Summit addresses agriculture in school

On Tuesday, Apr. 5, Middlebury Union High School hosted the second annual Stone Soup summit, which brought together Addison County’s thriving Farm to School (F2S) programs. The event was sponsored by the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACoRN).

Teachers, farmers, students and community members met in working groups to discuss the Farm to School curriculum, as well as school gardens and composting. The aim of the summit was to “unite education, food, farming and communities in Addison County” by bringing together groups with similar goals. In the different sessions, presenters from various schools in the county spoke about their experience and success with strengthening relationships between farms, gardens and schools.

Barbara Yerrick, a second grade teacher at Monkton Central School, spoke about her implementation of a school garden at the “F2S in the Elementary School Curriculum” working group discussion. Yerrick started the Monkton garden by herself, after applying for multiple grants. A teacher of colonial life and natural science, she said that the garden allowed for seamless integration into the classroom curriculum. This lent itself to lessons on colonists’ farming methods and diets, as well as the science behind plant life cycles. Her dream for next year is to create a true colonial garden.

Justin May, a second grade teacher at Lincoln Community School, focused on teaching three core values to his students: sustainability, interdependence and justice. By bringing his classes to farmer’s markets, orchards and local farms, he believes that the students learn “what it really means to be local” and to “develop their own understanding through creating and communicating with others.”

He especially stressed the importance of the relationship between the school and the local farmers, and many of the presenters agreed that this was an essential element for any successful F2S program.

“The only way to build a strong Farm-to-School program is to integrate the community,” said Diane Benware, the founder of the garden at Salisbury Community School.

At Salisbury, Benware created a coalition with 10 local farms and facilitated field trips with her classes to the farms. The farmers visited their garden in return. She also worked with the dining staff at the school to allow for students to “taste test” different foods, so they could compare the quality of local foods, help choose their lunch menus and reduce the amount of food waste.

This idea was shared by a number of schools in central Addison County. Each encouraged dining service employees to attend the discussion about school gardens. Many teachers also stressed that the primary goal of the school gardens was educational rather than a financially productive incentive.

A number of the College’s organic farm members attended the conference, as they hope to build a formal coalition between the College and several of the local elementary, middle and high schools. Many schools from Northern Addison County expressed interest in the idea, and the College students are currently working with Mt. Abraham High School’s garden.