800 new class pets at Brattleboro Union High School!

Do you have a worm guy? Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) now does. Thanks to a generous donation from Brattleboro’s Rich Earth Institute, 25 students in the BUHS Student Educational Assistance (SEA) program received compost-eating worms, compost bedding, and a worm bin. All these ingredients add up to a new lesson in food systems: vermicompost.

Vermi (worms) compost (compost) is a beautiful synergy between students’ food waste and red wiggler worms. Though red wigglers are in the spotlight, crucial supporting actors include: potworms, red & white mites, centipedes, beneficial bacteria, and fungi. This micro-community of digesters will usually show up in your compost naturally or tag along with the worms when you purchase them.

Worms don’t have teeth (or eyes, or ears, or lungs), so they need these other decomposers to help break down the food into soft, gum-able pieces. As the food passes through the worms, it turns into “worm castings,”  a rich, dark soil amendment that will add nutrients into your garden.

Classroom Connections: Soil Lessons That Stick

This vermicompost hands-on learning is part of a larger curriculum on soil health.  Students will learn about soil microorganisms, soil structure, and soil chemistry.

For today, students involved in the Youth Empowered in Agriculture program at BUHS helped put air vents in the worm bin lids, mix together some worm bedding and food scraps, and made signs showing what the worms can and cannot eat. While not all the students wanted to look at the worms, all the students enjoyed hearing that worms gum, rather than chew, their food – like “grandpa shark” from the famous baby shark song. 

Rain is a factor for Vermont farmers, increasingly flooding as well. So, any food systems or agricultural education for students needs to include soil health as part of its curriculum. Soil structure is especially important in light of recent VT flooding, as some soils erode into the watershed less than others. 

Worms, along with fungi and bacteria, help give soil structure and “glue” soil particles together, helping protect against soil erosion in rain and flood conditions.

To set up your own worm bin, this list (and your local Farm to School coach) can help you get started:

  1. Find ~1 pound of red wigglers, a plastic or wood bin with small drainage & air holes, and some bedding (ex. shredded cardboard & free coffee chaff from Mocha Joe’s) enough to cover the bottom of the bin about 3” below and 3” above the worms. Make sure you have a drainage tray or stack 2 bins together to catch any water that drains out.

  2. Mix ingredients into the bin. Moisten the bedding until it holds its shape when you squeeze it. Always keep the bedding at this moisture level.

  3. Worried about the worms escaping? They run away from light, so keep an indirect light on for the first few days until they settle into their new home.

  4. Worried about smell? Make sure fruit & vegetable scraps are fully covered with bedding. They eat ½ their weight per day, so don’t add too many scraps. Don’t let the bedding stay too wet.

Classroom or home activities you can try with your worms:

  1. Use the water runoff caught in your drainage tray or bottom bin (aka compost “tea”) as fertilizer in your garden or hydroponic system.

  2. Look at the castings or tea under a microscope (look out for nematodes and other microscopic organisms).

  3. Use soda bottles and a strainer to do a slake test comparing the structural integrity of worm castings, soil mixed with worm castings, and non-enriched soil samples.

  4. Plant two peas in two cups, compare growth of the compost-free and compost-enriched soil. 

Nourishing Minds and Bodies: Supporting Students with Trauma-Informed Food Practices

Imagine you’re staring at a slice of double chocolate cake. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Rich, decadent, indulgent, or off limits? Perhaps you associate it with a special occasion or a negative comment.

Now, what if I told you that your instant reaction to this cake could be influenced by implicit bias and that bias could be playing a significant role in how educators and administrators engage with students and food in school settings? Understanding these biases is crucial when we think about trauma, especially when it comes to school cafeterias and Farm to School programs. Trauma affects how we relate to food, and our unconscious assumptions can shape how we support or unintentionally harm our students.

On a sunny afternoon at Springfield High School, Farm to School Coach Sheila Humphreys led a training on trauma-informed practices to an eager group of educators from across multiple schools in the Springfield School District. She explained that trauma can be influenced by various factors, such as:

  • Food insecurity

  • Lack of access to nutritious meals

  • The stress of eating in an environment where students feel judged or unsafe

Trauma is more than just a single event; it’s the meaning we attach to an event, the associations formed during those experiences. It’s the emotional, physiological, and behavioral response we have when we feel unsafe, often based on past experiences. Trauma can take many forms, including but not limited to: students with food allergies, chronic illnesses, language and/or cultural differences, those who have experienced neglect or abuse, neurodivergent or students on the autism spectrum, individuals with eating disorders, students with incarcerated family members, those in foster care, students who have lost a loved one, Jewish and Muslim students, those who have experienced war or political instability, LGBTQIA+ students, and BIPOC students affected by historical trauma. One significant factor is food insecurity, which deeply impacts many students’ experiences in schools. In fact, 2 out of 5 Vermonters experience food insecurity, leading to a variety of emotional and physical responses related to food and mealtimes.

Throughout the two hour session Humphreys provided multiple ways to increase awareness about how food and trauma intersect and how our actions, often unconsciously, can either support or exacerbate trauma. She asserted the need to be mindful of how food is presented, discussed, and offered in school settings, as well as how trauma-related triggers, such as food scarcity or discomfort in school cafeterias can impact a student’s experience.

One framework that can help schools and communities address trauma is the Circle of Courage, presented by Martin Brokenleg. This model is designed to help us turn intergenerational trauma into resilience by focusing on four core needs: belonging, independence, mastery, and generosity. By recognizing these needs, we can design supportive school environments that address trauma and help students build resilience through Farm-to-School programs. The following responses to each category came as a result of a large group discussion:

Image c/o Starr Commonwealth

  • Belonging: Food is a powerful connector, and featuring students' home cultures in school cafeterias is a great way to help them feel valued. Offering culturally relevant food options and growing food together in gardens creates a sense of community and inclusion, helping students develop a connection to the food they eat. A teacher shared her own experience of belonging: “It could also be a religious thing... Some of their foods are, like, you know the corn dogs? I found out the ones they served [at her school] were turkey. I was so excited! I’m Jewish, so I’m grateful for that.” This moment underscores how crucial it is to offer food options that respect and reflect the diverse needs and beliefs of students, helping them feel seen and valued in a meaningful way. 

  • Independence: Giving students the freedom to make food choices, whether it’s through salad bars, cooking clubs, or having roles in school gardens, encourages them to take ownership of their meals and their health. Farm-to-School programs can create opportunities for students to exercise this independence by learning about food sourcing and preparation.

  • Mastery: Building skills is key in helping students feel empowered. Culinary programs or horticultural/agro initiatives within schools allow students to gain practical, transferable skills—whether it's learning how to cook or how to grow food. These experiences help students feel more capable and confident, reducing the effects of trauma by building competence.

  • Generosity: Generosity helps students feel connected to their communities. Programs like farm-to-table harvest dinners or shared community resources, such as share coolers, allow students to experience the joy of giving and receiving, further fostering resilience and connection.

During small group breakout sessions, educators shared personal experiences and insights about how trauma influences their students’ relationship with food. Many teachers spoke to factors like the availability of fresh food, access to kitchen tools, and the affordability of ingredients can create barriers to learning and growth for their students.

A crucial takeaway from the workshop was that trauma isn’t just a one-time event. It’s the meaning that a person attaches to an experience, and that meaning can affect their behavior, emotions, and interactions. For students dealing with food insecurity or past trauma, it’s essential that educators help provide stability, safety, and security in their food environments.

One simple but impactful way to support students is by implementing the Don’t Yuck My Yum principle. This concept encourages students and adults alike to approach food with an open mind and to avoid shaming others for their preferences. It emphasizes that just because someone doesn’t like a particular food, it doesn’t mean they are wrong or less than. Encouraging curiosity and trying new foods can help students overcome biases and trauma-related triggers.

In the final breakout session, educators shared practical recommendations for creating trauma-sensitive school food environments. These included:

  • Fresh Fruit and Veggie Taste Tests: Offering all students a taste of local fruits or vegetables, as a way to introduce healthy food choices and increase exposure to fresh, farm-grown options. Many schools already participate in the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

  • Changing Discipline Policies: Ensuring that student behavior doesn’t negatively impact their ability to access or enjoy lunch. This might mean offering more time for students to eat or modifying policies that might cause stress during mealtime.

  • Supporting Post-COVID Social Skills: Recognizing that some students, particularly those affected by the isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, may feel uncomfortable eating in large groups or making food choices independently. Creating smaller, supportive groups where students can eat together in a less intimidating setting could help build comfort and confidence.

Supporting students who experience food-related trauma requires a multifaceted approach. By raising awareness of how trauma impacts students’ relationships with food and making intentional changes to school food environments through Farm-to-School programs, fresh food exposure, and community-building practices, we can create safer, more inclusive spaces where students can thrive.

As the workshop came to a close, educators reflected on the work ahead. While they acknowledged that the journey to supporting students is ongoing, they left with renewed inspiration, the right tools, and a strong sense of community. Sheila’s passion for this cause and her dedication to sharing this vital information empowered them to see the many ways they can make a lasting difference in the lives of their students. With the right infrastructure in place, educators are equipped to help transform their school environments, offering not just food, but healing, connection, and hope for the future.

Written by Elyse Morckel

Nora’s Garden Ecosystem at Winston Prouty

Several young children are gathered under the broad leaves and bright, heavy blossoms of a sunflower house enjoying the shade. They are making nature art with found objects, while a few more cluster together over a huge mound of composted soil, digging and looking for worms. In another part of the garden, children nibble edible herbs and flowers like mint and dahlias as butterflies flit from bloom to bloom in the afternoon sun. A group of children giggle while juices from ripe cherry tomatoes drip down their chins. The resident toad watches quietly from a shady corner, and occasionally, a luna moth perches on a colorful blossom and rests its wings.

The garden tended by Nora Harrington and her students at Winston Prouty’s Early Learning Center is teaming with life. “We have a little ecosystem going on. The kids are part of it and I am part of it,” says Nora. Together, they have designed a safe space for small children to explore and learn about the world around them. During the 2 seasons that Nora has worked as the garden coordinator, she has developed a program that values experiential learning and emergent curriculum, engaging her young students (ages 2-5) in every part of the process. From choosing what to grow to sprouting seedlings indoors, students help with transplanting and tending the garden all the way through harvesting, cooking, and eating the bounty.

In addition to growing vegetables, Nora features edible flowers and perennials in the garden. “I think it’s important to have flowers in an ECE garden. It’s about creating space as well as encouraging them to taste food. A big part of the experience is noticing what plants, animals, and insects do. Down the line this has an impact on what kids eat. For a lot of the kids, a big part of the experience is to be in a really pretty space that they made themselves, and I appreciate that I get to be in that space too.”

Nora grew up in Washington DC and wasn’t exposed to gardening or farming in her youth. After she moved to Vermont as an adult, she developed a fascination with soil and began growing plants in her home. As her green thumb blossomed, she started gardening outside. In her work as an early childhood educator, Nora was exposed to the benefits of gardening with young children when she worked in home childcare settings with gardens and farm animals. When she applied for a position at Winston Prouty, part of what drew her was their active Farm to School program and school garden. When an opening appeared for a garden coordinator, Nora was eager to apply.

Nora says that tasting foods in the garden is key. “I think the really fun part about eating vegetables in the garden for kids is that there is no pressure and they are much more likely to try something in the garden than if you bring it back into the classroom and cut it up and put it on a plate.” Cultivating a tasting garden for young children means “being conscious of not putting things in the garden that would be unsafe to munch on,” so priority is given to vegetables that can be eaten raw and edible flowers and herbs. Nora says that cherry tomatoes were a huge hit last season, as were cucumbers, carrots, and green beans. Her students particularly love mint, a perennial herb that grows in the same spot each year, and allows them to develop confidence knowing and identifying it.

The students haven’t developed a taste yet for radishes or turnips, and Nora understands. “I was a really picky eater as a kid. I didn’t like vegetables very much. I remember trying carrots when I was younger and not liking them. I tried a carrot at age 23 that my partner grew on the farm they worked at and I thought ‘Wow, this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Why haven’t I tried this before? Maybe I have only had bad carrots?’ 

Nora continues, “The context where you are eating matters so much. Eating something that you grew yourself, I think it does actually taste better, but the whole emotional experience of it makes it SO much better. Even adults can put pressure on themselves to eat healthy and in the context where you are growing your own food that aspect of it isn’t part of the equation. It’s just fun to think, ‘I did this! Look at this cool thing I grew.’ I want kids to have that experience. I think if I had that experience earlier I would have been more open to trying new foods. Now I like to eat everything!”

If a student refuses to taste something, there is no pressure to do so, and they have other options. “They can smell it, touch it, look at it, or just pick flowers if they want to. It’s totally fine. They are so young. Just knowing that a food exists and understanding where it comes from might make them more open to trying it one day. Not all kids are going to want to eat kale, and I wouldn’t have eaten kale either when I was that age, but I probably would have put a flower petal in my mouth just to see what it tastes like, out of curiosity.”

The garden is currently blanketed in snow, however, the remains of the sunflower house stand as a reminder of the rich outdoor learning experiences in the garden that will come again this spring. In the classroom, one reminder of the fall’s harvest is still in daily use, dried cobs of brilliant glass gem corn that are a prop in the play kitchen. This corn, the seeds of which were donated by the family of a student, gave hours of enjoyment in various stages, from playing among the stalks in the garden to the sensory experience of exploring the silk and husks to the many uses in the classroom during pretend play. As spring approaches, Nora is eager to start looking at seeds with her students and decide together what colors and flavors they will cultivate in their outdoor classroom this year.

Expanding Trauma-Informed Trainings

Trauma-informed approaches to school nutrition are expanding across Vermont this winter, thanks in part to Food Connects Farm to School Coach Sheila Humphreys. Since joining the FC team in 2018, she has built on her expertise in the field and has been a key part of a regional movement to highlight the critical link between trauma and food, particularly in school environments. By emphasizing an increase in professional development opportunities, these trainings enable educators to integrate a trauma- and food-sensitive lens into their lesson plans.

With increased capacity, these trainings will reach a broader audience of educators, impacting students across four school districts in Southern Vermont: Springfield School District, Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, Windham Central Supervisory Union, and Windham Northeast Supervisory Union. 

"I am thrilled to be able to offer this training to more educators around the state. Raising awareness among school staff about food and trauma increases sensitivity to these issues and helps reduce stress experienced by students in our cafeterias and classrooms.” says Farm to School Coach Sheila Humphreys.

Giving students a say in what and how they eat has a powerful impact on their relationship with food and their overall sense of control and agency in their own lives. By establishing judgment-free spaces, students who have complicated relationships with food due to a variety of factors, including food insecurity, food allergies, eating disorders, sensory issues, or cultural differences, can work toward developing a neutral or positive connection to food. Engaging in food-related activities allows students to learn where their food comes from, how they can prepare it themselves, and discover foods that might be culturally unfamiliar, making them more likely to try new foods. By providing students with tools and opportunities to make food choices for themselves we can create change that can impact a student for the rest of their lives.

Stay tuned for Sheila’s reflections following the upcoming trainings across the state. We are excited to witness the positive impact of these transformative practices and the lasting change they will bring to school nutrition and student well-being.

Reflections of a FTS coach: Diversity, Equity, and Racial Healing

Farm to School is agriculture-based education. It is grounded in the land. As an educator and program facilitator, I want to know about the controversial, complicated history between the land and the people on it, and to be able to talk about it openly. Talking openly and honestly about the negative impacts of individual and systemic racism is a key component of racial healing. What will you be doing this year on January 21st for the National Day of Racial Healing?

Ferene Paris of allheartinspirations.com. Photo by Jesse Dawson, courtesy of VBSR

When I saw an email about Ferene Paris’s workshop, “Storytelling for Racial Healing,” at Shelburne Farms earlier in December, I felt a strong pull to attend. 

Personally, I was interested because I have trouble finding the right phrases to discuss my own experiences with race and culture. Professionally, I was interested because I want a diversity of cultures to be represented and accounted for in the Farm to School programs that I coach. I also hoped to use this workshop as a time to pause and reflect on a project I’m currently engaged in: editing Vermont’s Harvest of the Month program materials to be more equitably representative of different cultures, cooking skill-levels, and interests. 

Ferene’s thesis, if I understood correctly, was that storytelling is an important starting point for racial healing. So, workshops like these, where we pause and talk about our experiences, can be a starting point for racial healing.  When I got back from the workshop, my supervisor and I told stories about our own experiences with race, identity, racism, and racial justice groups. These conversations felt like setting down the foundational stones upon which future conversations could happen more easily.

I think if you are white and have not had much direct experience with interracial interactions, these conversations trend toward the abstract. Vermont is a state whose population is over 90% white. This workshop reflected those demographic percentages, more or less. It was interesting to me to consider this topic of racial healing within the context of a majority-white group. What is the end-goal here? How do you do storytelling for racial healing if you haven’t had many direct experiences with racial harm? How does the conversation differ when the group is majority- or all-white? 

This workshop gave me the time and the space to reflect on these questions, rather than thinking about it on-the go – between task A and task B in the day – trying to process something that felt weird or rubbed me the wrong way. I want more time, more workshops like this one, to pause, think, talk, feel, reflect, and hear from others. 

I appreciated many things in Ferene’s presentation. First, I appreciated the encouragement to lean into your innate gifts and talents. Second, I appreciated that she started her presentation with the acknowledgement that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestry, teachers, and parents. Third,  I appreciated the balance between joyful and sorrowful. She intentionally picked images of Black joy for her slides. She also took the time to tell the story of Ruby Bridges, one of the first Black students to attend previously segregated schools in New Orleans, and challenged workshop attendees to really sit with the way Ms. Bridges was treated. 

I don’t want to give away all of her notes, but one that I feel I must  include is: When harm happens, acknowledgement in the moment is good, but also acknowledging and checking-in after an incident is better. 

In a country with such a recent history of racial segregation and slavery, harmful interactions are guaranteed to happen. For some people, they live it daily. For others, they rarely experience it directly. But I am thankful to Ferene for encouraging us to talk about it when it happens and afterwards. 

“The work” (i.e. racial healing through frank conversations) is done person-to-person. It’s easy to think “the work” is person-to-system – especially in a room full of white people who often talk about racism as a theoretical, systemic, social problem. But, Ferene suggests that the healing also happens person-to-person: through conversations, building real relationships, and checking in with each other. During these conversations about past harm and present consequences, Ferene advises us all to keep it real rather than to be performative. Being performative finds you with a protective “mask” on, which keeps away vulnerability but also keeps away authenticity.  One guiding light for this is to keep your comments rooted in your experiences, your own story. 

Ferene ended the workshop with a direct ask: Pause, reflect, and have more conversations about race and racial healing with your “mask” off. This starts with conversations about what is real for you right now. 

Written by Adelaide Petrov-Yoo

Title image courtesy of All Heart Inspirations

Farm to School Teams Don’t Take Grants For Granted!

Garden coordinators recently gathered at Oak Grove School for a grant writing workshop led by Food Connects’ Kris Nelson, Sheila Humphreys, and Rachelle Ackerman. The topic of this particular gathering was initiated by Food Connects board member, Kathy Cassin. As the former garden coordinator at Academy School, Kathy thought it would be helpful for garden coordinators to come together, especially in the winter months, to explore grant writing resources to support their garden plans for the coming season.

“In my role as garden coordinator at Academy, Food Connects was extremely helpful, along with Sheila, our coach, in guiding me through the entire grant writing process. With their help, Academy School was able to receive the VAAFM grant.” Kathy added that the grant helped the Academy Farm to School team repair the garden beds, build a new garden shed, acquire grow labs for classrooms to start seedlings, provide bus transportation for students to visit farms, and develop a multi-year plan for the Academy School garden.

The meeting brought together garden representatives from Academy School, Putney Central School, Saxtons River Elementary School and Central Elementary School—to share ideas, experiences, and tips for securing funding to support school gardens. Oak Grove Garden Coordinator Katrina Moore shared the journey of transforming the garden with the help of grant funding, from overcoming soil contamination to creating a student-led sculpture garden. Afterwards, the group discussed successful grant-writing experiences, including support from VAAFM, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Whole Foods, and explored future needs like summer staffing, outdoor structures, and children's gardening tools.

Development Manager Rachelle led a presentation on best practices for grant writing. She offered valuable tips on crafting compelling proposals, incorporating storytelling, and avoiding jargon. Participants had the chance to collaborate, refine their writing, and exchange feedback in breakout sessions.

Thanks to everyone who attended and to Katrina and Oak Grove for hosting! We look forward to seeing how these grant writing practices can help grow our gardens and enrich the student experience.

Dummerston teacher Lindsey Glabach-Royce is growing climate resilience at Dummerston School

Imagine this: You are a full-time 5th and 6th grade Science and Math teacher in a rural school in Vermont.  You are committed to teaching your students about climate resilience. You have been selected for a Climate Resiliency Fellowship. This year-long program, offered through Shelburne Farms and Vermont State University brings you together with colleagues from around the northeast who are similarly passionate about climate change education. Within this community of educators, you will learn and grow together and create individual projects designed to teach “climate change with hope and justice, while tending to individual and collective well-being.”

You have a total of 9 hours and 30 minutes of instructional time each week with your students for both math and science. 80% of that time must be spent teaching math, which leaves you 2 hours per week to teach science. This is a total of 24 hours of science-focused teaching time for the entire school year, during which you need to cover the following topics:

  • Ecology

  • Weather & the Water Cycle

  • Earth's Changing Climate

  • Space

How will you rise to this challenge? What resources do you have available to help you? How can your Food Connects Coach support you?

Dummerston School teacher Lindsey Glabach-Royce

This was the beginning of our conversation this fall between FTS coach Sheila Humphreys and Dummerston School teacher Lindsey Glabach-Royce. In our role as Farm to School coaches, we help to build the capacity of talented educators like Lindsey to reach their professional goals related to Food, Farm, and Nutrition education.

Lindsey believes that, “The way to save our world is for kids to be connected to the land. This is a 2-way relationship. We need to respect the land and take care of it. My intention is to connect students to the land and the history of the land.”

Faculty members of the fall session of the fellowship program included Abenaki artist, writer, and educator Judy Dow. Judy demonstrated using 3D topo maps to teach students about their local landscape. Inspired by this approach, Lindsey plans to seek out maps of the local area from colleges and engineering labs. 

Lindsey is also planning a land acknowledgment project with her students. Through Judy Dow, Lindsey connected with local resident Patricia Sweet Austin, a Vermonter of Abenaki and European ancestry who is a western Abenaki language learner and author of Wliniwaskw Wliahki: Good Spirit Good Earth. Lindsey hopes to collaborate with Patricia on a land acknowledgment project at the school.

Lindsey has been able to connect with local farmers as well, to explore what they are doing to address climate change. With Sheila’s help, Lindsey made contact with Wild Carrot Farm and Walker Farm, and plans are in process for students to do some hands-on learning with local farmers related to their climate science unit.

We will be checking in with Lindsey throughout the year to see how her project is progressing and how we can continue to help increase her capacity to reach her professional goals.

Celebrating Harvest Dinners Across our Region

Fresh flatbread baked in a pizza oven. A banquet of soups and salads created by students, teachers, and families, many with ingredients sourced from school gardens. Turkey dinner with all the fixings. Some Vermont schools have been celebrating Harvest Dinners together for many years; others are just getting started. Each dinner is unique, as particular as the school and the community of which it is a part. Not only do Harvest Dinners bring families together for a delicious home (or school) cooked meal and lots of noise and fun. It is also one of the times during the school year when students welcome their families into their world at school - and this time to feed them! How cool is that? 

This year the Farm to School team had the pleasure of participating in Harvest Dinners at schools in Windham Southeast, Windham Central, and Windham Northeast, and at Winston Prouty Early Learning Center. Scenes from the gatherings, as well as the hours of preparations from the students and teachers, are below.

Oak Grove

There were over 170 people attending Oak Grove’s dinner this year, which is the largest turnout for this event since 2019. Some of the dishes prepared by Garden Coordinator Katrina Moore and her students with ingredients harvested from the new garden beds this year included: herbed butter, arugula salad, and fresh pasta with garden herbs.

Saxtons River 

This year Saxtons River celebrated a Harvest Dinner together for the first time, holding the dinner during the school day. Linda Kinney, the School Nutrition Site Manager, cooked up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings - and Melissa Bacon, BFHS School Nutrition Site Manager, was able to help out, too. Parents joined their kids in the cafeteria, and even learned how to properly dispose of their waste in the compost bins and replace their reusable trays in a stack when they were done.

NewBrook

This year NewBrook Elementary again held a silent auction during their Harvest Dinner, with a table full of local crafts and products. They also included a scavenger hunt bingo game, with a tempting basket of really cool erasers as prizes. Another new addition this year was the team of Leland and Gray High School students serving soup!

Central

This was Central Elementary’s second Harvest Dinner. Since the dinner was held in October and the weather was holding, families came prepared with picnic blankets and stayed a long while. Highlights were the full array of yummy soups prepared by the students and flatbread straight from the pizza oven. A new addition this year was planting daffodils in the school courtyard.

Winston Prouty 

Winston Prouty celebrated their Harvest Dinner on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. When Early Learning Center Director, Honor Woodrow, asked the children what they needed to set the table, one girl exclaimed: “We need spoons and healthy food!” The children helped make the macaroni and cheese from scratch, made wavy-cut vegetables for the stone soup, and set the tables. Everyone enjoyed a delicious meal and finished it off with banana bread.

A Taste of Culture: Chinese Cooking 101 at Brattleboro Area Middle School

Ms. Gao’s Chinese Cooking 101 provides Brattleboro Area Middle School students with an opportunity to learn life skills while getting exposed to a new culture. Ping Gao has a holistic approach to teaching. In her Chinese Culture Class, the curriculum covers the expected topics of Chinese language, history, geography, and culture. However, Ms. Gao is also invested in the emotional and social growth of her students. 

This is why, every week, she offers multiple opportunities to cook Chinese food in her classroom.  “I pick dishes that are really fast and easy to make, with ingredients that don’t cost a lot,” says Ms. Gao. Her goal is to give students the life skills needed to take care of themselves. 

Almost all the students I interviewed had used Ms. Gao’s fried rice recipe at home, and some had even made dumplings with their families. She picks recipes that are easy, fast, inexpensive, and healthy. In this case, by healthy we mean they contain unprocessed ingredients like chopped cucumbers, cilantro, and homemade wheat flour noodles. 

The homemade noodles take about 5 minutes to mix together; then, students fling and snap the dough into unfussy hand-pulled noodles. 7th and 8th grade girls chopped cucumber, cilantro, garlic and scallions. Meanwhile, two 8th grade boys boiled the noodles and scrambled eggs in a pan. Kids gathered around the table as Ms. Gao threw (literally) the ingredients into a bowl, poured on some hot oil, and mixed. 

“It smells soooo good!” spontaneously commented several students, as the hot oil hit the garlic and scallions. Students went back for seconds and thirds of the noodles. When I asked students why they would take a Chinese class, most answered “the food!”

This is an excellent exposure to diversity. Not only exposure to different cultures and the ideas that come with it (we watched a YouTube clip on the “story” behind the Biang Biang noodle). It is also exposure to new types of food. I heard a few students say they wanted to try a little bit of the spicy noodles. It’s much easier to try a bite of something spicy when it's offered in class, than when you’re ordering a whole dish of it at a Chinese restaurant. 

Speaking of which, not many Chinese restaurants in Brattleboro offer the kinds of entrees that Ms. Gao serves up.  The students told me the menus they usually see in Chinese restaurants do not serve the kinds of dishes they cook in Ms. Gao’s class. Only the dumplings and fried rice overlap. All the other dishes are things you can’t necessarily access in Brattleboro. This class is a one-of-a-kind experience that you truly can’t get anywhere else in town.

Written by Adelaide Petrov-Yoo

Community, Tradition, and Gratitude with BUHS Students

What does Thanksgiving mean for a group of Vermont teenagers? For Bianca Fernandez, Thanksgiving this year meant an opportunity to expose students to ideas of making, giving, and learning about where our food comes from. These topics feed into the larger concept of “being a good citizen in your community”. Bianca is an SEA services instructor at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS), helping to administer the YEA (Youth Empowering Agriculture) program. This program administers experiential learning in the subject of agriculture and food systems professions.

First, students learned about origins. 

A guest speaker, Jill Adams, visited the high school and spoke about Abenaki food traditions. 

Jill cooked local food, like squash and fiddleheads, and connected it to Abenaki traditions like the Three Sisters and seed preservation. This, tied in with some upcoming lessons on Indian Boarding Schools, is a pathway for high school students to think about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, about how culture relates to food and the land that we are living on. Without this land and these traditions, we could not grow the food for our Thanksgiving meal. 

Next, students learned about the skills needed to pull off a community event. 

Students boarded a bus bound for Lisai’s Market, a fourth generation family-operated grocery store and a centerpiece of Bellows Falls. Here, after buying ingredients for the day’s feast, the BUHS students interviewed the cashiers, learning about the realities of working in the “market” part of a Vermont food system. 

We packed our ingredients onto the bus and drove to Westminster’s Butterfield Institute. In this community gathering space, students rotated between three learning stations. 

Station A, the best-smelling station, prepared turkey soup from scratch. Students learned safe knife-handling, herb-identification, and soup and salad-making. 

Station B, the most artistic station, handcrafted wreaths and decoupaged candle holders from mason jars. Students used locally harvested pine boughs and learned to identify Pussy Willow, Lunaria (Silver Dollar Plant), and Chinese Lantern flowers as they twined these plants into their wreaths. 

Station C gave students an opportunity to learn about community service and giving. Here, students baked apple crumble and pumpkin bread from scratch for donation to Westminster Center School families.  BUHS high schoolers handed off the baked goods to Westminster Center School third graders, creating a beautiful moment of big-sibling, inter-age interaction.

Finally, illuminated by the setting winter sun, 17 students from BUHS sat around a table almost as long as a basketball court. Down the center ran a row of wreaths and candle holders, both carefully crafted by students. In front of each student was a plate of salad, turkey stone soup, and sides. The sweetest part was, before digging in, hearing the students say what they were thankful for. Alongside gratitude for family members and loved ones, a majority of the students said they were thankful for “all you guys” in the SEA program with them. A moment of peace and reflection, giving acknowledgement to the supportive, loving community created within the SEA program.

Written by Adelaide Petrov-Yoo