- Author: Katie (Cathryn) R Johnson
Through a Harvest of the Month seasonal produce initiative, the CalFresh Healthy Living-UC program, school staff, Barton Health, and parent volunteers promote food literacy in all four elementary schools in Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD). As part of LTUSD's Local School Wellness Policy, this farm-to-school initiative aims to increase K-5 student familiarity with healthy produce items and their nutritional value through monthly cafeteria produce tastings paired with nutrition education about featured produce, including videos, handouts, and gardening activities. After students get a taste of the featured produce, they are asked to vote on whether they like the featured fruit or vegetable, and the vote results are usually announced school-wide. During 19 cafeteria tasting events in 2018-2019, K-5 students sampled 4,461 tasting portions of 7 total items, including kiwis, radishes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, beets and snap peas. Across all tastings, 57.1% of votes were cast for “Liked It,” 19.4% for “Okay,” and 23.5% for “Not Today.” Also, a pre-post cafeteria food waste assessment of baby carrots served in two elementary schools found an average 40% reduction in carrot waste per student served after carrots were featured as Harvest of the Month. This information shows that many Lake Tahoe Unified School District students are happy to eat healthy fruits and vegetables when they're available in cafeterias.
- Author: Katie (Cathryn) R Johnson
- Author: Katie (Cathryn) R Johnson
- Author: Katie (Cathryn) R Johnson
- Author: Miranda Capriotti
- Author: Katie (Cathryn) R Johnson
By Miranda Capriotti and Katie Johnson
SUMMARY
During the 2018–2019 school year, UCCE CalFresh Healthy Living Nutrition Educators and El Dorado County farms partnered to bring local produce to Harvest of the Month tastings with kindergarten through 5th grade students at Camino Elementary School. For seven months, 290 students participated in 30-minute lessons and tastings about an in-season crop. Of the seven tastings, three were donated by local farms and one lesson was led by a local farmer.
BACKGROUND
El Dorado County is a rich agricultural region with over 120 farms, boasting a variety of crops like apples, pears, grapes and berries. While many students have a connection to a local farm through family members or field trips, there remains a lack of understanding about the importance of eating seasonally and supporting local food systems.
Harvest of the Month provides the perfect opportunity to discuss the benefits of eating in-season, local produce. Bolstering this discussion with donated fruits and vegetables by area farms has proven to be a huge success among Camino Elementary students and has helped bridge the gap between the farm and the grocery store. Donations from these farms have not only made it financially possible to provide tastings to approximately 290 students each month, but have also enhanced the program by highlighting the agricultural abundance in students' own backyards.
SOLUTION
With the help of a volunteer, Nutrition Educators coordinated with 13 classrooms at Camino Elementary to implement the monthly tastings and lessons. Using interactive visuals, educational videos and worksheets, Educators created engaging lesson plans that taught about the importance of eating healthy, locally-sourced produce. When the tasting was donated by a local farm, the lesson highlighted the farmer, the variety of crops grown at the farm and its proximity to the school.
“The kids love Harvest of the Month…It was a great moment in a curriculum full of reading and math to talk about their bodies and the foods they ate. Often they would leave for recess saying they were going to ask their parents to buy whatever it was we tasted.”
-Camino Elementary 5th Grade Teacher
NEXT STEPS
In 2019-2020, Nutrition Educators hope to have 100% of all produce donated by local farms and to expand Harvest of the Month programming to other school sites in the county, possibly aided by a new partnership with Ag in the Classroom. It is also a goal to invite more farmers to participate in Harvest of the Month activities and speak with students about their crops, how food is grown and what it means to eat local.
