The week before the start of the 2022-23 school year, Food Connects hosted a Celebration of Farm to School (FTS) for school administrative teams and food service directors. We are so proud of the work being done by Farm to School teams at our member schools in Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU), Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU), and Windham Southeast School District (WSESD), and we are grateful to the leaders who help make the work possible. At the event, we shared highlights from the 2021-22 school year at each member school, and we want to take a moment to share those highlights with a wider audience. Read on to hear the wonderful things happening in schools throughout the region!

Academy School has benefitted from Kathy Cassin’s role as garden coordinator there. Throughout the year, Kathy has supported classrooms with cooking and gardening activities, both during the school day and after school. 6th-grade teacher Eric Cummings encouraged his class to become compost ambassadors, and they became actively involved in improving school wide composting systems at the school. A Blue Cross Blue Shield mini-grant provided funding for a cooking cart at Academy School, which has grown to become a cooking closet, outfitted with cookbooks, appliances, and all the supplies needed to cook with students.

This past year, Brattleboro Area Middle School hired Tara Davis as their school garden coordinator. They had a very successful summer cooking program that incorporated the gardens and Farm to School learning, and we look forward to Tara’s continued support there! 

Brattleboro Union High School has rolled out an exciting new local food vending machine this year! Students and faculty can now purchase all kinds of delicious snacks from local producers. Ali West has led this charge - and we’re so excited to watch the program take off! 

Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls came out of the Northeast Farm to School Institute brimming with ideas. This past year they piloted monthly Vermont Harvest of the Month (HOM) events in 2nd grade as well as taste tests in the cafeteria. The garden was updated and expanded, and this year HOM events will be expanded to include 3rd grade as well. Central Elementary also ran summer programming in the garden. In addition, they connected with their farming community through classroom visits from farmers and field trips to farm stands and maple groves.

Dummerston School was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture last spring. So far those funds have been used to begin creating an edible and pollinator landscape around the campus including building new garden beds adjacent to the playground so that students can garden and graze during recess. This fall, the school is launching a year-long buddy classroom program focused on garden and outdoor learning, designed with professional development support from Shelburne Farms and Vermont FEED. We can’t wait to see all the creative ways that multi-age groups of students engage in outdoor learning and garden education this year!

Grafton Elementary School continued its program under librarian Mandy Walsh, completing their seeding kits in spring and spending time in their small garden. Grafton is entering a year of transition. Mandy Walsh will be working full-time at Westminster, so we’re excited to see where Grafton takes their FTS program in the future. 

Green Street School has been focused on maximizing its gardening space with its “urban” setting. If you haven’t seen the new raised garden area behind the school, check it out! Garden coordinator Tara Gordon collaborated with Windham Regional Career Center’s forestry students to help manage and landscape the forested hillside beside the school. 

Newbrook Elementary School continued its amazing work of offering dedicated FTS programming for each class every week of the year. Amy Duffy, the FTS Coordinator at Newbrook, was named 2022-23 FTS Champion for her dedication to her students and for helping to grow FTS in the District! Newbrook won a Wellness grant from the Windham County Community Advisory Board and Blue Cross Blue Shield and was able to host its first Farm and Field Day since before Covid. It was a wonderful year.

Oak Grove School sent a team to the Northeast FTS Institute over the summer, and they have several goals this year to rebound their FTS programming from some of the effects of Covid, including bringing back Harvest of the Month taste testing and developing a school culture that supports 100% participation of all classrooms in FTS-related activities. Tara Gordon, Jen Tourville, and Jamie Champney engaged the pre-K class in regular cooking and garden activities with support from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s Pre-school CSA grant.

Putney Central School’s (PCS) focus has been primarily in the kitchen, and food service director Steve Hed has been a real champion of scratch cooking with local ingredients. We’re excited to welcome Jon Sessions as the new principal at PCS this fall, and we look forward to growing more involvement with classrooms in the school garden, perhaps similar to what has been happening at Academy School, where Jon previously served as assistant principal. 

Townshend Elementary School (TES) began a new FTS program in March last year. They implemented monthly HOM programming for each class, with taste tests and hands-on activities. This summer, TES secured funding from the Stratton Foundation to hire an FTS Coordinator to continue monthly programming. The coordinator will also help to plan and build a new garden, as Townshend Elementary also won a Whole Kids Foundation grant to start their garden this year!

Westminster Center School continued to grow its amazing FTS program under Mandy Walsh. With the support of a VT Agency of Agriculture grant, they hosted numerous events including a Fall Farm and Field Day and a Spring Planting Day. The school also received a grant from the Outdoor Gear Exchange to purchase outdoor gear. This will ensure all students have the proper equipment to stay warm and dry while they learn outdoors in all weather conditions.

Winston Prouty was also awarded a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. These grant funds have been used to create an innovative solution developed with support from the Vermont Garden Network to keep their school garden watered because their garden is very far from the nearest spigot. They have also hired Amy Enochs as a part-time garden coordinator, following the successful model used in many of the schools in WSESU to support teachers in better utilizing the garden with their students.

WNESU’s Farm to School Cafe has continued to do amazing work under the leadership of food service director Harley Sterling. Harley was recognized as a School Food Hero through the Vermont School Nutrition Association for his Innovation and Advocacy in feeding Vermont’s kids. WNESU provided meal boxes to families during the pandemic, offering fresh whole ingredients and recipes for meals at home. It also provided meals throughout the summer. Harley and his staff continued to feature local ingredients and scratch cooking in most of the meals offered. 

WCSU Food Service regretfully said goodbye at the end of the year to Kendra Novick, who moved to NY to be closer to her new grandchild. The district is excited to welcome Jake Gallogly as the new Food Service Director. Jake (a former Food Connects employee!) worked as a member of the WNESU food service team for a year - running a winning Junior Iron Chef program and learning the ins and outs of running a food service program focused on feeding kids quality foods and championing staff. We’re looking forward to supporting him in his new role.

WSESU Food Service has continued to thrive under the leadership of Brattleboro Regional Food Service director Ali West of Fresh Picks Cafe, who was the recipient of the School Nutrition Association of Vermont’s Outstanding Achievement Award last spring. This will be the second year of Windham Southeast Supervisory Union’s (WSESU) Where in the World are We Eating Program. Under this awesome initiative led by Ali, once a month, students in WSESU get to try a delicious meal from a different part of the world. Last year they tried foods from 10 different countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Germany to Thailand. All of the cuisines featured are countries where students in WSESU are from, so this is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our own community through our taste buds. We’re so excited to continue to support this program in the coming year and so thankful for those who have worked tirelessly to make it happen!

Please join us in celebrating all these inspiring projects in our member schools! We applaud the hard work of our FTS teams, school nutrition professionals, and the administrations that support them. We can’t wait to see what new projects emerge during the 2022-23 school year!