On November 9th, after two long years with very limited community events due to COVID-19, Newbrook Elementary School hosted its first Harvest Dinner since 2019. This was a beautiful event, showcasing student-made art, donations from the community, soups cooked by students, staff, and community members, a shared meal, and a successful fundraising effort for the Farm to School program. It also started with a beautiful land acknowledgment led by students.
The week before the start of the 2022-23 school year, Food Connects hosted a Celebration of Farm to School for school administrative teams and food service directors. We are so proud of the work being done by Farm to School teams at our member schools in Windham Central Supervisory Union, Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, and Windham Southeast School District, and we are grateful to the leaders who help make the work possible. At the event, we shared highlights from the 2021-22 school year at each member school, and we want to take a moment to share those highlights with a wider audience. Read on to hear the wonderful things happening in schools throughout the region!
After a break forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, NewBrook Elementary School was able to host Farm and Field Day for the first time since 2019. The entire student body took a break from academics to spend an afternoon outdoors learning about food, recycling, and the natural environment.
A multitude of community volunteers came out to run “stations”—where groups of students rotated through. The Windham County Game Warden, Dave Taddei, had a table full of pelts for students to explore and learn about. Giant Journey Farm brought adult rabbits and kits. Meadows Bee Farm had a faux milking station and taught students about June’s Harvest of the Month dairy. Food Connects made strawberry banana “nice cream” (sweetened only with fruit), and students assembled and ate their own pizzas, cooked by a West River Community Project volunteer. Amy Duffy, the school’s Farm to School Coordinator, made herbal salt scrubs with students. And the team from Windham Solid Waste ran a recycling relay! Art teacher Suzanne Paugh engaged students in making a mural for the garden shed out of recycled plastic!
Parents Elizabeth Erickson and Sara Webb, working with NewBrook’s Farm to School Committee, led the efforts to organize the event. Heather Sperling, the school’s wood-fired pizza expert and Farm to School veteran, and Amy Duffy, the school’s FTS Coordinator, were also central to the effort. Thank you so much to all the community members and families who volunteered to help with this event. Principal Scotty Tabachnick said, “it was just beautiful to see everyone outside, enjoying the day as a community again. We’re so thankful to everyone who supports our school.”
It was a wonderful day for all, and NewBrook Elementary School looks forward to hosting more events for students and families.
“This school is magical!” is what Ali Tomer, a third-grader, had to say when asked about her experiences with NewBrook Elementary’s Farm to School (FTS) program. Another third-grader, Piper Stafford, chimed in, “I like how we help each other. It feels like we’re all connected because we’re all working on this one thing together, no matter how different we are. And the sugar snap peas are delicious!”
With a degree in Health Science with a Nutrition focus, Amy Duffy hadn’t previously worked with children when she accepted the Farm to School Coordinator position at NewBrook Elementary, but that hasn’t stopped her from having a major impact on their lives. That’s one of many reasons Food Connects recognizes Amy as this year’s Farm to School Champion!
Since beginning in August 2021, Amy has worked with NewBrook students weekly, bringing FTS programming into their classrooms. She’s designed lessons, come up with recipes, run taste tests, and read books to educate students about food—where it comes from and why it matters—the students and staff more than appreciate her efforts.
Principal Scotty Tabachnick shared, “In the midst of the pandemic, Amy hit the ground running. She quickly built positive and trusting relationships with our students and staff, and through her work, she actually helped us to bring our families to visit NewBrook as soon as the restrictions were lifted. Our students look forward to Amy's enriching lessons; she takes them outside, she has them working with their hands, and she ties new learning with prior knowledge in a natural and effective manner. It makes total sense to me that Amy Duffy's work would have such a positive outcome. Her diligence, positivity, and skill set all add up to benefit our students and NewBrook's programming as a whole. No one deserves (this award) more than her. She’s just been so amazing. Her way with the kids is wonderful.”
When I spent a day with Amy and her students at NewBrook, much of what Mr. Tabachnick said was evident. She is patient, kind, and gentle with students while also keeping them engaged. When students in one class grew agitated with each other, she stopped the garden activities and led them in a mindful breathing exercise. (It worked!). When Kindergarten students made text-to-self connections during a read-aloud, Amy made space for them to share their experiences (“tell us about your bees”). Students were eager to participate in Amy's planned activities, each of which seemed to build on what the students had done in previous weeks.
Later that week, the third-grade class tasted “microgreens” they had seeded and grown in their classroom. Amy set up trays with crackers, cheese, microgreens, and some herbs from the garden. Students made their own gourmet crackers and enjoyed their sprouts. “They are so good! I’m having a third one! It just tastes awesome, cause I like the hotness!” exclaimed Gunner Hackett, referring to the spiciness of the radish greens.
Staff member Wendy McFadden said this enthusiasm is the norm. “The kids love this. They’re all about it. And Amy is so great. She does tastings with them—they get the movement, the outdoor time, and the education piece. This year the kids are even more into (FTS) because of Amy. She gives them a lot of information, and they retain it.”
In addition to her position at NewBrook, Amy has also volunteered to be on the new Townshend Elementary FTS Committee, which began meeting in January. She’s a parent at the school and has been instrumental in helping to get a FTS program started there, as well as advising on which activities might be the most engaging or feasible given the school's programming needs.
Amy has gone above and beyond as the FTS Coordinator at NewBrook. The school and Food Connects are so thankful for her work. She’s applied for grants, picked up donated loads of firewood and compost, fixed up garden structures, and prepared recipes at home for classroom tastings.
In response to being recognized as our Farm to School Champion, Amy remarked: “I’m genuinely just happy to be able to be part of this wonderful program and work with such dedicated, creative, passionate & motivated people. Everyone involved cares so much for the kids and dedicates so much of themselves to making FTS a success. Not to mention the kids who make it all worth it! I never dreamed how invested and interested in learning the kids would be. It is so encouraging and fulfilling.”
Thank you so much for all your hard work, Amy. We are proud to name you a Farm to School Champion!
“You are our sunshine!” This supportive message is displayed front and center on the walkway as students enter the new school year at NewBrook School. It set the tone for a year of learning, making connections, and sharing experiences with classmates and staff. As the new Farm to School Coordinator, it is true. The students are a ray of light.
The Farm to School Program is an immersive outdoor learning experience focusing on gardening, healthy cooking, and nutrition education. Brought to NewBrook through a partnership with Food Connects—an organization that supports educators, food service directors, and farmers in cultivating healthy farm and food connections in classrooms, cafeterias, and communities across Southern Vermont. It is nothing short of amazing.
The first three months have been exciting and rewarding. Sharing a passion for gardening and nutrition with children has always been a dream. The teachers and staff have been welcoming and willing to collaborate on bringing the outdoor classroom to life for students. Thus far this year, students worked to clean up the garden beds, spread compost, plant garlic, harvest mint and lemon balm for tea as well as save seeds to plant this Spring. Amaranth was explored as a nutritious grain that created a traditional Mexican sweet treat.
First-grade teacher Ashley Moorhouse has created “Woods Wednesday,” where students take learning to the school trails. Fifth-grade teacher Joyce VanPamelen is an experienced Vermiculturist bringing worm composting into the classroom. Students regularly feed worms compost that will create soil for the gardens. Third-grade teacher Heather Sperling and staff built an outdoor clay oven where students learn wood-fired cooking methods and traditions. So far, the oven has been used for delicious wood-fired pizza with homemade dough. Fourth-grade teacher Jason Gragen is an avid fisherman and woods enthusiast who brings his knowledge of local fish and wildlife into the classroom to enhance the science experience.
Future plans include an introduction to hydroponics, microgreen cultivation, Harvest of the Month taste testing, seedling starts for the Spring garden, pollinator exploration, and a Spring Celebration. Stay tuned for more community events.
By Amy Duffy
NewBrook Farm to School Coordinator
Sarah Rosow searches for a cukamelon in the students snacking garden.
Garden Coordinators from five Windham County Farm to School programs gathered at Guilford Central School for a “Cross-Pollination” event in late October. Garden Coordinators, often somewhat isolated in their unique roles, had the opportunity to share ideas, challenges, and successes with each other as they prepare for winter activities in the classroom.
More and more area schools have hired Garden Coordinators in recent years, finding that they are a key component to a thriving Farm To School program. In addition to taking care of the gardens with support from students and volunteers, they also plan and execute educational activities around gardening and cooking and facilitate teacher and student involvement in FTS programming.
Sarah Rosow explains to Mandy Walsh how the Kelly Kettle works—a wonderful tool for making tea in the garden!
Sarah Rosow, Guilford’s Garden Coordinator since 2018, hosted the event, showing the visitors the school’s three different garden areas, the outdoor classrooms, and concluding with a “show and tell” of sorts where Coordinators discussed useful equipment for cooking outdoors, curriculum guides, and sample lessons. Everyone was inspired by Sarah’s “snacking garden” where students are able to snack freely on mint, cherry tomatoes, and adorable cukamelons growing on her archway.
As they toured the campus, Garden Coordinators discussed their roles at their schools and what makes their programs unique. While Guilford’s program excels at innovative outdoor teaching, Mandy Walsh of Westminster Center School offered the details of her upcoming Farm and Field Day—an event 3 years in the making, where students will participate in six different Farm to School stations. Kathy Cassin of Academy School spoke about her after-school cooking and gardening club while also gathering ideas about deterring the deer that had been eating all of Academy’s beautiful greens. After hearing that Mandy had some success with growing a border wall, she remarked, “that's good to know because it’s been so frustrating losing our greens!”
Sarah Rosow demonstrates using a pull chopper, which she uses to make fresh salsa and pesto in the garden.
Erica Frank of Central Elementary, a registered dietician and current Food Service Professional at the school, spoke about the value of getting kids involved in cooking. Amy Duffy, the new Garden Coordinator at Newbrook Elementary, agreed. “Giving kids a little more control over their eating then leads to better choices.” Amy also shared that she works with each grade once per week. Sarah Rosow responded, “I’d like to pick Amy's brain a little more in terms of the scope and sequence, and also just learning how she works in every grade level every week and how she manages that because I’d like to move toward that model.”
Everyone gained new ideas from this gathering, and it was clear at the end of the event that everyone had so much more expertise to share and so many more questions to discuss. In response, Food Connects looks forward to hosting more Cross-Pollination for Garden Coordinator events for our member schools throughout this school year.
Leaves are starting to change and there’s a hint of fall in the air, and during this most unusual year, students are learning and growing in schools and homes throughout Windham County. One of the benefits of working as a Farm to School team coach is that we get to experience the many diverse colors and flavors of back to school throughout the region. Here are a few from schools and districts across the region.
At schools throughout the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD), teachers and students are spending more time than ever in school gardens as they learn to maximize their time outside and use school gardens as outdoor learning spaces.
At Academy School, plans are being made to add a new pumpkin patch where students can grow pumpkins for the school’s annual pumpkin festival. Teachers are working together to see what’s possible in terms of building an onsite composting system as part of hands-on science for 6th grade, and Academy welcomes back Kathy Cassin for her second year in the role of Garden Coordinator. The gardens are looking great, and Food Connects’ summer garden coordinator Tara Gordon froze basil for fall cooking projects with students. The school is hoping to find funding this year to buy 2 or 3 mobile cooking carts to enable them to cook more with students.
Oak Grove School’s garden is bountiful this year with watermelons, tomatoes, acorn squash, Aronia berries, and kale. Normally the school community gathers together each October to celebrate the harvest with a community meal made by students using produce grown in the garden. Instead, this year teachers are getting creative and finding ways for students to enjoy the harvest during their in-person learning days throughout the fall. The first farm to school meeting of the year included conversations about the best recipes for kale chips and what to do with dehydrated tomatoes. Students will make signs for the garden to identify the variety of foods they’ve grown, and thanks to a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield, garden coordinator Tara Gordon and pre-K teacher Jamie Champney plan to buy more kitchen equipment for the school’s cooking cart.
At Guilford Central School, Sarah Rosow, the Farm to School Coordinator, continues to work with students in the garden. She hopes to grow the garden and replace aging infrastructure—a grant was submitted for new raised beds and more supplies. The Guilford community is busy supporting the school by expanding the outdoor learning spaces. They are constructing two beautiful pole barns and work on their forest classrooms continues.
Twin Valley Elementary School is wrapping up a School to Farm project with NOFA-VT in which they built connections with Boyd Family Farm in Wilmington. The project was interrupted this spring by COVID-19 and will continue this fall with farm-fresh taste tests for students and a virtual tour of the farm filmed by NOFA staff to share with the school community.
The newly formed Farm to School Team at Winston Prouty’s Early Learning Center is excited to use produce from their garden to make homemade baby food this fall to feed to their youngest students. The first recipes use mashed squash from their plentiful butternut squash crop. The students thoroughly enjoyed playing in the gourd house throughout the summer, which became more and more magical as the gourds grew above their heads!
At Riverside Middle School the Farm to School team worked with students to collect pumpkins from the nearby church garden. The garden club will put Greenies Garden to bed this month and plan for next year. The last funds from a Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets (VAAFM) Nutrition Grant were used to buy two Jora brand composters for the school. Cliff Weyer, the Design and Technology teacher, is working with his Community Engineering class to assemble both units.
In the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU), a new commercial veggie peeler at the high school kitchen means the food service team can process more local produce and include it in lunches! Harley Sterling, the School Nutrition Director, recently processed a large batch of potatoes from Westminster Center School’s (WCS) garden. WSC built a chicken coop over the summer and a flock of chickens has now officially moved in! Now, in addition to a bountiful garden, students can collect fresh eggs for classroom cooking projects and share them with the nutrition program, Farm to School Cafe.
At Newbrook Elementary School, the community harvested potatoes, squash, corn, and herbs from the garden. Some of the produce will go right into the school nutrition program while others will be saved for activities with students throughout the year. Teachers are getting ready for students to return to the classroom and thoughts have turned to the annual Farm and Field Day celebration. While it won’t look the same as in years past, there’s still hope that an adapted version can be held for the students to celebrate their school community.
How can we teach about large-scale problems—such as climate change—without discouraging students? This question vexes many educators as climate change and sustainability become a more integral part of classroom curriculums. Climate change is a big problem, and our initial instinct may be to lay out all the facts and urgency to our students. Not so fast though, if we only arm our students with the knowledge without also building their capacity to act, we may be discouraging future positive actions to address these important problems.
David Sobel, Director of Certificate Programs at Antioch University New England, has a solution to this dilemma—what he calls a Ladder of Environmental Responsibility. The purpose of this tool is to provide students with concrete tasks which demonstrate that their behaviors can have a positive impact on the environment. These tasks should gradually become more difficult as students move through the grades, be tied in with the existing curriculum, and provide students with nature experiences that help connect them to the environment.
As a part of a recent grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, Newbrook Elementary’s faculty came together last year to design their own Ladder of Responsibility. They were able to take the principles laid out by Sobel and adapt them to the specific context of their school. Now, Sam Kilmurray, NewBrook’s Garden Educator, is using the ladder as a framework for her Farm to School education.
In addition to a host of shared tasks, there is now a specific track for students as they move from grade-to-grade. For example, Kindergarten is in charge of the pollinator garden, second grade learns about medinicial gardening, and fifth graders are the school’s waste stewards. Not only does this scaffold environmental education for students, but it can also help teachers incorporate Farm to School education—which for some may feel intimidatingly broad—into their classroom curriculum by providing a defined list of tasks for students to participate in.
The Ladder of Environmental Responsibility can easily be adapted to fit within your school’s Farm to School program, provide clarity to your curriculum, and—most importantly—help students grow into empowered environmental stewards. If you’re looking for help to develop a Ladder of Environmental Responsibility for your school, feel free to contact Conor, conor@foodconnects.org.
Student investigates the classroom worm bin. There are six bins in classrooms throughout the school which are a part of the 5th grader’s waste stewardship responsibilities.
If you visit the Leland & Gray Union Middle & High School cafeteria this fall, you might notice a new back to school style.
This summer when the kids went on break their Seed2Tray team went to work. Food Service Director, Chris Parker, wanted to create a fun space for the school community to enjoy their meals for the 2019-2020 school year. First, they gave their kitchens a deep cleaning, and lots of coats of paint. Then turned their focus to the Leland & Gray cafeteria.
“The cafeteria had spent years looking grey and dull, so we recruited the art teacher, Suzanne Paugh from Newbrook Elementary,” says Chris. “She had been the leader on our makeover at Newbrook last year, and I knew I needed her for this project.” Suzanne worked with the incoming 5th and 6th graders to achieve an industrial/graffiti art feel—and the kids were very excited to be a part of such a large project that would impact their school. They created the signs for each station, then painted them before Chef Chris took them back to his woodshop for the finishing touches.
The Seed2Tray team worked hard throughout the school year to get to this point. They applied for a mini grant through Food Connects for a new salad bar, generously donated by Entera Catering. The receipt of the salad bar allows the team to provide a wider variety of options for students to make delicious salads. Chris also worked hard to ensure that Universal Meals were added to the budget for the 2019-2020 school year for the entire school district.
Now school is here, the time they all worked so hard to prepare for. “We are excited to see our students and show them their new cafeteria. They are now welcomed by a new hot line, a new salad bar, a pizza bar, and a sandwich bar complete with panini press. The best part is that every student in Jamaica Village, Townshend, Leland & Gray, and Newbrook will ALL EAT FOR FREE.”
Thanks to the entire Seed2Tray team for their hard work to make schools meals welcoming and delicious. Be sure to follow them on Instagram at Seed2Tray.
We were lucky to catch NewBrook School during Diversity Week in January. Chef Chris went with a Greek-themed lunch, including Gyros, orzo pasta salad, and fruit. Oh, and a fully stocked salad bar, of course!
This time around, I was lucky to have my partner in crime—Sheila! Sheila Humphreys is my farm to school partner at Food Connects and we decided to treat ourselves to a Friday afternoon out on the town—aka NewBrook Elementary’s cafeteria. We arrived at noon to a cafeteria full of second graders. Lunch was being served by Chef Chris and his assistant for the day, Principal Scotty Tabachnick. We each got a gyro with meatballs, tzatziki sauce, and crisp red onion, pasta salad, green salad, and fresh fruit. Oh, and my fave—cottage cheese.
We were lucky enough to snag a seat with some second-grade boys, James & Nolan. Nolan was having bagged lunch from home, while James munched on a gyro. We chatted about their favorite school lunch items. Nolan loves shepherds’ pie and hot dogs. They also let us know that Chef Chris makes some darn good waffles in the morning. James eats breakfast at school every day.
NewBrook puts on a “community lunch” each month, typically featuring produce and meats from local farms. The school accepts donations in any amount and encourages families and community members to join students for lunch. Check it out sometime soon! Don’t want to go alone? Give us a call—we are always happy to dig into a good school lunch!
Next up? Dummerston on February 8th for pizza day—I might even treat myself to a carton of milk!
