October Food Holidays

On the heels of Food Literacy Month, comes National Farm to School Month, Mass Harvest for Students Week, and Food Day (October 24). So many food holidays!

Check out these posts about Food Literacy Month and how we celebrated.

For more on our National Farm to School Month, Mass Harvest for Students Week, and Food Day celebrations keep reading!

CORN SHUCKING
On Thursday, October 2 we will be hosting a Corn Shucking Event at every Somerville Public School. Parents and students are invited to shuck a few ears of corn during morning drop off. The corn will be served, later that same day, to all students who receive the school lunch.

Volunteers from Groundwork Somerville, UMass Extension, Shape Up Somerville, and Somerville Public Schools will be generously donating their time to help with the success of this event.

A TALE OF TWO APPLES
For seven consecutive Mondays, beginning on October 20, we will be hosting a lunch time apple taste test at the Somerville Elementary and Middle Schools. We are calling it: A Tale of Two Apples! Students will taste and vote for their favorite apple.

LOCAL FOOD DURING LUNCH
On October 24, in celebration of Food Day, we will be serving a lunch featuring local vegetables!

Additional events are being planned. Check back in with us throughout the month of October!

Content provided by Charlotte Stephenson, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant Coordinator and Karyn Novakowski, Farm to School Project Director.

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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

Put your best FORK forward during National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month! Each year the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics develops new topics to celebrate National Nutrition Month. This year's theme, Put your best fork forward, encourages us to consider that every bite counts. Even "small shifts in our food choices, can add up over time." Here in Somerville we are celebrating National Nutrition Month in a few ways. ~ We are releasing Veggie of the Month kits in each school's library! The kits contain books, taste testing supplies, and a binder with lesson materials for each month! ~ We are visiting a few PreK-2nd grade classes to "taste-test" the veggie of the month: leafy greens! In the classroom, we are reading Sylvia's Spinach and making a simple salad dressing to drizzle over spinach! (Be sure to check back later for the results of our visits!) ~ Our Wellness Champions and Farm to School Staff are posting bulletin boards and fliers around the schools!

How do we get kids to eat their leafy greens? Try these 2 recipes...

For this year's National Nutrition Month, we are "Going Further with Food!" It's an assumption that getting our kids to eat their leafy greens is always a colossal battle. It's true--salads aren't easy to convince a kid to try when they're staring at something that resembles rabbit food. But by assuming they won't try it means you've already given up, and that's not what we're about here at the Somerville Farm to School Project! So how do we make salads desirable? For one, we can provide a space for children to grow their own food, to learn the parts of a plant, and to nurture something from seed to harvest. We've learned that, "if they grow it, they'll eat it". It's empowering to be hands-on with food! Even if you don't have outdoor garden space, leafy greens are easy to grow indoors or in small pots as long as you have a sunny window or space. Secondly, you can involve kids in the kitchen by making fun salad

Somerville Farm to School Project

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