What a great perspective on what’s important to keep in mind when creating a school garden at your school! Thanks, MotherNature, for the perspective and resources.
Striped Roots and Winter Boots
Striped Roots. . .
November’s Farm Fresh Food Day featured 4 different root vegetables grown on 3 local farms:
Hakurei Turnips and Watermelon Radishes from Capella Farm
Chioggia Beets and Hakurei Turnips from Tantre Farm
Napoli Carrots from Seeley Farm
Here’s what they looked like at Mill Creek:
Our Farm to School Coordinator and gracious volunteers worked with Dexter Food and Nutrition staff at Mill Creek Middle School and Dexter High School to prepare a Shaved and Marinated Root Vegetable Salad with these fall delights! (download the recipe on our NEW recipe page!)
Students at Mill Creek gave their feedback by voting “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down”. Their results were 69 Thumbs Up and 3 Thumbs Down – a clear thumbs-up overall to the locally grown fresh root vegetables.
At DHS, students were asked to fill out a short survey that provided more details on their opinions of the different samples provided. Here’s a chart of students’ and teachers’ answers to the survey:
A few teachers and paraprofessionals came by our table, as well, to try a sample and express their support, including Angie Scott, a DHS Health Teacher who has discussed local foods and food systems issues with her students. We hope to engage with her and more teachers at DHS who are interested in enriching their curriculum with connections to local agriculture.
Winter Boots. . .
A few of our most dedicated volunteers bundled up and came out to clean and put the gardens to rest for winter. At the DHS Garden Work Day, the sun graciously peeked through the clouds while we pulled out the remaining crops, and did some MUCH needed soil amendment.
Additional tools for the Sullivan Memorial Learning Garden at DHS were donated by Hackney Hardware and the Dexter Mill. THANK YOU to these wonderful local businesses for your support!
Temperatures dropped and unfortunately froze the soil before we got into the Creekside Garden to get it ready for winter. But with some hot chocolate to keep us going and strong garden forks, we prevailed! The Creekside garden beds are clean and have been replenished with compost and leaves that will breakdown under the snow and aid soil content and texture for spring plantings. The best news we learned from the day had to do with the compost. This spring, garden volunteers implemented a three-pile composting system using tarps to increase temperatures in the piles.
While turning the piles this November, we found a large amount of usable soil for the garden! This means, that the composting system is working, and that the garden is becoming more self-sustaining! YAY DIRT!
THANK YOU to all the volunteers who’ve been supporting our efforts this year!
Farm Fresh Food Day coming up in November
Want to come out to help and see how the students like the featured Fall Root Vegetables? Sign up to volunteer! There’s only one slot left!
Dexter Farm to School Goes to the Capital!
In October, the Dexter Farm to School program was represented alongside Dexter Food and Nutrition’s team at Lunch on the Lawn in Lansing, and event attended by many state representatives and their staff to learn more about issues facing school nutrition across the state. We were honored to be featured and found the event informative and invigorating (partially because it was so CHILLY!)
Here are some photos from the event.
Local Kale and Apples Served in Dexter Schools
During the month of October, students throughout Dexter Community Schools enjoyed locally grown apples and kale with smiles on their faces, and thumbs up to the sky. Here’s an article about the event compiled by our Farm to School Coordinator and the Food Service staff in Dexter Schools. . .
Dexter Schools’ Food and Nutrition purchased apples from Frosty Apple Orchard and Lesser Farms and Orchard, representing an expansion of their existing relationship with these two farms located in Dexter. In a partnership with the Dexter Wellness Coalition’s Farm to School Coordinator, Caitlin Joseph, Dexter Food and Nutrition also purchased kale from Goetz Farm in Riga, MI. The kale and apples were used together in kale smoothies that were given out as free samples in all 6 Dexter Community Schools from October 14-22 during lunch in the cafeterias. “The goal of the Kale Smoothie tastings was to introduce students to kale in a fun and palatable form,” says Caitlin Joseph. Students were asked to vote “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” after trying the kale smoothies, and overall, the students’ votes showed more positive reactions than negative.
Kale was also served on the lunch line at Mill Creek Middle School and Dexter High School, where students added it to their lunch trays as raw salads and kale chips.
“Working with local Dexter Orchards has been wonderful,” said Sara Simmerman, Food Service Director, explaining how a successful local farm to school relationship has worked for her department. “The apples from Lesser’s and Frosty Apple have always been high quality, the farmers delivered regularly to the schools, and they’ve been engaged with educating students directly about their products,” Simmerman added. Assistant Food Service Director, Margaret Faber, elaborated, “Local food purchasing is easier for us when farmers take the initiative to call us. Having a centralized location for viewing local foods available to us, though, would make farm to school purchasing more sustainable for schools in our area.”
The locally grown kale’s presence in Dexter Schools this month is part of Dexter Food and Nutrition’s ongoing partnership with the Dexter Wellness Coalition’s Farm to School Coordinator aimed at increasing awareness and accessibility of locally grown foods in Dexter schools. Successes in this effort represent a triple win for farmers, students, and the community. Farmers receive more money for their products when institutions purchase from them directly. And when school staff members promote the fact that local foods come from specific farms, those farmers benefit from increased personal connections in their community. The presence of locally grown foods in schools also increases the community’s awareness of and pride in their local agricultural industry. Students are able to develop healthier eating habits from an increased exposure to a greater variety of fresh foods. And many food service departments engaged in farm to cafeteria efforts throughout the country have found that increased local foods on their menus increases participation in school lunch.
“Trying new and different vegetables is a big part of developing healthy eating habits. When we can expose students to the wide variety of fresh foods available from local farms, we’re helping the local community, too.” says Caitlin Joseph. “That multifaceted benefit is what farm to school is all about!”
If you are a farmer interested in establishing a relationship with Dexter Community Schools, please see our For Farmers page for more information!