Seed to Spork: The Issue of School Lunches

This week I must be perched atop a soap box on behalf of Madison Family Farms. Here's a great article that pretty simply outlines the problems in our school cafeterias:

State of the Union's School Lunch

When I lived in Virginia and worked for Appalachian Sustainable Development's Learning Landscapes program, we exposed all the (K-5) children in Washington County to farming, nature and their environment. I say exposed because it certainly felt like an expose based on their jaw-dropping reactions to lessons on pizza ingredients (yes, cheese comes from milk, which comes from a cow, not the back of the grocery). While incorporating all of their State Standards of Learning (math, science, history, writing, etc.), we led the children in planting various gardens on school property which they inevitably harvested, cooked and ate from. I'll never forget the spring day when we harvested all the ingredients from the Salad Garden with our 5th graders.

The kids processed ingredients for homemade salad dressings, herbed butter, and the salad. They were ecstatic! But when it came time to take salad to eat for lunch, many students passed on the green and purple lettuce for their school lunch. What was on their trays that day? One bean burrito, heated in its sealed plastic wrap, one scoop of baked beans and a bag of chips.

It's the battle of finances vs. nutrition in what is, right now, a zero sum game. While we're waiting for a declared winner, I'm going to thank our Madison County Child Nutritionist for make the financially-sound decision to buy local produce from Madison Family Farms.

A Madison County student helps serve samples of
local apples for a school-wide taste test
(Pink Lady and Golden Delicious were a close tie for 1st).