The synopsis of our Farm to School programming below is meant to give a food service director or educator a holistic overview of what a multifaceted, successful Farm to School program could look like. While it is not intended as a how-to, we hope that it inspires you to look at your own community and resources to create a program that works for you.
The success of our Farm to School program did not happen overnight. Common Ground Farm has been partnering with the Beacon City School District and other community organizations to develop recipes and curriculum for over nine years. Farm to School is not simply bringing more fresh vegetables into cafeterias. A successful Farm to School program needs the support of the food service director and faculty, a food service staff with the skills and knowledge to execute plant-forward recipes, relationships with local farmers, and students hungry for nutritious food. Without a cohesive Farm to School program many schools may find it difficult to transition their cafeterias to a more local, plant-forward menu mix that appeal to students’ tastes. Below are some of the many elements that together make up our Farm to School program.
Farm to School Collaborators Beacon is home to several wonderful nonprofits and organizations working at the intersection of education, food access and agriculture. Our partnerships and collaborations have evolved over the years to meet the needs of the community. Our partners include: Beacon City School District, Land to Learn, Green Teen Beacon, the Beacon Wellness Committee, Mutual Aid Beacon, and Fareground. We have also benefited from the expertise of the Cornel Cooperative Extension’s Farm to School Coordinator’s Working Group.
Food Services Director Karen Pagano has been the Food Services director at the Beacon City School District since 2012, and she has made it her mission to make the food served in Beacon tastier, healthier and more accessible. She has been an advocate for local and fresh food in the cafeterias and classrooms and has worked with Common Ground and other Farm to School partners to find innovative ways to improve students' access to healthy foods, their knowledge of the food system, and their overall health. Karen was able to do a site visit to Common Ground Farm in lieu of the farm getting GAP Certification so we could supply the schools with produce. She has also built her supply chain to include other NY vendors for produce, milk, and prepared foods.
Farm Visits There is an old adage in the farming community: a kid's willingness to eat a vegetable is directly correlated to the amount of soil on it. The dirtier the better. Common Ground Farm began welcoming students from local elementary schools for farm visits nine years ago. During field trips students learn from the farmers, walk the fields, discuss seasonality and specific topics relating to what was happening on the farm, harvest and taste a vegetable. Over the years these field trips often included cooking lessons with chef Sonya Key in the barn classroom where students would prepare a recipe using the produce they had just harvested.
Chef in the Classroom Chef in the Classroom is an opportunity for students, from pre-k through 5th grade, to cook together with a professional chef working in our local food system to explore seasonal vegetables. Chef Key teaches students basic culinary skills while they explore the Vegetable of the Month that is featured in the dish prepared together. At the start of each workshop, Chef Key asks the students if they like the featured vegetable. At the end of the workshop, she asks them the same question. On average, 55% of participating students like the vegetable before the workshop, and 78% like it after learning about it and preparing a dish together with their class!
Vegetable of the Month Common Ground Farm, Land to Learn, and the Beacon City School District’s Food Service Director collaborate on a year-long schedule for Vegetables of the Month. These vegetables reflect seasonal availability and are featured in classroom lessons, school lunches and, depending on seasonality, farm visits. During the Covid-19 Pandemic we were able to continue highlighting the Vegetable of the Month program through remote meals, printed recipes that were distributed to families, virtual cooking demonstrations, and taste tests.
Farmer in the Classroom Elementary students gain experience learning directly from our farmers about the work that they do and what farming life is like. These lessons correspond to the Vegetable of the Month and may include a raw vegetable taste-test, seed saving, seed starting, sensory learning, and more.
5th Grade Mural Project The Farm to School Mural Workshop is a unique program where 5th graders who have participated in Farm to School programming in their elementary years have an opportunity to share what they have learned with their school community in a cross-disciplinary workshop where they create murals for their school cafeterias. Participating students visit the farm with clipboards and pencils, sketching in the fields, in the barn, and in the classroom. They learn about public art, and its purpose in communicating with the public. 5th graders then brainstorm ideas, and democratically vote on a final design. They then learn how to create a collaged maquette, transfer their design onto tiles, and paint their mural! The finished work is installed in the cafeteria--helping school communities connect farms to schools in a unique and beautiful way!
The Backpack Program The BackPack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children on weekends when school breakfasts and lunches aren’t available. Working in partnership with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, the program provides bags filled with child-friendly foods that can be easily consumed. In the 2022-2023 school year, we are providing meals for 40 children in the Beacon City Schools. In addition to the nonperishable items provided by the Food Bank, Common Ground supplements the bags with fresh produce and fruit when in season. With support from our partners Fareground and Mutual Aid Beacon, we are able to bolster the provisions given to include milk, eggs, and dinner ingredients. Through the generous donations from individuals, local businesses and organizations such as The United Way, Beacon Elks Club, Hannaford Charitable Foundation and Stewart’s Shops, Common Ground has been able to meet the needs of children facing chronic hunger and food insecurity.
Farm to School Legal Toolkit In 2017 Common Ground became a client of the Pace University Law Food and Beverage clinic, where we worked together with law students and professors to research the regulatory and administrative framework for school produce sales. As a result of our work together with Pace University Law Food and Beverage Clinic, we are pleased to share the Farm to School Legal Toolkit, a legal guide for New York farmers. The Toolkit is a free legal guide created as a response to the lack of legal resources available to New York farmers interested in entering into farm to school arrangements. The Toolkit addresses relevant legal topics related to: insurance concerns for farmers in establishing a farm to school relationship, food safety regulations, compliance with federal, state and local procurement procedures, and available legal structures for engaging in farm to school arrangements.
USDA Farm to School Grant In 2019 Common Ground Farm was awarded a USDA grant to support our Farm to School programming and procurement. With these funds we were able to hire a part-time Farm to School Coordinator who supports the food service director’s local procurement program, provides outreach to the community, and bridges our Farm to School programs with others across the state. The grant funds were also used to purchase new kitchen equipment like immersion blenders and conduction burners, and to build a new school garden at Rombout Middle School.
School Gardens Land to Learn, another Beacon-based non-profit, has built school gardens at each of the district's elementary schools and provides classroom and garden education that dovetails with the Vegetable of the Month program. In 2019 Common Ground received a USDA grant that included funding for a school garden at Rombout Middle School, and in 2020 we were able build and plant the garden in an interior courtyard. The space also houses an outdoor classroom which was particularly useful during the warmer months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Food Service Equipment With the support of a USDA Farm to School Grant, we were able to purchase for the school district immersion blenders with whisk attachments, apple corers, and apple sectioners for each of the schools to support blender more smoothies and soups on the menu. In addition, we were able to provide the school district with three induction chafers and heat lamps for serving hot meals and for conducting taste tests for students and their families.
Professional Development Many schools employ food service staff who have no prior professional culinary experience. Training the food service staff so they know how to execute plant-forward, from-scratch recipes while adhering to nutritional, health and safety standards with limited cooking equipment can be challenging. Common Ground has collaborated with the Beacon City School District’s Food Services Director, Karen Pagano, to provide two professional development days where food service staff learn knife skills, team building, and recipe development.
Promoting School Meals Without guardians opting for the school lunch option (whether “free/reduced” or full cost), there would be no opportunity for cafeteria-based learning or local produce procurement. Farm to School programs need to educate their consumers, who, especially at the elementary school level, are parents and guardians. For the Beacon City School District, outreach has included family-themed events, newsletters, and clear messaging around what is served every day in the cafeterias. Food Services Director Karen Pagano has invested in technology that allows her to post her monthly menu mix with fun graphics and useful information on the school district website, so parents can see what’s available in the cafeteria every day. School meals have come a long way in the decades since most of us reading this were kids, but there is work to do to overcome the stigmatization for both parents and students.
Farm to school video Common Ground created an informative video in collaboration with the National Center for Appropriate Technology and Spinach World that offers information about our programmatic work during the pandemic.