Somerville Farm to School Project

It's been a weather roller coaster this year! We've had hot days then cold days, rainy then dry--all proving a challenge for our plantings. Even so, over the past couple of weeks many of the schools were able to harvest and eat fresh veggies right from their gardens!  Groundwork Somerville hosted "Salad Days" at Argenziano and East, while parent volunteers at Brown hosted an end of the year Harvest Party with a variety of leafy greens! Meanwhile, the Farm to School Project worked with elementary schoolers at Brown, Winter Hill, and Kennedy School to start their gardens. 5th Graders at Kennedy learned how to use basic permaculture principals to plan a garden, and explored ways we can improve and replenish soil. 2nd graders became experts in cherry tomato varieties thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  who generously donated over 75 different seeds!! 1st graders continued their study of "Sylvia's Spinach" by learning how to plant spinach seeds, ...

Who likes Fish & Chips?   That's the question we posed to students at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School this past Wednesday.  Technically, we were wondering if they liked Baked Sole with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. It turns out that many of the students LOVED the fish and chips!  Over fifty percent of the students tried it. As they tried it, we gave them stickers to reward their bravery of trying a new food! They were also asked if they liked the fish and would eat it again. Eighty-one percent of the students surveyed would eat the fish again!   They also enjoyed sweet potatoes (not local), apples (sourced regionally from New York) and strawberries (sourced locally from Natick, MA). This special lunch was a Local Harvest Day pilot at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School. It marks the first time that Sea to School was a focus of school lunch here in Somerville. We hope to expand this program into other scho...

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...

Tis the season for putting gardens to bed and planting garlic! School gardens around Somerville are planning fall garden clean-up days. Some schools are also planting garlic this month.   A second grade class at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School helped to plant 20 cloves of garlic. That means, when we harvest the garlic, we will have 20 bulbs of garlic!     We prepped the beds by removing all of the plants and large pieces of debris. Then we raked the soil to loosen it up. We wanted to make it easy for the students to plant the garlic, so we dug 3 trenches for them to plant their cloves.   Trenches for garlic Cloves planted 6" apart Carefully placing their garlic in the soil Watching other plant their garlic After planting the garlic, we took a peek at what was still growing in the rest of the garden. Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, zinnias and chard are still hanging on! We even found a lethargic bee resting on a p...

We are still celebrating Food Day and National Farm to School Month! Today we held an apple taste test at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School. Students tried the ubiquitous Gala apple alongside the rare Macoun variety. Students took varied approaches to choosing their favorites. Some chomped on small bites of each apple and thought carefully about their selection. For some it was a tough decision. "Both of them are amazing," said 6th grader Luiz. Other students knew their favorites immediately, yelling out "Definitely this one!" pointing to the Gala. Principal Chad Mazza let his favorite be known by voting for the Macoun. Vote for your favorite! It was a very tight race, but in the end the Gala inched out the Macoun for the win! It was clear that the students enjoyed tasting both apples. As a 3rd grader named Luis told us, "These apples are soooo yummy!!" Content provided by Karyn Novakowski, Somerville Farm to School Proj...

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...

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...