Our Mission
To provide positive health benefits and academic opportunities to Dexter Community Students through our school garden programs and Dexter Community Schools’ Food and Nutrition offerings.
These programs nourish students’ cognitive, social and emotional needs by promoting physical activity, healthy eating habits and expanded access to fresh, locally grown food. The Dexter Farm to School Program also increases learner engagement through experiential, interdisciplinary and project-based learning experiences.
These experiences include growing produce and flowers in the school gardens, planting spring seeds in the school greenhouse, cooking healthy recipes in the kitchen classroom, or eating locally grown food in the school cafeteria.
Dexter Farm to School works towards this mission by engaging in the following yearly goals:
- Increasing the amount of fresh, local fruits and vegetables students consume.
- Increasing students’ knowledge about where food comes from.
- Engaging community and school stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the program.
The Dexter Farm to School program is made possible by funding from the Dexter Wellness Coalition , the 5 Healthy Towns Foundation, the Educational Foundation of Dexter, Dexter Community Schools and the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor.
Meet the Farm to School Team
Francie Wesorick is the Dexter Schools Garden Coordinator she has been involved with the Farm to School program since 2016, first as a volunteer and then joined the team in 2017.
The garden program teaches where food comes from and how to prepare it. Beyond teaching gardening and cooking skills, it fosters young environmentalists. The program allows students to get outside, gain an appreciation for nature, and learn to care for our earth. The program is also unique because it pushes students to discover new things and try new foods.
Francie’s favorite vegetable is fresh asparagus. Francie is also an artist, an avid reader, and she enjoys spending time with her family.
Kelly Parachek is as a teacher sponsor for the program. She loves cooking and trying to grow new things in her garden.
Kelly loves this program because she thinks it is important to teach kids how to work together and to grow their own food. She believes it is always exciting when students get to try something new and find out that they actually like it!
Kirsten Korff is as a teacher sponsor for the program. She has been with the garden program for all but 2 years since its beginning in 2013.
Kirsten thinks the best part of this program is seeing kids get excited about fresh food and learning how to use/cook with it. She believes many kids are not interested in trying new foods. However, as soon as they play a role in the harvesting and making of the food they are much more eager to try. Most of the time they find out they like something new. She also really enjoys cooking. If she was not teaching she would run her own food truck.
