The Community Alliance With Family Farmers and the Center for Food and Justice in Los Angeles sponsored an all-day Farm To School conference on May 24 at the Sonoma County Office of Education.
Farm To School programs are springing up all over the US. Locally, the Marin Food Systems Project and Marin Organic are leading one such effort. These programs help to increase student lunch participation, increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, decrease food waste, and expose children to agricultural products grown by local farmers in their region and in their own school gardens.
The Farm To School effort looks to integrate garden-based curriculum into the schools through student-run school gardens, visits to local farms, classroom visits from farmers, culinary arts programs, and more. The local effort links schools and farms in Marin, Sonoma, Lake, Napa, and Mendocino counties.
Called Homegrown Kids: Building Farm To School Partnerships in the North Coast, the conference was attended by 120 farmers, food service directors, school administrators, students, and community organizations. Conference speakers included Dr. Carl Wong, Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools, who introduced Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools, food service directors from Novato/San Rafael, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa City schools, Dan Benedetti, president of Clover Stornetta Dairy, chef Jesse Cool, who delivered the keynote, students from Vintage High School in Napa, and farmers Sally Carstensen, Torrey Olson and David Retsky. A delicious salad bar lunch, using fresh, local ingredients, was prepared by culinary arts students from Casa Grande High School in Petaluma.
For more information on how you can get involved - as a farmer, parent, educator, or concerned citizen - in feeding our kids healthy, nutritious, homegrown food, call coordinator and Two Rock Valley farmer Deborah Walton at 707-766-7171.
- Deborah Walton
