October 21st, 2017
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
Senator Sanders’ representative reviews City School’s Farm to School program
By HEATHER SMITH and MITCH CRAIB
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — It has been five years since St. Albans City School established a Farm-to-School program. The goal of the program is to connect our students with hands-on learning experiences involving growing, processing and eating fresh, local food.
Ultimately, we want our children to be healthy and empowered to make good food choices. During the implementation structuring years the Farm-to-School program has bloomed into a larger Stewardship Program where students explore community and environmental issues and create learning community programs and projects.
Through the journey of growing our Stewardship Program we share and celebrate the learning our students are accomplishing with the greater St. Albans community. Word of our programing and student achievements has the attention of Senator Bernie Sanders. He sent his representative Erica Campbell to St. Albans City School to experience the learning they have been hearing about. Campbell reached out early this fall and arranged a visit to understand more about our wellness and farm to school programs.
On Tuesday, October 17, Campbell toured the City School accompanied by Stewardship Coordinator Mitch Craib, Principal Joan Cavallo, Dean of Students Stacy Rouleau and Farm to School Coordinator Heather Smith.
The tour began in the cafeteria and kitchen highlighting food arriving from our school gardens and local producers. Chef Megan LaValleey spoke of how homemade soup is served every day and the availability of fresh veggies like zucchini and summer squash from our garden for these soups is a nice addition. Locally grown vegetables and meat are featured as often as possible on our menu. As just one example, Campbell learned that St. Albans City School participates in Harvest ofthe Month. Kale is featured as the October Harvest of the Month and a locally grown kale chip taste test occurred on October 10.
The tour continued to the school market garden. Campbell toured through the vegetable, berry and orchard gardens as Heather Smith explained how the gardens are a food source beyond our cafeteria meals. Fresh produce is harvested and used by our Family Consumer Science program for cooking projects and classroom taste tests events. The orchards and gardens were planted by students and they take great pride in harvesting the food they had a hand in growing.
The tour ended in the Family and Consumer Science (FCS) kitchen where legions of students have processed and cooked amazing foods with FCS teacher, Mrs. Lamb. She talked to Campbell about her seventh and eighth grade students harvesting apples this year from the school trees to make applesauce, muffins and pies. The apple trees were planted by seventh and eighth graders in 2013 and are just now mature enough to produce fruit. Mrs. Smith talked about making freshsalsa with Team Triumph and other students this fall from tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and other garden ingredients, a delicious treat that’s always a hit with students.
Campbell also learned about the school’s rain gardens, the wetland rehabilitation project, our maple sugaring experiences, planting numerous pollinator and butterfly gardens and more. She left impressed with the scope of our initiatives and promised to share them with Senator Sanders. We hope to have Ms. Campbell return as our guest at upcoming school events and have extended the invitation to Senator Sanders with hopes he, too, will be proud of our Vermont students at St. Albans City School. -- Heather Smith is St. Albans City School’s Farmto- School coordinator and Mitch Craib is the stewardship coordinator
Senator Sanders’ representative reviews City School’s Farm to School program
By HEATHER SMITH and MITCH CRAIB
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — It has been five years since St. Albans City School established a Farm-to-School program. The goal of the program is to connect our students with hands-on learning experiences involving growing, processing and eating fresh, local food.
Ultimately, we want our children to be healthy and empowered to make good food choices. During the implementation structuring years the Farm-to-School program has bloomed into a larger Stewardship Program where students explore community and environmental issues and create learning community programs and projects.
Through the journey of growing our Stewardship Program we share and celebrate the learning our students are accomplishing with the greater St. Albans community. Word of our programing and student achievements has the attention of Senator Bernie Sanders. He sent his representative Erica Campbell to St. Albans City School to experience the learning they have been hearing about. Campbell reached out early this fall and arranged a visit to understand more about our wellness and farm to school programs.
On Tuesday, October 17, Campbell toured the City School accompanied by Stewardship Coordinator Mitch Craib, Principal Joan Cavallo, Dean of Students Stacy Rouleau and Farm to School Coordinator Heather Smith.
The tour began in the cafeteria and kitchen highlighting food arriving from our school gardens and local producers. Chef Megan LaValleey spoke of how homemade soup is served every day and the availability of fresh veggies like zucchini and summer squash from our garden for these soups is a nice addition. Locally grown vegetables and meat are featured as often as possible on our menu. As just one example, Campbell learned that St. Albans City School participates in Harvest ofthe Month. Kale is featured as the October Harvest of the Month and a locally grown kale chip taste test occurred on October 10.
The tour continued to the school market garden. Campbell toured through the vegetable, berry and orchard gardens as Heather Smith explained how the gardens are a food source beyond our cafeteria meals. Fresh produce is harvested and used by our Family Consumer Science program for cooking projects and classroom taste tests events. The orchards and gardens were planted by students and they take great pride in harvesting the food they had a hand in growing.
The tour ended in the Family and Consumer Science (FCS) kitchen where legions of students have processed and cooked amazing foods with FCS teacher, Mrs. Lamb. She talked to Campbell about her seventh and eighth grade students harvesting apples this year from the school trees to make applesauce, muffins and pies. The apple trees were planted by seventh and eighth graders in 2013 and are just now mature enough to produce fruit. Mrs. Smith talked about making freshsalsa with Team Triumph and other students this fall from tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and other garden ingredients, a delicious treat that’s always a hit with students.
Campbell also learned about the school’s rain gardens, the wetland rehabilitation project, our maple sugaring experiences, planting numerous pollinator and butterfly gardens and more. She left impressed with the scope of our initiatives and promised to share them with Senator Sanders. We hope to have Ms. Campbell return as our guest at upcoming school events and have extended the invitation to Senator Sanders with hopes he, too, will be proud of our Vermont students at St. Albans City School. -- Heather Smith is St. Albans City School’s Farmto- School coordinator and Mitch Craib is the stewardship coordinator