets & CSAs http://www.localharvest.org

[TygrBright]

1. This is an excellent Step One.

Step Two should involve field trips to supermarkets, copying labels, deconstructing the elements thereof, and studying how micronutrients are carried in food substances and used by the human body. Step Three should involve plenty of hands-on time in front of a cutting board and a stove, making yummy stuff.

Three steps, and these kids will eat well for life.

hopefully,
Bright

[havocmom]

2. Great science projects!

And teaching them to garden also teaches lots of science as well as instill a sense of empowerment. Kids who know how to grow some of their own food learn a lot of natural science AND that the way things are it NOT the way they have to stay! People, individuals and groups, can make a difference and not rely so much on the crap the corporations are selling (literally and figuratively)

Following what was sown all the way to their tables is a most valuable curriculum.