Somerville Farm to School Project

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 to eat with  intention and attention :  Lessons from a Raisin What does it mean to eat mindfully? Last post we learned a bit about how relaxing before diving into a meal greatly improves digestion. Beyond physiological benefits, bringing mindfulness into your daily diet also enhances flavors and appreciation of what is on your plate. This can lead to less wasted nutrients, less over-eating, and even raised awareness of where the food came from and how it was prepared. To eat mindfully is to eat with intention and attention . I never thought I would enjoy a raisin. Not even a little. But during a mindfulness exercise in an Environmental Consumerism class in college, my sentiments changed. After staring at this thing for 5 minutes (which felt like eternity) and observing every thing about it: smelling it, holding it, bringing it to my lips, and finally tasting it…I actually started to feel guilty I had neglected raisins all this time. With a new-found apprecia...

The Somerville Family Learning Collaborative hosted their Childhood Literacy Fair on Saturday, November 20. This year the theme was healthy eating through literacy. A welcome area in the center of the room displayed unique, edible pumpkins. Pumpkins, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Staff from local preschools and organizations that focus on healthy living provided activities to Somerville families. Most activities centered around food based children's books. The Cambridge Health Alliance chose The Carrot Seed while Shape Up Somerville picked Planting a Rainbow. The Treehouse Academy featured Blueberries for Sal and the Community Action Agency of Somerville acted out Dragons love tacos. Children could watch worms turn healthy food scraps into compost at the Groundwork Somerville table and cook pretend food at the play kitchen provided by Cambridge Somerville Early Intervention.   The Somerville Farm to School Project conducted a par...

Have you seen this?   Where did it come from?     It’s a lime green MyPlate backpack and one may be lying around your house somewhere.   The backpacks were an incentive students received last year as part of the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program .   Nutrition educators from UMass Extension have been found in classrooms across the Somerville school district since 2007.   Rotating to schools throughout the school year, a nutrition educator visits each classroom once a week for 5 weeks, teaching students from kindergarten to eighth grade about the importance of eating healthy.   Does nutrition education make a difference?   Go ahead, ask your 4 th , 5 th , or 6 th grader to tell you the nutrient found in the grains group and how it helps your body.   They will likely raise their arms like they are driving a car and show the actions for the word ‘carbohydrate’ and shout ‘it gives you energy!’ (You can ask your 7 th or...

A few weeks ago in this post  we told you about a new holiday: FOOD LITERACY MONTH! We even gave a few suggestions for how to celebrate.  Well, we followed our own advice and did some of these local food activities. What we said: Read a book about food .   What we did: Not only did we read a book about food but we piloted an entire 5 week food and garden based science curriculum in the first grade classrooms at the Argenziano School! On the first day of the unit, students created a garden alphabet book, just like The Farmer's Alphabet and Eating the Alphabet . Content literacy, in action!   Students were assigned a letter of the alphabet and during a visit to the garden they drew pictures and wrote sentences using that letter as inspiration! The creativity was truly astounding. These "e"ggplant and "r"ed tomato pictures are just two of the amazing images these students created. We can't wait to show you "u"nderground r...

Did you know that September is food literacy month? This month long holiday might have started in California but there are plenty of events right here in Somerville for you to celebrate locally! Are you curious about where your food comes from? Have you ever visited a farm and met a farmer? Do you cook food at home? Are you interested in making more informed decisions about food? Then this holiday is for you. Here's a list of ideas to celebrate FOOD LITERACY MONTH! ~Read a book about food : " It's Not About the Broccoli: Three Habits to Teach Your Kids for a Lifetime of Healthy Eating" Image via Amazon.com    ~Visit a local orchard  to pick your own seasonal fruits! ~Every Saturday from 9am to 1pm, you can visit the Union Square Farmers' Market . ~Every Thursday and Saturday you can visit Shape Up Somerville's Mobile Farmers' Market . Thursday markets are held at the Council on Aging at the TAB Building (167 Holland St) 1-3pm and...