Connecting EL Education & Farm to School

Schools throughout Windham County are implementing a new language arts curriculum called EL Education. At Food Connects, we’re looking for ways to support local educators in linking this curriculum with hands-on food, farm, and nutrition experiences in the garden, classroom and cafeteria. 

What is EL Education?

EL, or Expeditionary Learning, is a language arts-focused curriculum that intersects with other subject areas like science and social studies. It provides a great opportunity to link with current Farm to School (FTS) programming because it, “emphasizes hands-on, experiential learning and the integration of academic content with real-world experiences.”

EL is the curriculum currently being used in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU), Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU), and West River Education District (WRED). From K-8th grade, there are four modules per grade. At the high school level, EL starts with a guiding question, and there are several components, including: classroom expeditions, experts, fieldwork, community engagement, Intensives (3-4 days that are not curricular and are focused on team building), and an authentic product at the end.

How are teachers integrating FTS with EL?

Whether it’s 2nd graders at Academy School reading about India and then working together to make vegetable tikki masala, 3rd graders at Grafton Elementary School learning about overcoming learning challenges and experimenting with seed saving while reading the book Zoe and the Seed Garden, 8th graders at Dummerston School using the EL anchor text The Omnivore’s Dilemma to launch a study the local food system including visits to Bunker Farm and Walker Farm, or high schoolers at Leland and Gray participating in a maple sugaring intensive co-led by Devan Monnette of Food Connects, there are many ways that FTS can enrich the EL curriculum. 

There are even opportunities to link these EL modules to the Big Ideas of Farm to School. Recently, Food Connects facilitated a community of practice group discussion for FTS focused educators in WSESU, WNESU, and WRED interested in digging deeper into the connections between EL and FTS, and Oak Grove School recently worked with Food Connects and Shelburne Farms to create a professional development workshop focused on strengthening the connections between FTS and EL.

How can FTS support EL?

Schools with active FTS programs are well-positioned to integrate with the EL curriculum, because FTS education, with its emphasis on gardening and cooking with students and connecting students to local farms, is inherently experiential, hands-on, and connected to real world experiences. Contact us for more information on making connections like this at your school.

 https://eleducation.org/core-practices

Written by Sheila Humphreys

Sprout Kits Pop Up in Classrooms Across Vermont

Teachers returning from April Break found a special delivery at their doorsteps: Sprout Kits! These kits contain a bucket of soil, seeds, tin trays, and instructions for sprouting your own edible pea and sunflower shoots.

Check out what teachers across Vermont are saying, along with some fun photos!

“The Kindergartners in my class LOVED using the sprouting kits. It really brought to life our science study of living vs. nonliving things, and it was a tasty snack that was enjoyed by all. Thank you Food Connects!”

- Amelia Fontein, Kindergarten Teacher, Academy School

“These photos are from Union Street School, Springfield's garden club. The students loved their sprout kits. I heard lots of exclamations of, "They are growing!!!!". I included a picture of our courtyard where we also have garden beds that we are working on. Thanks for the lovely opportunity.”

-Jan Rounds, School Counselor, Union Street School 

“We enjoyed planting our seeds today--we are turning them into gifts for Mother's Day, and the kids couldn't have been more excited to plant their seeds, pat down the dirt, and are ready to watch the seeds grow!”

-Jennifer Dodge, 2nd Grade Teacher, Elm Hill School

Elm Hill Sprout Kits

We were able to offer these kits for free thanks to the generosity of several local businesses. Browne & Roberts Ace Hardware, Coast of Maine, and Blue Seal donated soil, while Tito’s contributed 2,000 takeout trays—and, yes, that’s why the kits might remind you of burritos! New Chapter’s generous donation helped cover the cost of supplies that weren’t donated, like seeds.

A huge thank you to Retreat Farm for letting us use their space to assemble the kits, and an extra shoutout to Retreat Farm staff members Laura and Amy for jumping in to help put them together. This community project was only possible because of the amazing support from our local partners.

Rethinking Education: Youth Empowerment and the Future of Learning

Earlier this month, Harvest of the Month hosted a vibrant webinar exploring Youth Empowerment in Education. While it’s clear that significant hurdles remain in creating equitable ways to elevate student voice, the conversation ended with inspiring hopes for the future. A group of students, teachers, and educational partners came together to identify clear steps toward progress — and that alone is something to celebrate.

Watch for yourself, especially to hear directly from the students from Leland and Gray High School who joined in the conversation. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of the ideas explored.

Kicking Off: What Type of Learner Are You?

Starting with a simple but powerful question — one that deserves space in every educational setting: What type of learner are you?

This prompt surfaced a critical insight right away: classrooms are filled with diverse learning styles, yet most lessons are delivered in just one or two formats.

But that was just the beginning. A deeper question quickly emerged:
How can we help students understand how they learn, so they can take greater ownership of what they learn?

A Brief History: Voice in Education

At around the 11-minute mark, the group stepped back in time to explore the roots of student voice in American education.

How early educational reformers like John Dewey championed freedom of speech and experiential learning, and also how industrial-era educational models prioritize efficiency over individuality — viewing students as "human capital" and, in doing so, sidelining authentic learning experiences.

Zooming in on Vermont, historically the state has demonstrated progress through local alternative schools and how initiatives like Personalized Learning Plans and Flexible Pathways continue that work today, yet there is still much work to be done.

Student Voices: Interest vs. Checking the Boxes

At the 23-minute mark, the students speak for themselves.

Their message was clear: they crave learning that sparks genuine interest. But many feel that mandatory classes often exist just to check off graduation requirements.

This raised some big, timely questions:

  • How can we balance preparing students for life’s challenges with allowing space for their interests to guide the way?

  • How can we offer more opportunities for deep learning in areas students are truly passionate about?

  • And what does an education look like when interest drives the path, rather than just fulfilling requirements?

Purpose, Passion, and Empowerment

Naturally, this raised the question: How do we promote this sense of purpose in our students without overburdening our already dedicated, hardworking teachers?

At around the 32-minute mark, the group explored how empowerment might actually ease the load for educators in many respects. Empowered students tend to be more engaged, motivated, and self-directed — meaning there’s less pushing and pulling required from teachers.

Leland and Gray as an example utilizes project based learning throughout the year, taking students out of the classroom to learn from experts within a range of topics. The highschool even spearheaded a program titled Journey Away in which students last year traveled abroad to Vietnam, France and the southern U.S. studying cuisine and culture along the way. 

On a more simple scale this could be as accessible as utilizing resources like the Maine Climate Hub and allowing students to research and explore topics that they find interesting with real world practical applications. When students are given meaningful choices, they begin to discover the joy of exploration and the power of ownership.

As one student panelist wisely pointed out, learning what you don’t want to do is just as valuable as discovering what you do want to do. Offering choice invites students to step out of their comfort zones — and in doing so, to embrace mistakes as a vital part of growth.

Setting the Tone for Empowerment

By the 44-minute mark, the conversation turned to the classroom environment itself.

Teachers reflected on the power of flipping the dynamic by asking students, “What do you want to do?” rather than dictating every step.

The themes that emerged — building ongoing relationships, leaving room for growth, and redefining success — were central to our dialogue. Rather than focusing solely on final products or grades, we explored the importance of valuing the learning journey itself.

Farm to School: A Catalyst for Choice

Although time was short, Farm to School programming came forward as a powerful vehicle for empowered learning.

With its emphasis on hands-on, land-based experiences, Farm to School curriculum consistently invites students to try new things — whether it's tasting a new food, participating in a new activity, or rethinking the food systems we depend on.

By employing the time-tested models that Farm to School is built upon, we create opportunities for students to learn side-by-side with community experts. These real-world experiences help build practical life skills and empower students to step into the world as informed, thoughtful citizens — with their communities at the heart of their actions.

And so, we circle back to our original question: How do we learn best?

While every learner differs in how they absorb information, our discussion pointed toward one overarching approach: purpose-driven learning.

When lessons are rooted in meaning and connection, students are naturally driven to ask, “How can I contribute?”

Then learning serves a greater purpose — beyond just earning a letter grade — it extends beyond the bell, and the potential for growth becomes limitless.

Written by Devan Monette

Photos feature Leland and Gray students at the 2024 FEAST conference.

Special thanks to Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s Food and Markets Vision grant for making Harvest of the Month work possible. If you are interested in learning more about hands-on, land-based educational practices, see the Shelburne Farms professional learning and resources for educators. 

Curious to hear students speak on this firsthand? Scroll back to the top and watch the video!

Hands Off: Speaking Out in Support of Local Food

The thriving national movement to provide locally-sourced, nutrient-dense food to children has taken a terrible hit due to federal government cuts issued this past month.  In March, the USDA cancelled over $1 billion, $670 million dollars supporting local food, farmers and childhood nutrition. 

Speaking at the Hands-Off! Rally on the Brattleboro Commons on April 5th, Food Connects Interim Director Lee Halpern described the impact: 

“That’s $1 billion in funding to help food banks and food hubs distribute local foods to low income consumers through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement; $660 million to ensure local foods are in school cafeterias through Local Food for Schools and Child Care; and, $10 million to connect kids to local foods and farms through the Patrick Leahy Farm to School grant.” 

All three programs were cancelled. 

To understand the state and local impact of these cuts, cancelling Local Food for Schools and Child Care eliminated $1.2 million in federal grant funding destined to purchase local foods for Vermont schools. Fourteen schools in Windham County used this grant in the 2023-24 school year to bolster school meal programs, support local farmers, and stimulate Vermont’s rural economy.

A 2016 UVM study at the Center for Rural Studies demonstrated that for every dollar spent on local foods, $1.60 goes back into Vermont’s economy. As Halpern summarized, “Now that’s a pretty efficient return. If these cuts were really about efficiency, DOGE got their math wrong.” 

Food Connects has joined its voice with the state and national movement to fight for these programs that prioritize children’s health, build resilience in local agriculture, and strengthen the regional economy. 

For more information and to contribute your voice as well, see the March 25th The Commons article and calls to action from the National Farm to School Network. 

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Written by Kris Nelson

Tapping Into Motivation: Why Farm to School Works

Engaging high school students isn’t easy—especially when it comes to encouraging them to try new things or engage with hands-on learning.

But with climate change accelerating and global supply chains growing increasingly vulnerable, traditional skills like food production and land-based knowledge are more vital than ever.

That’s why, in the first week of March, Leland and Gray offered a three-day, project-based intensive course centered on maple syrup production.

We called the course Boiling Point: A Maple Mastery—an immersion experience hosted at the Rafters Lodge in Jamaica, Vermont by the Hazelton Family.

With perfect sugaring weather, students got to fully immerse themselves in each step of the process, gaining hands-on experience and a deep appreciation for the effort that goes into producing maple syrup.

Six students attended the course under the leadership of Drew Hazelton, Jenna Webb, Steve Ovenden, and myself.

Leading up to the event, I wasn’t sure how students would react to being off-grid or taking on the demanding tasks involved in collecting sap and turning it into syrup. But by the end, I realized just how motivating maple syrup could be. 

But enjoying maple syrup was only a byproduct of the course. In actuality, it was the students who rose to the occasion—proving just how impactful hands-on, land-based learning can be.

Braving the rain and trekking through steep hills covered in knee-deep snow, every student dug deep and made the most of the experience.

As one student reflected, "I feel that programs like this can trigger layers of inspiration... in future jobs or through art. It creates a new atmosphere which creates new brilliant ideas."

This quote gets to the heart of why Farm to School programming matters.

By stepping outside the classroom and away from traditional learning models, immersive experiences open endless pathways for students to discover inspiration.

In turn, inspiration fuels motivation, and motivation drives learning.

For me, the most rewarding part of this experience was stepping back and watching that learning unfold—independent of instruction.

Whether it’s learning how to identify trees, recognizing the unique traits that characterize each species, or uncovering the rich history each one holds—the forest will always be the best teacher.

As we helped make syrup come to life through evaporation, hard work and patience were at the top of the curriculum in lessons learned.


In the end, we couldn’t have asked for a more well-rounded experience.

The weather cooperated fully, allowing students to engage deeply in every step of the process and walk away with a newfound appreciation for the syrup on their plate the next time they dig into a stack of pancakes.

As one student put it, "It teaches them to respect the hard work that goes into making products—also, it teaches them the old ways."

In the end, it seems this is what the students were most hungry for:

An opportunity to independently discover what it means to have a hand in producing their own food.

To step beyond the confines of the classroom and absorb lessons at their own pace.

And a chance to join the ranks of countless Vermonters before them in the sacred practice of making maple syrup.

Written by Devan Monette

Want to see the students in action? Watch this short video and feel free to like and share!

Expanding Trauma-Informed Trainings Across Vermont

Since 2019, Farm to School lead coach Sheila Humphreys has been offering workshops on Trauma-Informed Approaches to Farm to School to schools in WSESU and at regional and national Farm to School events. During the 2024-2025 school year, these workshops have expanded to other schools and districts around Vermont. These workshops are built around the central question, “How do we raise awareness about food and trauma and how do we understand how our actions impact others so that we aren’t unintentionally creating stress for our students?” and they invite participants to be vulnerable, share food stories with each other, learn how to support their most vulnerable students, and unpack their implicit biases around food.

In November, 10 para-educators from WSESU attended the training on their professional development day. In January, 16 school wellness leaders in WNESU attended the training and 24 school wellness leaders in Springfield School District received the training.  In March, 15 teachers at Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls and 6 school staff members from Northfield Schools in CVSU received the training.  All in all, this training has touched the lives of 5,525 students in 4 different school districts in Vermont.

One of the participants from Northfield reached out to Sheila after the training with these words, “I have to say, your workshop was very well organized, thought out, heartfelt, and honestly one of the best FTS workshops I have attended in a very long time! Thank you!” Overall, the training has been very well-received by educators throughout the state, who are seeing an increase in trauma in their students and looking for ways to address it.  “It is a privilege to share this work with educators around the state, and to know that the information is having a positive impact on Vermont youth,” says Sheila.

If you are interested in bringing this training to your school community, please contact Farm to School Program Director Kris Nelson, kris@foodconnects.org.


Good Neighbors: Vernon Elementary School’s Bulk Milk Partnership with Miller Farm

An Interview with Mary Ross and Shannon Connolly, by Kris Nelson

On February 10th, I attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at Vernon Elementary School, where they celebrated the installation of a bulk milk dispenser in their cafeteria, with milk supplied from their neighbor, Miller Farm, the first of its kind in WSESU. The groundwork was laid for this in October 2023 when bulk milk dispensers were installed in the WNESU schools, with milk from Miller Farm in Vernon through a partnership between NOFA-VT and WNESU and support from Food Connects.

With the coming changes to the food service in WSESU next year, I wanted to learn more about how Vernon secured the milk dispenser and why it was important to them to persevere in this effort. Recently I spoke with Vernon Elementary School Principal, Mary Ross, and Vernon Kitchen Manager, Shannon Connolly, to hear the story. We sat in the school cafeteria near the newly installed bulk milk dispenser and piles of new cups. This interview is lightly edited for clarity. 

Farmer Pete Miller of Miller Farm oversees the official ribbon cutting of Vernon Elementary School’s new Organic Bulk Milk Dispenser

KN: First, congratulations on your new bulk milk dispenser, right here next to us. Mary, when we chatted at the ribbon cutting, you indicated that the school had been working hard at this for a while. I wanted to hear more about how that came about. I get the impression that the two of you were pretty tenacious. 

MR: (laughing): She found a word that describes us! 

KN: Okay, great. Well, tell me what “tenacious” looks like. 

MR: Let’s see. How many years has it been? 

SC: For me it’s been four years. When I first started, I was curious why we would go on field trips to see Miller Farm but then we would not have his milk. 

MR: Similarly, one of our staff members shared an article with me when Windham Northeast was getting the grant. She said, “Wouldn't this be nice for us?” And I said, “Oh, I've been working on this for a while now.”  

KN: And why were you working on that?

MR: I look out my window at a community-owned family organic farm that has a wonderful product. These are community partners that are always lovely with us. They've donated products in the past to our school. They've been welcoming of kids coming over for field trips. When Pete Miller was in here for the ribbon cutting ceremony, you saw a kiddo run up and give him a huge hug, because he's seen as a community farmer and a leader and a source of comfort, I guess. During COVID, supply chains being what they were, there were times when I was going in my vehicle to pick up milk at another school because the milk couldn't be delivered since we were short-staffed. There were times when in delivery one of the milk containers would burst and a lot of the milk containers got sticky. And so, okay, that's the world of the global food supply chain, but I knew it could be different. 

Watching Windham Northeast go through the process, it became even more frustrating since we've been asking the food service company for years to find a way to do more local food and find a way to have Miller Farm as a community partner. The answers we got over the years were per USDA regs. We need to have two kinds of milk. I kept asking myself, if Windham Northeast is under the same regulations, how is that possible? I'm not in charge of food service, but that's something that's been coming out of my mouth for many, many years, and is a goal I have for our school. How can we make it happen? Our Vernon school board has been supportive of that as well. 

From Left: Pete Miller, Shannon Connolly (Vernon ES Kitchen Manager), Danielle Sage (Vernon Kitchen Staff Member), Susan Grabowski (WSESU Food Program Coordinator).

SC: Yes, they’ve been very supportive.

KN: They’ve been supportive of switching to bulk milk? 

MR: Yes, and asking the question over the years: “Hey, I saw this article, hey, I saw the story, why aren't we doing this?” And me saying, “I'm doing my best.” We even put it as an open agenda item over a series of school board meetings to kind of follow up and see if there had been any progress. And so, very recently, I was told by the food service company that it was possible and that if we wanted to go forward with it, we could.

And so then, Shannon, you worked with Pete and maybe you could talk a little bit about the many forms and processes that were required of him to get it to this point. It was pretty arduous for him. 

SC: It was hard, yeah. Kris, when you came a year and a half ago for a Food Service Advisory Meeting, you had given me Harley's name (Harley Sterling, WNESU Director of School Nutrition), so I reached out to Harley. And then Pete had given me everyone up in Windham Northeast, all their numbers to try and get the ball rolling. But there was grant writing and all sorts of crazy hoops that we had to jump through and it was not feasible for one person. So I reached out to Susan (WSESU Food Service Coordinator Susan Grabowski) and Mary also did a lot of researching and talking to people. It was just easier for the food service to say let's just get Hood Milk. It's just easier this way. 

KN: Can you say more about what were some of the barriers? 

SC: So the USDA states that you have to offer a child skim milk and 1%. I wish it was whole. We should be getting milk that has more fat in it. You need that fat for brain development. Anyway, so we always had the 1% and the skim milk from Hood and now Miller does skim and 1%. Pete’s 1% milk is not homogenized, so you get that little cream line at the top, so you gotta shake the bag. He doesn't do skim milk in the big bags, but we get skim milk from Hood so that we have it on hand. I think with Miller Farm milk, it's a start to really getting local Vermont products. But it was rough trying to get people to understand that we literally look out the window and see Pete's cows. Like, why wouldn't we have that milk? Why wouldn't that have just been like a staple to start out with? 

MR: And that's why I'm excited that we're going to an independent food service. Because Shannon, you get up really early every morning and you sometimes are by yourself and you do hard things for kids. Like, that's what we do. We make these decisions to work in school so we can do hard things in support of what kids deserve. And I think that when that's the goal instead of profit being the goal, you're gonna see a difference, right? 

SC: Absolutely. And I have a nursing background, so when I see the ingredient list for something and it's got three times the amount of sodium that a child should have in one day, it literally makes my eye twitch. I'm really trying to stop using canned tomato sauce, for example. I roast vegetables and tomatoes and make my own sauce. It's literally just roasted vegetables and I puree everything and the kids are like, “Wow, this sauce is so great. This is really good sauce.” And they have no idea that there's Brussels sprouts, that there's mushrooms, that there's peppers, that there's onions and things that I have to serve per the guidelines of the district. But they won't eat cauliflower. They won't eat Brussels sprouts. But they love everything “tomato sauce.” So on their pizza they're getting mushrooms and peppers and cauliflower and broccoli and they don't even know, but they love it. 

KN: You are making it happen. 

SC: Yeah, trying to. 

KN: There’s the goal of the students eating these things, and you’re saying, “I know how to do that.” 

SC: Right, yeah. Give me some freedom and I'll make it happen. I think going independent is going to be so much better with the food coming out of the kitchen. 

MR: And it's already pretty great. 

SC: Thank you. 

MR: I've said publicly, the work that our staff here has done, the work that, Shannon, you've done with your leadership, has insulated us from challenges that other schools have had. 

SC: Thank you. 

KN: It does often take that person in that job to work the system and to be creative.

SC: I’ve been written up many times. 

KN: Oh, really? And not in a good way!

SC: No, no. I don’t follow the recipes. But I'm not adding extra sugar into things. Like the tomato sauce, I don't add sugar to it, I add carrots. Makes it sweeter. And it's natural. I'm so grateful that Harley is coming because I feel like that's not something I would have to beg him to do or to try.

KN: You're gonna have an ally. 

SC: Yes. Exactly, but it's something I had to beg for. 

KN: And possibly get written up. 

SC: Yeah. 

KN: What seems so great is that Vernon getting a bulk milk dispenser, and developing a partnership with Miller Farm, intersects so nicely with the recent decision that was made about the independent food service. The stars are aligning in a certain way because you were successful in getting this right about the same time, so perhaps there’s an evolution that we’re seeing. 

SC: There's so many chemicals in our food that we buy. I don't know what these kids eat at home, but I know that I can provide them with something that's not full of chemicals, that's good and nutritious and that they want to eat. So that's my motivation. I wouldn't serve it to these kids if I wouldn't serve it to my own child. Making the sauce is a big deal because they like it, and it's good and it's healthy for them and they're getting things that they might not be getting at home. So, that's my motivation: to give them something good and healthy and something that they'll eat. 

MR: I was a reduced lunch kid myself as a kid. I think that food is more than food. It's an opportunity to gather. It's an opportunity to nourish your body so you can work and learn throughout the day. It's an opportunity to care for other people. When kids see that Shannon and Danielle have prepared delicious food for them, they feel cared for. To look out the window and see community partners and know that this milk I'm drinking came from that cow over there, that’s not abstract. It's not the same as the sticky carton that came from I'm not sure where. I know Mr. Miller. I've seen those cows. That's how I'm getting this nourishment for my body. It is pretty special. 

"Carrot Kimchi" and the Relationship between Food and Culture

Do you have a student or neighbor whose family is from another country? About 28,000 Vermont residents are foreign born (about 4.3% of the total population).¹   You may be interacting with someone who cherishes their comfort foods as a link to a distant home. There are two main things I wish to say about this experience: sharing cherished foods with Americans can be a sensitive topic and it can be challenging to find traditional ingredients in stores around here. 

I cherish Russian and Korean dishes which I grew up eating but which are not common here in Vermont. However, I hesitate to share these foods with friends or coworkers. When I share these foods, it does feel special, sensitive, and personal because it’s linked to home.  

Too often, I’ve heard comments about the ingredients or flavors which make me self-conscious or sad, even if they’re not meant to be hurtful. Usually people will compare the food to something familiar (“this tastes like watered-down macaroni and cheese,” “this tastes like Sprite”) or comment on the ingredients (“Seaweed? Herring mixed with mayonnaise? Quail eggs?”).  

How can we support a student, friend, or neighbor to talk about the food that they love, without making them feel judged or shy because it doesn’t fit the flavor palate of Vermont? An invitation from the author: Don’t comment, just experience. 

Here are a few tips on how to respectfully try food from someone else’s culture:

  1. Try not to compare “this is the X version of that”. Let it stand on its own, rather than being a foreign “version” of something you’re familiar with.

  2. Just take it in: the smells, textures, flavors, sounds. Eat silently; maybe throw in a “wow this is delicious” or if it’s not delicious just say, “wow, thank you for sharing, I’ve never tried this before”.

  3. When it’s time to break the silence, ask the person questions about their personal experiences, such as “Is this food connected with any specific memories or events for you?” “Is this difficult to cook or buy?”

Another issue that first or second generation immigrants to VT may be dealing with is access to ingredients. After 6 months of living in the Pioneer Valley, I am increasingly hungry for (dare I say desperate for) food that is tangy, spicy, sour, fermented, and not-oily, all at the same time. Unfortunately, the nearest Asian food market is over 30 minutes away by car and it doesn’t always have the ingredients I’m looking for.

Perhaps many of the 28,000 foreign-born residents of Vermont are feeling the same desire for that “ahh, home” feeling that comes from eating the dishes your grandma used to make. 

This doesn’t just happen for foods from your family’s culture. When I lived in the Middle East, Korea, and Australia, I found myself really craving burritos. A lot of restaurants were offering a salad wrapped in a tortilla and calling it a burrito. It turns out, the deliciousness of Mexican food is proportional to your proximity to Mexico. 

Reflecting on her own memories of West Indian and Chinese home meals, Lachelle Antonia-Gray of Hunger Free VT noticed that "food is a thread that connects us to our heritage cultures, and it's usually one of the last things to get severed." 

When people get uprooted, their connections to places, ingredients, language, and clothing all tend to fade away as people assimilate into their new communities, but food traditions tend to stick around a few generations longer. If someone knows about the food of their grandparents, they can more easily connect with the people, traditions, and emotions of their heritage cultures. 

Assimilation is not always voluntary. A state like Vermont may not have the ingredients you had at home, forcing you to stop using traditional ingredients. Making a Thai curry last night, I had to substitute worcestershire sauce for kaffir lime leaves. It tasted…okay. 

This is an experience that immigrants have been navigating for thousands of years and all over the world. In the 1930s, Stalin forced Korean immigrants onto trains bound for Uzbekistan, bringing only what they could carry. Holding on to their traditions of making kimchi, these Koryo-saram started making a non-spicy kimchi out of carrots because there was no napa cabbage or chilies to be found. Perhaps they, too, tasted a spoonful of their new creation and said “I guess it’s…okay.” This dish is still served across Russia and Central Asia, appearing on menus as “Korean carrots”.

Blending Korean traditions with Russian ingredients helped this culture survive. To this day, I personally know many Koryo-saram who can’t speak Korean but who can cook “Korean carrots”. I can even buy this side-dish at the Russian grocery store in downtown Greenfield, MA where I live. 

So, if you’re interacting with first or second generation immigrants, two things they may be experiencing are: sharing cherished foods with Americans and creating new “fusion” dishes by substituting traditional ingredients with ingredients you can buy at Hannafords. 

Here are some projects Vermont communities have done to address food access for new Americans:

By Adelaide Petrov-Yoo

Connecting Expeditionary Learning Education with Farm to School

Schools throughout Windham County are implementing a new language arts curriculum called EL Education. At Food Connects, we’re looking for ways to support local educators in linking this curriculum with hands-on food, farm, and nutrition experiences in the garden, classroom and cafeteria. 

What is EL Education?

EL, or Expeditionary Learning, is a language arts-focused curriculum that intersects with other subject areas like science and social studies. It provides a great opportunity to link with current Farm to School (FTS) programming because it, “emphasizes hands-on, experiential learning and the integration of academic content with real-world experiences.”

EL is the curriculum currently being used in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU), Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU), and West River Education District (WRED). From K-8th grade, there are four modules per grade. At the high school level, EL starts with a guiding question, and there are several components, including: classroom expeditions, experts, fieldwork, community engagement, Intensives (3-4 days that are not curricular and are focused on team building), and an authentic product at the end.

How are teachers integrating FTS with EL?

Whether it’s 2nd graders at Academy School reading about India and then working together to make vegetable tikki masala, 3rd graders at Grafton Elementary School learning about overcoming learning challenges and experimenting with seed saving while reading the book Zoe and the Seed Garden, 8th graders at Dummerston School using the EL anchor text The Omnivore’s Dilemma to launch a study the local food system including visits to Bunker Farm and Walker Farm, or high schoolers at Leland and Gray participating in a maple sugaring intensive co-led by Devan Monnette of Food Connects, there are many ways that FTS can enrich the EL curriculum. 

There are even opportunities to link these EL modules to the Big Ideas of Farm to School. Recently, Food Connects facilitated a community of practice group discussion for FTS focused educators in WSESU, WNESU, and WRED interested in digging deeper into the connections between EL and FTS, and Oak Grove School recently worked with Food Connects and Shelburne Farms to create a professional development workshop focused on strengthening the connections between FTS and EL.

How can FTS support EL?

Schools with active FTS programs are well-positioned to integrate with the EL curriculum, because FTS education, with its emphasis on gardening and cooking with students and connecting students to local farms, is inherently experiential, hands-on, and connected to real world experiences. Contact us for more information on making connections like this at your school.

800 new class pets at Brattleboro Union High School!

Do you have a worm guy? Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) now does. Thanks to a generous donation from Brattleboro’s Rich Earth Institute, 25 students in the BUHS Student Educational Assistance (SEA) program received compost-eating worms, compost bedding, and a worm bin. All these ingredients add up to a new lesson in food systems: vermicompost.

Vermi (worms) compost (compost) is a beautiful synergy between students’ food waste and red wiggler worms. Though red wigglers are in the spotlight, crucial supporting actors include: potworms, red & white mites, centipedes, beneficial bacteria, and fungi. This micro-community of digesters will usually show up in your compost naturally or tag along with the worms when you purchase them.

Worms don’t have teeth (or eyes, or ears, or lungs), so they need these other decomposers to help break down the food into soft, gum-able pieces. As the food passes through the worms, it turns into “worm castings,”  a rich, dark soil amendment that will add nutrients into your garden.

Classroom Connections: Soil Lessons That Stick

This vermicompost hands-on learning is part of a larger curriculum on soil health.  Students will learn about soil microorganisms, soil structure, and soil chemistry.

For today, students involved in the Youth Empowered in Agriculture program at BUHS helped put air vents in the worm bin lids, mix together some worm bedding and food scraps, and made signs showing what the worms can and cannot eat. While not all the students wanted to look at the worms, all the students enjoyed hearing that worms gum, rather than chew, their food – like “grandpa shark” from the famous baby shark song. 

Rain is a factor for Vermont farmers, increasingly flooding as well. So, any food systems or agricultural education for students needs to include soil health as part of its curriculum. Soil structure is especially important in light of recent VT flooding, as some soils erode into the watershed less than others. 

Worms, along with fungi and bacteria, help give soil structure and “glue” soil particles together, helping protect against soil erosion in rain and flood conditions.

To set up your own worm bin, this list (and your local Farm to School coach) can help you get started:

  1. Find ~1 pound of red wigglers, a plastic or wood bin with small drainage & air holes, and some bedding (ex. shredded cardboard & free coffee chaff from Mocha Joe’s) enough to cover the bottom of the bin about 3” below and 3” above the worms. Make sure you have a drainage tray or stack 2 bins together to catch any water that drains out.

  2. Mix ingredients into the bin. Moisten the bedding until it holds its shape when you squeeze it. Always keep the bedding at this moisture level.

  3. Worried about the worms escaping? They run away from light, so keep an indirect light on for the first few days until they settle into their new home.

  4. Worried about smell? Make sure fruit & vegetable scraps are fully covered with bedding. They eat ½ their weight per day, so don’t add too many scraps. Don’t let the bedding stay too wet.

Classroom or home activities you can try with your worms:

  1. Use the water runoff caught in your drainage tray or bottom bin (aka compost “tea”) as fertilizer in your garden or hydroponic system.

  2. Look at the castings or tea under a microscope (look out for nematodes and other microscopic organisms).

  3. Use soda bottles and a strainer to do a slake test comparing the structural integrity of worm castings, soil mixed with worm castings, and non-enriched soil samples.

  4. Plant two peas in two cups, compare growth of the compost-free and compost-enriched soil.