By Amy Fovargue Building Staple Crops into the Farm to School Movement When the Farm-to-School movement began, its focus was to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to school cafeterias around the country. But what about grains, beans, flour, tortillas and all the other products that come from staple crops? These crops, grown right here in Ohio, and the biggest part of our calories and nutrition, were missing from the local school food movement. Enter Shagbark Seed & Mill, an Athens based grain mill and beanery launched to address food security in the region so the best tasting, freshest, and most nutritious staple foods reach Ohio’s tables. Today, Shagbark’s flour, beans, and tortilla chips can be found in many dining halls […]
Ohio Success Stories
Minerva Local School District is “One in a Melon”
By Amy Fovargue We congratulate Ohio’s winner of the “One in a Melon” award, Minerva Local School District in Stark County! They received the most votes from parents, teachers, community stakeholders, students, and others who recognized the incredible work they’re doing through their farm to school programs. Stacey Bettis, the 2,000-student district’s food service director, tells us that their school is striving to educate the whole child by providing the following: Healthy Living Awareness Agriculture Awareness General Curriculum A County-Wide Grant In 2015 the Stark County ESC received a $43,000 farm to school planning grant benefiting more than 36,000 students in eight districts located in rural, urban, and USDA designated food deserts in Stark County, Northeastern Ohio. Of these students, 43% […]
Red Basket Farms Offers Spring Bounty to Local Schools
By Amy Fovargue Floyd Davis of Red Basket Farms, Kinsman, OH noticed a couple of years ago that there is a dramatic interest in Farm to School, and spotted a new trajectory for his operation. “We are one of very few farms that can grow produce during the school year with our hoop houses. We are getting healthier foods into the schools and trying to make a difference in the cafeteria. Our biggest challenge is having the capacity to meet demand from our customers. We are being contacted weekly by new customers,” he said. Through the years, Red Basket farmers have heard from shoppers at the farmers markets about how bad school lunches are. There has been a tremendous interest […]
School Garden Continues to Bloom in Toledo
By Amy Fovargue Judy Hanes, a retired kindergarten teacher in Lucas County, combines her passion for working with children and gardening by leading a year round garden club at Hawkins Elementary School in Toledo, Ohio. This is the fourth year for the garden club led by Hanes, who is also a Master Gardener Volunteer. The Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program provides intensive training in horticulture to interested residents who then volunteer their time assisting with educational programs and activities for Ohioans through their local Extension office. “I wanted to have a garden club with the older kids, but they were not as interested as the younger ones. Currently the club has 12 students that are multi-age, with […]
Dedicated Community Makes Federal Hocking School A Top Purveyor of Local Foods in Ohio
By Amy Fovargue Federal Hocking School District in Athens County is a top school district in the state for having the highest percent of their food budget spent on local food, according to the recently released USDA Farm to School Census. How does a low-income Appalachian school become ranked as a top district in our state for serving local food? It takes a lot of passionate people supporting their food system. Here is their story. “We need to brag about what we are doing! We keep striving forward to make sure our kids get the best food possible. They (students) are our customers and we want to make them happy!” said Mike Kubisek of COMCorps/AmeriCorps. Kubisek volunteers with COM (College […]
Field Trips to Produce Auction Inspire Student Connections to Local Food
By Amy Fovargue Two school day events were held in 2015 at the Chesterhill Produce Auction, a rural food hub operated in Morgan County by the nonprofit Rural Action. Last spring, 170 students from The Plains Elementary and Alexander Elementary learned about the local food system by actively participating in planting, composting, nutrition, cooking, insect sampling, a mock auction, philanthropy, and food access and distribution. Rural Action’s Environmental Education Coordinator, Joe Brehm, developed curriculum that met the appropriate learning standards. Jennifer Trainer, a teacher at The Plains Elementary School said, “Our second graders enjoyed themselves and learned a great deal about local food.” Trainer was pleased to have demonstrated at the auction the main science standard: observe and ask questions […]
Lighthouse Community School Garden Growing Confident Students
By Amy Fovargue and Carol Smathers “We used to be known in the community as the school with all of the bad kids, but now we are known as the school with the gardens. Our reputation has changed for the better,” said Daniel Trujillo, superintendent of the Lighthouse Community School of Cincinnati. The Lighthouse, a 65-student behavioral school for children in foster care, offers an Urban Agriculture Program for students in seventh grade through high school. In 2010 they started with two 4X4 foot boxes to garden, planted in raised beds in the corner squares of the parking lot where no one was able to park anyway. Thanks to the encouragement of Liz Solomon of the Ohio Department of Education […]
Food Hub Enables Akron City Schools to Source Local, Organic Foods
By Amy Fovargue and Carol Smathers Regional Food Hubs and Farm to School Regional food hubs are organizations that aggregate, distribute, and market food products from producers within that region. By combining products from farms of all sizes, food hubs help make it possible to meet the needs of wholesale, retail, and institutional buyers, including schools. Aggregating, distributing, and marketing foods on a regional level involves creatively solving the challenges of product pick-up and delivery, food safety procedures and related training, liability coverage, packaging and storage, and brand development. Some food hubs go even further to offer value-added product development and processing, local foods promotion campaigns, recipes and cooking demonstrations for using their products, and community employment opportunities. When it […]
Fremont City Schools Celebrate Local in Everyday Menus
We talked with Michaeleen Rogers, child nutrition supervisor who retired last month after 40 years of service in Fremont City Schools to learn about their farm to school work. Rogers was instrumental in bringing local foods to the district and her positive relationships even encouraged the local producers to sell to other schools. “For many years, USDA would not allow us to buy local foods, thankfully that changed,” she said. Other challenges she faced were: finding a product that fits the school’s needs or having them redesigned to fit the meal program. “It also takes a lot of time to develop relationships with suppliers and sometimes the language or standards are a barrier as my idea of a case and […]
