Somerville Farm to School Project

Sometimes you need a little Farm to School inspiration from around web! So take a break from your busy day and enjoy these interesting articles, videos or photos! We are loving this blog post about cooking with kids from Liz Neumark of Great Performances . Our favorite tip: "get messy, make mistakes" While this is technically a line of Miss Frizzle's from the Magic School Bus, Liz goes on to remind us that "Cooking is following recipes but it is also about creativity. Try new combinations, new ingredients. The more you experiment, the better and more confident you will be." David W. Orr from the Center for Ecoliteracy advises that "The classroom is the ecology of the surrounding community, not the confining four walls of the traditional school...[Where] they discover what Rachel Carson once called the 'sense of wonder' . " In this Boston Globe article ,Tony Geraci (aka Cafeteria Man ) describes his fight for healthier school foo

Some of our partners were recently featured in the news for all of their amazing Urban Agriculture work! Groundwork Somerville was featured on  Somerville Neighborhood News  in a piece on city kids becoming community farms. The City of Somerville was featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine . Click the link or the images to read the full article. The Somerville Farm to School Project is proud to be working with both of these amazing groups.

At the end of the school year, Lauren Mancini, Director of SPS Food and Nutrition services was asked to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year and examine the Food and Nutrition Service Department ’s  efforts to support the schools work in feeding students healthy meals each and every day.  "This review serves as a critical reminder that we have many achievements to celebrate, which in turn gives us the energy and momentum to keep moving forward," Lauren said. "In just a few minutes of reflection I tallied up several successes worthy of applause. " In September, we launched our Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program at 3 of our schools.   In October, we held our annual Corn Shucking & Food Service Staff Appreciation Day. During the winter months, we were awarded a Farm to School Grant through the USDA and we introduced our Farm to School Project Director, Karyn Novakowski. This has allowed us the opportunity to expand our farm to school efforts.  

The Somerville Public Schools Summer Reading Program has wonderful book recommendations for summer reading! Some books that focus on nature, gardens, plants, seasons and animals are The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss Seeds Grow! by Angela Shelf Medearis Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsberg Living Sunlight by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm To see the full list organized by grade and other tips for reading please click here . The SPS Farm to School Project recommends a few other good reads: Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor Right Where You Are Now by Lisa Montierth The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Chicks And Chickens by Gail Gibbons Eating The Alphabet by Lois Ehlert Planting A Rainbow by Lois Ehlert Blueberry Shoe by Ann Dixon and Evon Zerbetz Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown Seed, Soil, Sun by Cris Peterson What is your favorite book about nature?

At the beginning of June, two adventurous teachers, Charlene O’Neill and Fran Carino, welcomed Groundwork Somerville staff, Sadie Richards and Andrea Tentner, into their 4 th grade science classrooms at Winter Hill Community School.    The classes test drove a 3 day pilot Farm to School Curriculum called “Growing Skills in the Garden”.   The lessons are meant to turn the garden into an exciting classroom for learning 4 th grade core curriculum skills; students used multiplication, fractions, and other math skills to solve real world math problems, read books and articles to find information, used and made maps, and more.   At the same time, students got out into the garden, learned about what it takes to grow food, where their food comes from, and why you might want to grow your own food. This curriculum was developed by Andrea Tentner while working at Groundwork Somerville, and was funded by the SPS Farm to School Project USDA Planning Grant. Andrea Tentner explain the lesson t

Love this quote from Anupama Joshi, National Farm to School Network Executive Director: We don’t expect children to master riding a bike without a little practice and training.  Nor do we expect them to succeed in calculus without first learning algebra. Why, then, are children expected to immediately like new foods without a little instruction or practice? Research says kids need to try new foods anywhere from 7 to 15 times before they acquire a taste for them. Farm to school activities serve as the “training wheels” that introduce children to new food options, setting them up for a lifelong ride of healthy eating. Read the full post on the their website .

Garden Facts Size: 128 square feet (3 beds in the upper tot lot, 2 beds in the lower tot lot) Best thing about the garden: It's visible from the street and tot lots Plants: vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, chard, lettuce, zucchini, squash, cucumbers), herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, thyme, parsley), flowers (zinnias, nasturtiums) Maintenance: Karyn Novakowski, Farm to School Project Director and Lauren Mancini, SPS FNS Director How is the garden used: outdoor classroom for students from the Winter Hill School, "E" inc afterschool program, lunch time open garden hours The Winter Hill School Garden has had a very busy spring and summer. The school's principal, Chad Mazza, is enthusiastic about the newly planted school garden and believes it "engages all the senses" while "increasing student knowledge of agriculture, seasonality and eating whole foods through hands-on experiences." A planting party early in the spring, kicked off

The Somerville Family Learning Collaborative (SFLC) held a hands-on, multilingual, learning opportunity for parents and children at all elementary schools across the city. The focus of the program was Raising a Reader! And all of the activities focused on food - trying new foods, shopping for food, and, of course, reading about food!       Fresh farm-grown blueberries and strawberries were part of a tasting activity that led to participants graphing their preferences, creating a visual math activity.       Parents took home a Scavenger Hunt activity to bring to the grocery store to help children identify fruits and vegetables of different colors.       Books about growing, cooking and eating food were on display for children and families to look through.        SFLC staff handed out blank books entitled “My Favorite Foods” for children to write and draw in.       These pop-up events were a wonderful way for parents and children to