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Central Elementary Students Explore the Maple Harvest

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Written by Second Grade teachers Kate Kane and Judy Verespy

In early March, the 2nd-grade students carried on the Vermont tradition of tapping maple trees in the waning days of winter. We tapped two maple trees at school, neither of which was a sugar maple, but instead a Norway maple and silver maple. Thanks to Librarian Jody Hauser for scouting and identifying our trees! The Norway maple has a very slow sap flow, but the silver maple began flowing immediately! Mrs. Kane’s brother Thad came to help us tap the trees, and we were thrilled to get that hands-on experience that generations of Vermonters have had before us.

Later in the week, we enjoyed “sugar on snow,” using maple syrup that Mrs. Stoodley’s family had boiled last year. We took a walk down School Street to Leah’s house to experience their sugaring operation on Friday afternoon. We have all decided that maple syrup is DELICIOUS. We thank Tim and Whitney Patterson, Ryan and Karen Stoodley, and Thad and Jan Guild for helping us understand the experience of making “liquid gold!” We also had a blind taste test to compare silver, Norway, and sugar maple sap to decide which is the sweetest. The results were surprising! While most students thought the sugar maple sap would be the sweetest, the taste test indicated that the Norway maple sap actually tasted the sweetest to the students, as shown in our graph.

Erica Frank in our cafeteria baked up delicious maple-sweetened blueberry oatmeal cakes for the students to enjoy. They were a hit!  

Farm to School efforts continue to expand with regular taste tests and activities tied to Harvest of the Month. And we’re getting ready to ramp up our garden, with cold frames already set up and a garden workday planned with help from the Rotary Club to repair and build new raised beds for Spring. Stay tuned for more! 

Growing Farm to School with the Monadnock Food Co-op

Just in time for its ninth birthday, we celebrate our partner and Farm to School sponsor, the Monadnock Food Co-op (MFC). 

It’s hard to imagine that the Keene community didn’t have a co-op less than ten years ago. MFC has become an integral part of downtown Keene, serving as an accessible downtown community marketplace featuring local, nutritious, and sustainable foods. The co-op provides a valuable resource for the community and local farmers to connect and enhance our local food economy. 

But beyond being a grocery store, the Co-op supports food systems organizations throughout the community. Each month the Co-op holds a monthly Round It Up donation drive “to raise funds for initiatives that improve the health of our community and help create a vibrant, sustainable local food system.” At the register, community members can “round up” their change—last year, shoppers contributed more than $65,000 to 11 nonprofit organizations and initiatives.

Food Connects has been lucky enough to be one of the Round It Up donation drive recipients. Last year, the Monadnock Food Co-op shoppers donated over $6,000 to our Back to School with Food Connects campaign to raise funds for our Farm to School program. And we’re excited to announce that we will be the August recipient of the Round Up this year. Every dollar we raise goes directly towards our Farm to School programming. We continue to build our partnership with the Modanock Farm to School Network through professional development support and mini-grant funding. This April, you will see us at the Monadnock Earth Day Festival, creating sprouting kits for kiddos to bring home and grow with their families.

We are fortunate to have a strong partnership with the Co-op beyond our Roundup—we deliver local food to the store, partner with them on the Kitchen 2.0 series (a virtual cooking class for kids), participate in many of their events, and more. The Co-op is one of our top customers and exemplifies what it means to be dedicated to improving the local food economy.

Like many other organizations, we are grateful for the support that the Co-op provides our community. Aside from their regular donation requests and their Round It Up initiative, they also serve farms through the Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund. This program’s mission is to “support local farmers in increasing sustainable food production and wholesale sales to contribute to a thriving local farm economy.” Many farmers who received these grants work with our Food Hub. Since starting the program in 2017, the Farm Fund has raised over $87,000 for sixteen local farms.

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Townshend Elementary School Launches Farm to School Program

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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. 

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Trauma and Nutrition Work Continues at Food Connects

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Since she began working at Food Connects in the summer of 2018, Farm to School Coach Sheila Humphreys has been developing expertise on the rich topic of trauma and nutrition, including Trauma-Informed Cafeterias and Trauma Sensitive Farm to School programs. Sheila is a leader on this topic, presenting at statewide, regional, and national conferences and acting as a resource for educators and School Nutrition Professionals far and wide. 

Most recently, at the request of several Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) principals, Sheila partnered with Brattleboro Area Food Service Director Ali West of Fresh Picks Cafe to record a 30-minute professional development session on the topic of Trauma-Informed Cafeterias to help support WSESU staff welcome new students from Afghanistan into the school district. The video is relevant to schools that recently welcomed new Afghan students and all schools interested in making trauma-informed changes to their school meal programs.

This professional development is free and available to all. To learn more:

  1. Click here to watch the video

  2. Click here to view the recommended practices for school communities

  3. Click here to view the resource document for more information

This video and supporting materials are based on a full-day training that Sheila Humphreys developed with Vermont-based trauma-informed specialist Joelle Van Lent in the summer of 2019.

In addition, last month, Sheila led her first in-person Trauma and Nutrition Training for educators since the start of the pandemic. She presented to approximately 20 staff members at Winston Prouty’s Early Learning Center. “It felt great to connect with educators in person, get a sense of how the material was landing with people in real-time, and see their whole faces!” says Sheila. And the training was well received by the staff.

“I thought the training was great,” said Katrin Morgan, Child Care Referral and Food Program Specialist at Winston Prouty. “I think that the material was presented thoughtfully. And I appreciated that you shared at the beginning that there could be topics that could be triggering to some people and gave permission to step away or whatever to take care of themselves if needed. I think that this field we are in attracts compassionate and passionate people, and the fact that some people were tearing up and crying and continued to stay in the training showed that you created a safe space for such a hard topic to present.”

Want to know more about these powerful trainings offered by Food Connects? Click here to dig deeper.

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Welcoming our New Afghan Neighbors with Culturally Relevant Foods

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By Farm to School Coach, Sheila Humphreys

My grandmother taught me that a thoughtful way to welcome new neighbors into the community is to bake them a pie and deliver it to their front door with a warm smile. Here in Brattleboro, our schools and community are in the process of welcoming approximately 100 new neighbors from Afghanistan. That’s a lot of pies!

In Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) schools, Food Service Director Ali West and her staff welcomed Afghan students through her Where in the World are We Eating program. These special meals often take more work for the food service team, so our Marketing & Outreach Manager, Laura, joined the team to help peel potatoes and prepare the meal for the following day.

On a windy, cold Thursday in February, several Food Connects staff joined Ali and Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) students for lunch to enjoy these delicious new flavors together. On the menu that day for the “Welcome Home Afghan Allies” meal was Borani Banjan (fried eggplant with tomatoes, mint, and garlic yogurt), Bolani (Flatbread stuffed with potato, onion, and peppers), Beef Kafta Kebab, and Lavash. The mix of flavors and spices was outstanding! Here’s what a couple of the students had to say about the meal:

“I like it. I like the naan and the meat has good flavor and seasoning. And the yogurt is good in flavor and texture.”
— Cyrus Smith, 10th grade
“Oftentimes the cultural food is a lot better than the other food.”
— Nash Miller, 10th grade

WSESD’s Nutrition program is not the only way the Brattleboro community is welcoming our new neighbors with nourishing food. The Brattleboro Multicultural Community Center-Ethiopian Community Development Council (MCC) is leading the effort to welcome our Afghan neighbors in many ways, including multiple opportunities each week for community members to provide a fresh main dish for lunch daily through a Meal Train site. Volunteers are encouraged to use a collection of Afghan recipes linked on the site, and feedback from our neighbors so far has been that our locally made versions of their traditional recipes are “somewhat bland.” Therefore cooks are encouraged to “be generous with spices, herbs, salt, and oil in the recipes.” Our neighbors say, “We especially want spicy food when we feel sad.” My coworker Beth and I made a meal a few weeks ago, and my kitchen smelled deliciously spicy afterward, those spices perhaps offering a tiny bit of healing to our new neighbors who have been through so much.

In addition, school garden coordinators at WSESD schools, in collaboration with Food Connects and Wild Carrot Farm, are planning to grow two culturally relevant crops in school gardens this season, gandana and nigella, and Kathy Cassin, the Garden Coordinator at Academy School, is featuring some Afghan dishes in her cooking projects with students. The Brattleboro Community and Food Connects family are so happy to play a small part in helping our new neighbors feel welcome, and we look forward to continuing to support and learn from them as they integrate into our area.

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The Brattleboro Food Co-op: An Outstanding Community Partnership

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When Food Connects reflects on some of our partnerships throughout the community, one business stands out as one of our top supporters—the Brattleboro Food Co-op (BFC).

A monolith in Brattleboro, BFC has served the community since 1975 by providing high-quality locally sourced, organic, and nutritious foods. Food Connects is fortunate to have BFC as one of our top wholesale customers—purchasing our source-identified New England foods to share with the greater community. And with over 8,000 active members, that means more local food is getting into homes across the county.

Not only is the Co-op a major partner to our Food Hub, but they are also a huge supporter of our Farm to School (FTS) program. Last August, they chose our FTS program as one of their Round Up For Change recipients. Because of the generosity of the Brattleboro Food Co-op and its patrons, Food Connects raised over $7,000! These funds went directly to our programming for the 2021-2022 school year, including coaching for Brattleboro schools and professional development for teachers and garden coordinators.

However, the Brattleboro Food Co-op’s generosity doesn’t end with Food Connects. Between December 2020 and December 2021, the Co-op raised over $84,500 through their Round Up program that they distributed to 13 different non-profits. This year, each month is shared between two different organizations to share the wealth among different causes and organizations. This month’s recipients are Brattleboro Time Trade and our partners at Edible Brattleboro. So, next time you are shopping at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, ask to Round Up your change at the register!

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Oak Grove’s Pre-K Students Eat Up Their Local Veggies!

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The youngest Oak Grove School community members recently completed a delicious in-depth study of local foods, gardening, and cooking! Oak Grove School’s Pre-K program was one of the 2021 Early Childhood Education CSA grant recipients through the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. In its first year, this grant subsidizes 80% of the cost of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm share at the Vermont farm of your choice. Oak Grove’s Pre-K chose to work with Full Plate Farm in Dummerston, VT.

13 lucky 4 to 5-year-old students got to enjoy many locally grown treats this year, including radishes, kale, beets, scallions, brussels sprouts, and winter squash. It was their first time trying some of these new flavors for many students. Pre-K staff Jen Tourville and Jamie Champney and garden coordinator Tara Gordon found creative ways to inspire the students to try new things. Adding mystery to the tasting lessons was one successful approach—from the five senses mystery box to mystery smoothies, student curiosity was encouraged. 

Each week, Jen and Tara put a different produce item into the five senses mystery box—an oatmeal container with a sock sleeve attached by a rubber band. They invited the students to put their hand in and feel the item and describe it with words, strengthening their language skills while also piquing their curiosity.

Recently, Jamie made a mystery smoothie for the class with bananas, frozen berries, yogurt, and a mystery ingredient (spinach). “Some students had never been willing to taste a smoothie before because they were already convinced that they wouldn’t like it,” Jamie said. “Adding mystery to the activity made all students curious enough to try it, and big surprise—they all liked it!” After they had tasted the smoothie and made guesses about the secret ingredient, Jamie revealed the spinach to her surprised students.

Produce that arrived weekly in the CSA share helped students make a connection to their school garden, where many of the same plants were growing. Tara regularly took students to the garden to harvest produce, and they combined their school garden-grown produce with produce from Full Plate Farm to cook some delicious recipes. The class cooked twice a week throughout the season, which was new and wonderful! Here are several of the most popular things they made:

  • Fresh vegetable spring rolls

  • Many soups, including stone soup and root vegetable soup

  • Sweet and salty radishes

  • Coleslaw

Jamie shared that often the students’ first response to the idea of new food was, “Yuck, I don’t like this!” but she discovered that when they cut the veggies into fun shapes or tried adding interesting flavors, for example, agave syrup to change the flavor of the radishes, students were pleasantly surprised to learn that in fact, they did like that food after all! For the more reluctant students, Tara introduced a five senses taste test, where the students closed their eyes and sometimes even plugged their noses when trying new food to focus on the texture of the food in their mouths.

The entire Oak Grove community benefitted from this in-depth study of local food and cooking by the Pre-K in several ways:

  • Food cooked by the Pre-K was often shared with school staff as a special meal. The staff got to enjoy several different soups and a root vegetable casserole prepared by the students and their teachers.

  • Bags of extra fresh produce were sent home regularly for students to share with their families. The produce came with a small sample of the meal that the students had made in school and the recipe, and families were encouraged to try the same recipe at home.

  • Extra produce was also shared with other classrooms in the school. For example, Erek Tuma’s 4th-grade class benefitted from pre-K’s abundance of kale for their kale Harvest of the Month taste test.

The classroom curriculum connections were particularly rich, linking cooking, gardening, and produce exploration with science and literacy. A visit from Ragan Anderson supported the program, nutrition educator from the Brattleboro Food Co-op, who came into the classroom, read stories with the students, and did a cooking project featuring butternut squash.

Jamie is already thinking about what she will do differently next season to improve the program. Some of her goals are:

  • Increase family feedback and family engagement. For example, send home every recipe with ingredients and invite families into school to participate in cooking and harvesting.

  • Build more community throughout the school. For example, have cooking buddies from other classes and cook for other classes.

  • Cook something once a week for staff.

Overall, this program was a huge success! As a result, the students are very excited about the school garden, and they look forward to cooking and gardening as a regular part of their weekly routine. Support from garden coordinator Tara Gordon was a key component to the success of this program, allowing students to spend time in the garden every week and engage in cooking activities throughout the whole season.

Junior Iron Chef Debuts at Bellows Falls Union High School

By Farm to School Coach Jenny Kessler

One of the best meals I’ve had since moving to Vermont two years ago was served to me late on a Monday afternoon by a 16-year-old in an industrial kitchen at a local high school. Why, oh why have I never eaten mushroom katsu before? I posed this question to my partner, a professional chef, as soon as I got home. (He also agreed this dish, sweet potato curry with mushroom katsu, served over coconut rice, was one of the best he’d had in Vermont). 

I attended a weekly meeting of the Bellows Falls Union High School (BFUHS) Jr Iron Chef Team, where they were practicing for their competition debut on March 12 (UPDATE: the event was delayed due to weather).  

Jr Iron Chef began in Vermont in 2008 and has grown into a hugely popular event, with over 5,000 students participating in the past few years. Jake Gallogly, the Nutrition Assistant at BFUHS, is a Jr Iron Chef veteran, having coached a Twin Valley Team to a Crowd Pleaser Award in 2016. He thought starting a team at the high school level would be an excellent opportunity for the students in the Foods Class to expand their knowledge and experience. 

Senior Kevin Patterson and junior Joey Jacques have met eight times since Jake started the team.  Both students had significant experience cooking with their families at home, and both also mentioned the techniques they had learned under Jakes's guidance. Joey shared, “I 100% learned new techniques and vocabulary here. Julienne, mince, mise en place. Learning how to do things correctly is a big thing here.” 

Watching them in the kitchen, you can easily see the professional training in action. Kevin meticulously cleans every surface on which he works. He’s also precise and measured in all his cuts and preparation. Moving through the kitchen, it’s become second nature to give the “behind,” “coming through,” and “in-between” vocal markers so the young chefs avoid any unnecessary bumps and spills. And both Joey and Kevin have also seemed to embrace the idea that chefs don’t rely on perfect measurements. Kevin added “a splash” of sesame oil to the marinade; they seasoned everything “to taste” (and without any measuring spoons). As the dish was nearing completion, Jake reminded them, “Think about salt. Think about flavor. See what it needs.”

Jr Iron Chef VT has some stringent rules around recipe development. Dishes must be vegetarian, nut-free, and feature 3 to 5 ingredients from Vermont. They developed the recipe together and with some trial and error. Both Kevin and Joey admit that while the dish is new to them, they find it quite delicious. And it gets better every time they make it!

Stay tuned next month for an update on how the team fared in the (still to be rescheduled) competition.