Adirondack Farm to School Initiative

The Adirondack Farm to School Initiative is a movement to help connect schools with local farms to encourage healthy eating and to help build community. Their mission statement states, “The goal of this initiative is to enrich children’s bodies and minds while supporting local economies, bringing local food into school cafeterias and creating hands-on learning activities such as school gardens, farm visits, culinary classes, and the integration of food-related education into the regular classroom curriculum.” Food is central to our lives, so a program that creates a community surrounding food has the potential to have powerful results. This initiative helps to encourage healthy eating, while supporting local farmers in the Adirondacks, thus helping to address two issues at the same time. Farm to School consists of three main components: healthier lunches sourced through local food, classroom curriculum, and community garden. 

A Poster at Lake Placid High School Advertising the Farm to School Program
(http://lpfarmtoschool.webs.com)

The curriculum component has been researched extensively and ties in with the New York State and Next Generation standards for science. There are separate plans for elementary, middle, and high schools students to ensure that the material is presented in an interesting way that is accessible to the age group. This is important to make sure that students are engaged with the information so that they take it away from the classroom and apply it in their lives. 

Students are given an opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom in their school’s community garden. Not only do community gardens grow delicious fresh fruits and vegetables, but they also grow relationships within schools and towns. Additionally, these gardens give students the opportunity to have the satisfaction of growing their own food, as well as learning where their food comes from. This interaction with food from start to finish can help to create mindful eating habits as students realize that food does not simply come off the shelf in a grocery store, but that each piece of produce has a story behind it. 

The final component is to implement the practices that are being promoted by the program in the school’s own cafeteria and partner with local farms to offer healthy school lunches. Not only will this benefit the school’s students through improved nutrition which will give them more brainpower throughout the day, but it also helps the local economy. When local farms thrive and make connections within their communities, everyone benefits. 

Aside from these three main components, the initiative also supports other experiences including field trips to local farms, community events such as harvests and suppers, and climate change events. The Adirondack Farm to School Initiative works hard to include as many members of the community as possible to learn about their work in the schools and with the farms. As more people get involved, it only benefits the local community more, as people are all working together to support each other and make healthy, local choices when it comes to food.

I really admire the work that the Adirondack Farm Initiative is doing. Despite living near farms, children in rural areas often lack the nutrition they need to grow and thrive. The Adirondack Farm Initiative is a great program working to combat this issue. I hope to see it replicated in other farming communities outside of the Adirondacks to continue to promote the local food movement in schools across the country.

Works Cited

http://www.adkfarmtoschool.com