Somerville Farm to School Project

"They have learned so much!" That's what one of the Transition to Kindergarten teachers said to me as I left her classroom for the last time. I had been visiting 6 different classrooms once a week for the past four weeks to teach the students about the plant parts we eat and what plants need to grow. Another teacher quipped, "I didn't know which plant parts I was eating until I went to college. It's great that they are learning about it now." That was our goal: to get students thinking about where food comes from and to get teachers thinking about how to incorporate food literacy into their lessons. Our first day started with Sunbutter and seed collections. Chef Guy Koppe from Project Bread led the kids in preparing Sunbutter, using this recipe. The students watch toasted sunflower seeds transform into creamy Sunbutter right before their eyes.    Preparing and tasting sunbutter   After reading Seeds, seeds, seeds! by Nancy Elizabeth Wal...

On January 13, 2015 Mass Farm to School Project held a regional conference in Worcester, MA. Attending the conference were food service directors, educators, policy makers, public health advocates and farm to school enthusiasts. Three inspiring keynote speakers kicked off the conference: Ruby Maddox, Assistant Director for the Miller Worley Center for the Environment at Mt. Holyoke College, Melissa Honeywood, Food Service Director Cambridge Public Schools , and Niaz Dorry, Coordinating Director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance . Each speaker, offering her unique perspective, reminded us of three basic, but indispensable truths. 1. Farm to school (and sea to school) programs rely on connections and relationships. Collaborations among teachers, food service directors, farmers, fisherman, and the larger community are vital to successful farm to school programs. No one person can create a farm to school program. We need support from three...

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...

On Thursday, October 23, the Somerville Food Security Coalition hosted Come to the Table—an exciting Food Day event at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School.   More than 150 kids and adults gathered for an evening of food and fun that included a raffle, fun activities, dinner provided by the Tufts Food Rescue , and a wealth of information about food security resources in Somerville. Enjoying a yummy dinner!   Activities for all ages were ample! SomerVIVA tested guests’ palates with a side-by-side taste test of bottled and tap water. To the surprise of many, the tap water was the clear favorite! Tap water taste test Attendees also marked their favorite grocery stores and markets on a map of Somerville, creating a unique view of food in the city. Our youngest guests enjoyed a coloring station that stressed the importance of eating plenty of fruits and veggies. Dot survey There were food samples, too! Community Cooks handed out tastes of their yu...

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...

For two weeks in July, Chef Guy Koppe from Project Bread , visited two Somerville Schools as part of the Healthy Summer Harvest Program. This collaborative program among Project Bread , Mass Farm to School and the Somerville Farm to School Project focused on eating different plant parts. Did you know that broccoli is a flower and asparagus is a stem?   Now you do and so do 94 students from the Somerville Public Schools! Guy Koppe demonstrating knife skills Each lesson built on topics from the previous day. Some had the students identifying plant parts or discussing Lois Elhert’s Growing Vegetable Soup. One day they even planted cucumber seeds to take home with them. They also learned about MyPlate and make sure they are eating foods from each of the food groups.   Identifying parts of the plant and what plants need to grow   Each cup holds a single cucumber seed for the students to take home.   Each day’s lesson and recipe highlighted a diff...

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. Over the cours...

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 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 e...

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.     ...