SV Farm to School Awarded "Honorable Mention" for Farm to You Fest Activities

Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project is proud to announce that it was recognized with a "Honorable Mention" Award on Feburary 1st! The award was made by NYS Commissioner of Ag and Markets, Patrick Hooker, at the annual School Nutrition Association Partnership Awards Dinner held in Albany NY. This was our first award submission as a group. Read the Commissioner's presentation remarks in full below!

[Photo by Ann McMahon; Josie Ennist (Schoharie CSD Fd. Svc.) and Deb Rosko (Berne/Knox/Westerlo CSD Fd. Svc.) accept the award for the SV Farm to School Project from NYS Commissioner Hooker]

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First, I’d like to extend my thanks to Carol Beebe, Ray Denniston and the School Nutrition Association for inviting me here tonight. And thanks to all the food service directors, wellness committees and teachers for taking time to make New York State agriculture a part of your school meals and activities.

‘Farm to You Fest: A Celebration of Local Food and Agriculture’ - what a great idea!

The Department of Agriculture & Markets is very happy to be involved in this. We know that we have the best growers, producing the best fresh products, and we are proud to promote them every way we can.

Each year, I have the honor of presenting awards to schools for, not only the fun and educational work they do during the ‘Farm to You Fest’ week in October; but also for the real and significant efforts made to support local agriculture, local markets and the health of our kids.

Awards are made in three categories:
• Merchandizing / Promoting Local Foods and Farms
• Working with Local Farmers
• Building Partnerships and Integrating Farm to School into Wellness Activities

And this year the outstanding projects from 2009 ‘Farm to You Fest’ are:

In the category of ‘Merchandizing and Promoting Local Foods, and Farms’ the winner is: Bethlehem Central School District (Delmar)

We recognize the Healthy Kids Committee: Karen Shaw and Colleen Carroll-Barbuto, Co-Presidents, and Paul Franchini, Food Service Director.

Bethlehem Central Schools celebrated the ‘Farm to You Fest’ week with many events, classroom lessons, field trips, great food and connections to local farms and the community. For the full month of October the school featured produce from a local farm.

Activities that helped engage students to begin thinking about what is ‘local’ and why local food is important included: Farmers Market Scavenger Hunt; Farm Fresh Recipe Contest; Middle School Organic Kitchen Garden; Dairy Farm Field Trip; Farmers Visiting Classrooms; Posters and School Lobby Displays; Art Classes; and Library and Community Activities.

Paul Franchini served foods from local farms, such as: cabbage, potatoes, broccoli and ratatouille with eggplant, zucchini and summer squash. It was reported that the produce was so fresh the students could see and taste the difference!

The very special project: Squash Hunger Produce Drive provided 1,000 pounds of fresh produce to feed community members in need.

Albany Times Union newspaper even featured the Bethlehem School District for their efforts in an article titled: “Veggie Tales: Students learn about the Value of Local foods and Fresh Produce.”

Congratulations!

The winner is in the category of ‘Working with Local Farmers’ is: Bloomfield Central School District (Ontario County)

Tonight we recognize Todd Fowler, Food Service Director for Bloomfield.

Bloomfield Central School has had a successful Farm to School Program for several years using local foods on the ‘Farmers Market’ cafeteria serving line.

Now they have taken it to a new level: After exploring ways to extend the use of fresh, local foods, they decided to explore and develop a method to preserve fresh food by freezing it.

With the support of a local farmer, Chris Luley, from the Happy Goat Farm in Naples, they developed a seven step process to turn farm fresh products into a frozen - ready to use form in the cafeteria. The steps used are: precut and soak, cut uniform florets, blanch or steam, shock in ice bath, drain dry, bag for freezing, and full freeze to larger bags. This makes it possible to have local, nutritious produce ready to use through out the school year.

Todd didn’t stop there! In the future we should hear more detailed information about this project and he plans to work on dehydration as another method to preserve local foods for later consumption.

Congratulations!

The third winning school in the category of ‘Building Partnerships and Integrating Farm to School into Wellness Activities’ is: PS 205 Alexander Graham Bell from Bayside, Queens

Ilene Marks and Fran Bosi are to be recognized from Public School 205.

PS 205 has made it a priority to bring awareness about nutrition and healthy food options to their students. The school has had a vegetable garden since 1998 and a small working farm. The first and fifth grade students help out with the planting and harvesting of the garden.

This year to celebrate Farm to You Fest, the school hosted a Farmers Market that ran all day, offering their own local foods. To participate in the Farmers Market the students paid a small fee and then had the opportunity to buy and enjoy the garden fresh produce. Proceeds raised from the market were donated to City Harvest, a hunger outreach organization.

The school always participates in Ag Literacy Day. This year they read the book “Sugar Bush Spring”, the story was about where maple syrup comes from.

Overall, the gardening and Farm to School activities have helped the students at Alexander Graham Bell school learn to eat healthier and help less fortunate people in our community.

Congratulations!

While every single school that participates in the annual ‘Farm to You Fest’ and the farm to school efforts, are champions at Dept of Ag & Mkts, we would like to highlight a few more outstanding programs that came to our attention this year:

Honorable Mention goes to these outstanding ‘Farm to School’ Programs:

• Maple Hill Middle School
• Mexico Academy and Central School
• Smart Choice Café - Oswego County Schools
• PS 41 the Greenwich Village School
• Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project

My staff is ready to help you start planning you ‘Farm to You Fest 2010!’ The dates of the 2010 celebration week are: September 27th - October 3rd. Again, thank you all for supporting your local farmers, educating the kids about the many benefits of 'keeping it local, and for providing the children of New York State with the most delicious, most nutritious food possible.

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On behalf of the Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project, I would also like to extend our congratulations to all of the winners! As one can gather from the descriptions of their activities, a lot of effort went into these Farm to School//Harvest Fest activities, yet they are all very different from school to school. There is no one way to pursue the increased placement of fresh produce on the school menu from local sources! So call us if you would like to help us, now and into the 2011 school year. Contact the CCE Schoharie County Office at 518-234-4303 and ask for this writer!


Regina Tillman, MS, RD

2009 New York Harvest for New York Kids Week

I think we have started to really get the hang of this concept of making purchases of local produce and integrating them into the school menus. This school year, it all got started the week of October 5th -11th, the time frame selected by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets to celebrate “Farm To You Fest” in schools. For area school food service managers, as members of the Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project, this was also the second year of planning and implementation for Harvest Week. Thus, building upon the relationships forged in 2008, while expanding the reach of our message with expanded activities, yielded a busy but rewarding week. In one of our schools, the food service manager had even extended the menu adjustments into the entire month.

Of course, the primary focus was to serve up wholesome local produce on school lunch trays, and let the children know what they were eating. Local pears, apples, broccoli, squash, potatoes, carrots and cabbage, were provided either fresh or in menu items such as White Pizza with Broccoli, Roasted Herb Potatoes, Dill Potato Salad, Garlic Bread made with Fresh Roasted Garlic, Homemade Coleslaw, Gingerbread-Carrot Cake, Zucchini-Tomato-Cheddar Bake, Vegetable Soup, Sauté Squash, and Sweet Corn on the Cob. Deee-licious!

In several schools, youngsters were made acquainted with a farmer, either serving in the cafeteria or speaking in a classroom. Corn husking was a popular activity that provided the students with a chance to get closer to their food source and the farmer who grew it. At one of the schools, preparing squash that they had seeded in the previous year for a food donation program, got kids personally interested in the acceptance of the dish by the larger student population. Food Service Managers were also pulled into the classroom to help teach about food and nutrition.

Senator James Seward and State Assemblyman Peter Lopez, both of which served lunch in the elementary school cafeteria, supported us in our efforts with a special visit to Schoharie Central Schools. Later in the week, NYS Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, Patrick Hooker, along with local farmer and owner of the Carrot Barn, Richard Ball, read off that day’s PA announcements, which had been composed to highlight Harvest Week. Similar announcements were made in each of the schools each day of the Harvest Week celebration, thus, spreading the message of the importance of various fruits and vegetables readily available nearby. By in large, the biggest hit might have been the “Produce Trading Cards” made available to K-6th graders. Students collected the set of nine cards, featuring a particular fruit of vegetable on each, over the course of the week.

Who were these heroes of the Farm to School movement in the Schoharie Valley region of NYS? The Food Service Managers of the following schools deserve much of the credit for implementing a multi-faceted approach to Harvest Week, covering a lot of ground in the interest of encouraging student consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables: Berne/Knox/Westerlo CSD, Cobleskill/Richmondville CSD, Gilboa-Conesville CSD, Middleburgh CSD, Schoharie CSD, and Sharon Springs CSD. Our thanks go, as well, to these farms that made available their produce, and in some cases their time, to our schools: Barber’s Farm, Bohringer’s Fruit Farm, Fox Creek Farm, Parsons Vegetable Farm, RSK Farm, Shauls Farm, Schoharie Valley Farm, Sharon Orchards, Stone House Farm, and Terrace Mountain Orchards.

Deb Rosko, School Food Service Manager at Berne/Knox/Westerlo CSD, said it best when she explained that, “while we cannot force students to make healthy food choices, we can indeed offer them not only the food but the benefits the food brings, to their own bodies as well as to the local farm community.” Now, that’s an education that could stick with students for a lifetime.

SV Farm to School :: In The News

Schoharie Valley Farm to School celebration of New York Harvest for NY Kids Week (October 5th - 11th) is covered in the local newspaper, the Times Journal. Thanks Jim! (Photo by R. Tillman: Harvest theme accompanies local fruit in the Cobleskill-Richmondville CSD Cafeteria)

Local Produce Hits Schools This Week
by Jim Poole, October 7, 2009

Students in area schools are reaping the harvest from local farms this week. They are enjoying a range of fruits and vegetables from regional producers, thanks to the NY Harvest for NY Kids Week.

Its's part of the year-long Farm to You Fest 2009 promoted by Cornell Cooperative Extension and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.

"At its core, this is to establish a relationship between schools and farms and farmers," said Regina Tillman, coordinator of the Farm to School Project at the Extension office in Cobleskill. She's been working with school food service directors from... > Read More