We love to talk to our local businesses about the work our Farm to School team does in their communities and beyond. Our Farm to School sponsors must align with our mission to cultivate healthy food and farm connections in cafeterias, classrooms, and communities. Our new sponsor, Deerfield Valley Real Estate, is a perfect fit!
Local Vending Machine Snacks at Brattleboro Union High School
By Sheila Humphreys
This year, the Brattleboro Union High School cafeteria has added local foods to its vending machine! Alongside more traditional vending machine snacks, Brattleboro Area Food Service Director Ali West is now stocking Brattleboro’s own True North Granola, Montpelier-based Garuka Bars, Rutland-based Sugar Bob’s Finest Kind, and Providence Rhode Island-based Shri Bark Snacks, all sourced from the Food Connects Food Hub.
Oak Grove’s Harvest Dinner: The Return of an Annual Farm to School Tradition
By Sheila Humphreys
For the first time since the fall of 2019, Oak Grove School held its annual Harvest Dinner celebration with families. A longstanding tradition at the school, this event features food grown in the school garden and harvested and prepared by students. This year, the dinner was attended by over 50 families and was held during the school’s fall open house.
Townshend Elementary Secures Funding for a Farm to School Program
In March 2022, Townshend Elementary School launched its Farm to School program, offering monthly taste tests and activities for students, focusing on the Vermont Harvest of the Month. Part-time teacher Kelsey Taddei volunteered her time to run the program with Food Connects FTS coach Jenny Kessler. By the end of the school year, it was clear that students and teachers alike really enjoyed growing their knowledge about local food. But the program needed resources to pay a Farm to School Coordinator to run programming, purchase supplies and curricular materials, and build a small garden.
Highlighting Successes in Food Connects’ Member Schools during the 2021-2022 School Year
The week before the start of the 2022-23 school year, Food Connects hosted a Celebration of Farm to School 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, Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, and Windham Southeast School District, 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!
Food Connects’ Farm to School Celebrates Long-Time Sponsor, New Chapter®
Food Connects Celebrates the 2021-2022 Farm to School Year
The 2021-2022 Farm to School Impact Report is Here!
Hot off the presses, it's our 2021-2022 Farm to School Impact Report. Check out what our team was able to accomplish this year and hear success stories from schools throughout Windham County!
Farm and Field Day Returns to NewBrook Elementary School!
After a break forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, NewBrook Elementary School was able to host Farm and Field Day for the first time since 2019. The entire student body took a break from academics to spend an afternoon outdoors learning about food, recycling, and the natural environment.
A multitude of community volunteers came out to run “stations”—where groups of students rotated through. The Windham County Game Warden, Dave Taddei, had a table full of pelts for students to explore and learn about. Giant Journey Farm brought adult rabbits and kits. Meadows Bee Farm had a faux milking station and taught students about June’s Harvest of the Month dairy. Food Connects made strawberry banana “nice cream” (sweetened only with fruit), and students assembled and ate their own pizzas, cooked by a West River Community Project volunteer. Amy Duffy, the school’s Farm to School Coordinator, made herbal salt scrubs with students. And the team from Windham Solid Waste ran a recycling relay! Art teacher Suzanne Paugh engaged students in making a mural for the garden shed out of recycled plastic!
Parents Elizabeth Erickson and Sara Webb, working with NewBrook’s Farm to School Committee, led the efforts to organize the event. Heather Sperling, the school’s wood-fired pizza expert and Farm to School veteran, and Amy Duffy, the school’s FTS Coordinator, were also central to the effort. Thank you so much to all the community members and families who volunteered to help with this event. Principal Scotty Tabachnick said, “it was just beautiful to see everyone outside, enjoying the day as a community again. We’re so thankful to everyone who supports our school.”
It was a wonderful day for all, and NewBrook Elementary School looks forward to hosting more events for students and families.
Townshend Elementary School Launches Farm to School Program
This March, Townshend Elementary School launched its Farm to School Program, opening with a maple syrup tasting event to celebrate the Harvest of the Month.
During the last week of March, physical education teacher Carla West shared facts about the maple syrup harvest in Vermont. On Friday, March 25th, there was a taste test session in each classroom. Teachers Kelsey Taddei and Kathy Gatto-Gurney lead the effort with support from Food Connects staff Jenny Kessler. They asked students to share what they had learned or already knew about maple syrup. Not surprisingly, there were many experts in the house! At least half of each class had either made maple syrup themselves or had visited a friend or family member who makes it. And it was clear that Ms. West’s teaching had stuck—many students in each class told us right away that it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make just 1 gallon of syrup!
Discussing that fact (and the related time and energy required to make real maple syrup) helped students understand why someone had the idea to make imitation syrup out of corn syrup. But could imitation syrup taste like the real thing? Pre-K through 5th-grade students did a blind taste test of Vermont maple syrup and imitation syrup made with corn syrup. They were asked to choose which syrup they preferred and guess which syrup was “from the tree.”
Not surprisingly, most Townshend students could tell right away which was the real thing. “This one tastes like chemicals,” said 4th grader Seamus Crockett. His classmate Stella Cleveland agreed. “This one tastes buttery and sweeter, and chemically. You can taste it in the aftertaste”. Daniel Sullivan knew it too, “This one tastes like butter. Butter taste comes from store-bought; it doesn’t come from a tree.”
These comments were echoed throughout the school. Students also looked at the ingredients in each product and discussed differences like distance traveled to the store and homes and the reasons for different price points of each syrup.
Students also tasted fresh sap that had been collected that morning. Most students were less familiar with the sap, and it helped them understand the 40:1 ratio a little more concretely.
Both students and teachers are looking forward to monthly taste tests and more Farm to School events in the future. The school would like to thank Ms. West’s family for the generous syrup donations.
