What is the Somerville Farm to School Project?

In December 2013, Somerville Public Schools received a $45,000 Farm to School Planning grant from the USDA. This one year grant provides funding to develop a long-term district-wide strategy that supports local sourcing and helps expand current farm to school efforts. The overarching, long-term goal is for SPS students to eat healthy meals ALL DAY LONG – before, during and after school-time.

Seedlings from the Winter Hill Seedling Farm

For the Farm to School Project to be a continued success it depends on connections among three areas: cafeteria, classroom, and community. The SPS Food and Nutrition Services Department is working very hard to source local, fresh ingredients whenever possible. Classroom teachers are creating linkages between food in the cafeteria, school gardens, and the curriculum. The third piece is community, which include parents and community organizations that serve the SPS families.

Ladybug enjoying a snack of aphids on an eggplant leaf

Our partners include Groundwork Somerville, Mass Farm to School, Shape Up Somerville, Somerville Community Schools, Somerville Family Learning Collaborative, and UMass Extension. Other project collaborators include "E" Inc. and Project Bread.

Strawberry spinach salad taste test

Over the past 6 months we, along with our partners, have held taste tests, engaged parents and community members in meetings and activities, held planning team meetings, planted school gardens with students, hosted professional development days for teachers and other staff, and many more things. Look for upcoming blog posts that highlight these activities and more!

Seeding squash at the Kennedy School Planting Party

For the full press release click here. For more information about the Somerville Farm to School Project please email Karyn Novakowski, Farm to School Project Director knovakowski@k12.somerville.ma.us.

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Mindful Eating: Part 1

In order to digest your food properly, your body must be in parasympathetic mode, or in a state of non-stress. Kindergartners know this. Well, they might not know the scientific term yet, but during lunch they participate in 6 minutes of silence; a period they call "Mindful Eating". When asked why they like mindful eating, the children replied, because "it’s quiet”, “I can enjoy my food better”, “I get peace and quiet”, and "it’s calmly”. Kindergartener teacher Ms. Scrima, and other Kennedy School teachers have been implementing mindfulness in the cafeteria and their classrooms since last year. They are proud to have a lunch period that looks and sounds quite different from the chaotic cafeteria rush other classes often experience. While the students sit silently at the lunch table checking in with their emotions, their digestive systems are also benefitting. Physiologically, only when our bodies are in rest mode can the brain trigger the release of digestive ...

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP)

Students at Argenziano, East Somerville Community School and Winter Hill Community Innovation School tasted ripe, fresh picked strawberries, organic oranges, crunchy celery as well as many other fresh fruits and vegetables this school year as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). All students at the three schools were offered a fresh fruit or vegetable as a midmorning snack Monday through Friday. Students gushed with enthusiasm about the program and voraciously consumed the fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis! We are excited to announce that the FFVP will be continued at Argenziano, ESCS and WHCIS during the 2014-2015 school year! The goals of the FFVP are to establish lifelong healthy eating habits and to fight childhood obesity since it promotes healthy eating habits among students by introducing a variety of produce on a regular basis, giving students an opportunity to try fruit...

Argenziano After-School Art Club Creates Mosaics for School Garden

In Ms. Diana Taremi’s Art Club it’s all about line, form, color and composition. More than a dozen middle school students started on several projects on Monday afternoons; creating art both for themselves and making projects to beautify the school. Their first assignment: Georgia O’Keefe-style painting on large canvases for the first floor hallway. The bright, lush flower canvasses are still works in progress. The students are also creating flower tile mosaics that will be set in cement and used as stepping stones in the school’s kitchen garden. Ms.Emily Bhargava, a mosaic artist from Somerville, donated her time and bags and boxes of materials; tiles from large to small to the art club for the project. On a recent afternoon, Ms. Bhargava spent an afternoon at Art Club teaching Ms. Taremi and the students how to assemble the mosaics. First the students painted large pictures of flowers. They covered these with plastic wrap to protect them; then layered mesh on...

Somerville Farm to School Project

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