Everyone Eats! Delivered to Schools

Five months ago, Everyone Eats! Brattleboro, a program that pays restaurants to make meals for those in the community negatively impacted by the pandemic, first piloted in Brattleboro. The program has had such a large impact on the entire Vermont community, it will continue into 2021 through a combination of federal, state, and philanthropic funding. In addition to distribution at the 80 Flat St location, organizations get meals out to the community via their networks. The Farm to School team helped by ensuring teachers at all of the Windham Southeast School District, WSESD, schools got a chance to try the meals and learn more about the program. Not only was it another way for meals funded by the CARES Act to get into the community but it brought a welcome break to busy teachers who could skip a night of cooking. 

While passing out the meals, our team was reminded once again of the importance food plays in our sense of community. The joy that comes from shared food, even in physically distanced circumstances, is near-universal and a source of strength for many. We were grateful to have the opportunity to be the last leg of a long chain of community members working to make this program possible. Starting with our local farmers (meals contained, on average, over 25% local ingredients), Mama Sezz then managed all of the pick-up logistics and dedicated volunteers who made distribution a weekly part of their lives were the backbone of the operation. Everyone Eats! has brought hundreds of new people into the world of charitable food and created new connections within the community. We’re excited to bring these new connections and perspectives with us as we continue to strengthen our local food system. 

What’s Been Cooking in 2020

Who would have guessed 2020 would end with sweet potatoes roasting over an open fire? 

Cooking and nutrition education are bright spots for schools across the region as teachers adapt and evolve to a constantly changing situation—truly embodying resiliency (a contender for 2020 Word of the Year). This story of resilience stands as a testament to the fundamental role Farm to School programming plays in today’s general curriculum—cooking kept students hands-on during remote learning and has flourished during the return to (increasingly outdoor) classrooms.

Westminster Grow Pack.

Last spring, schools closed swiftly—winter boots left in cubbies and desks full of supplies. Teachers had difficulties getting into their classrooms to grab materials for their lessons. Despite these challenges, cooking and gardening education continued to enliven the curriculum. Sarah Rosow (Guilford Central School) and Mandy Walsh (Westminster Center School) got grow kits out to students via pick up locations and bus deliveries. These kits enabled students to get their hands dirty in the “garden”, even if they lived in an apartment.  At Riverside Middle School, STEAM teacher Becca Osbourne tried her hand at virtual cooking lessons, which her 6th graders particularly took to. 

A crucial part of cooking education takes place long before students begin chopping veggies. Farm to School programming focuses on cycles—for food, the cycle is most powerful when students have a hand in each part of the process, from seed to plate (or Seed2Tray when talking about food in the West River Education District). Recognizing this, school garden coordinators worked hard last spring to ensure gardens were planted—filled with intentions of a bountiful fall and a return to normalcy. 

River Gallery Arts visits Oak Grove School.

Food Connects hosted regional calls for coordinators to share tips and tricks and provide connection during an otherwise distanced season. Thanks to these collective efforts, gardens thrived this past summer. Food Connects Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, maintained six of the gardens in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and we piloted free family art activities thanks to support from RiseVT and three local arts organizations—River Gallery School of Art, Insight Photography, and the Human Art of Play. The culmination of these regional efforts were gardens readily awaiting the return of students if public safety would allow.

Gardening at Winston Prouty.

Food Connects helped new cooking programs get started this school year. The Early Learning Center at Winston Prouty attended the New England Farm to School Institute this past summer with Food Connects FTS Coordinator, Sheila Humphreys, as their coach. With an established school garden, the team has laid a foundation for the next level of Farm to School work, including incorporating local foods onto their menu, Harvest of the Month Taste tests, and building a strong committee to carry the work forward. Through a RiseVT grant received by Food Connects, the team purchased materials for a cooking cart. Not only does the team intend to do more cooking with students, but they’re excited to start processing school-grown produce into homemade baby food and snacks.

A staggered reopening of schools this fall came with its own set of challenges. What we’ve seen from our member schools is that those that leaned the furthest into outdoor education have seen the most success—ie. engaged students, happy teachers, and creative lessons. Food Connects helped schools keep cooking on the menu through specific guidance; stepping into an otherwise empty space, our Cooking with Students during COVID-19 guidelines provided a framework for educators and administrators to confidently establish safe practices around their cooking lessons. And we’ve seen those cooking lessons flourish—whether it be pumpkin pancakes in Guilford, pizzas at Green Street, or fire-roasted sweet potatoes at Academy.

Cooking with students at Academy School.

At Academy School, garden coordinator Kathy Cassin took advantage of a warm fall and large school forest to cook with students. Not only did students cook roasted sweet potatoes in November but Kathy also prepared sweet potato cookies and hummus for students to try. Students at Academy School can expect to see even more outdoor cooking in 2021 thanks to the addition of multiple fire rings purchased through grant funding Food Connects helped secure. These new fire rings will enable more students to be cooking at the same time while also making it safer for students. 

Not only has cooking and nutrition education found a way to continue throughout 2020—but the garden and outdoor kitchen (firepit) have become some of the most popular places to be at school. Most importantly, the sounds of growing taste buds have returned—“I don’t usually like soup, but this is pretty good.”

Academy School Takes Its Learning Outdoors

“I’m living my best life at work right now,” says Jon Sessions, assistant principal at Academy School. This quote came after a day spent outdoors with students learning different methods of stacking wood, including the Norwegian Round method.

Academy School fully embraced outdoor education throughout the first half of the 2020-2021 school year. With COVID-19 safety precautions in mind, preparations began last summer to make the most of the forest adjacent to the school, which is owned by the Smith Family. For years, the Smith family supported and encouraged the school to use the land, with Hank and Diana (Smith) Lange directly involved in the school community. Rainsuits and ponchos were purchased so that students could be outside on wet days, and trails and outdoor learning spaces were developed, including a mountain bike trail in the woods behind the school.

Since school reopened in September, teachers continue to think creatively about how to get their students outside as much as possible. PE classes are held outdoors in all weather conditions, and each grade level has its own outdoor learning space in the woods complete with a fire pit. Throughout the fall, students worked together to create shelters in the woods, including stringing up a large sailboat sail and creating stump seating, donated by Wild Carrot Farm.

Art moved outside as well—from beautiful fall leaf mosaics to potato printmaking using potatoes grown in the school garden to a month-long kindergarten arts residency with art teacher Wendy Windle studying owls and creating an owl walk in the forest behind the school.

With support from Food Connects, Academy School received grant funding from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to purchase five additional fire pits for the school, which are being used regularly as a way to quickly warm up cold fingers and toes, as well as for various cooking activities. So far, students warmed up soup and made roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes over the fire with support from garden coordinator Kathy Cassin, who is looking forward to more cooking outside with students this winter. As the weather got colder, it was clear that there would be a need for more firewood, so Academy School put out a request and received a donation of 2 cords of wood from Anson Baldwin Tree Care, and Academy parent Erin Bristol, which led to many hands-on lessons in different wood stacking methods.

Through their outdoor learning programs, Academy School has found some silver linings during the pandemic. Disruptive behaviors have decreased dramatically, and students and teachers both are enjoying the benefits of more outdoor, hands-on learning opportunities. Mr. Sessions is hopeful that many of the changes they have made this year will continue after the pandemic has ended because they are so successful.

Kelly Dias, who is in her third year as Principal at Academy School explains that “the increase in student engagement is directly related to the amount of student-led learning and physical activity that’s happening every day. Students love to be outdoors, and they feel a strong sense of community and purpose as they work together to build forts, observe animal tracks, and identify plants in the natural world. Teachers are integrating life skills such as cooking into their curricula, and these transferable skills are making an immediate impact.” 

Another silver lining to the modified in-person school week schedule, which involves two different groups of students attending for two days per week with three remote days, is that school staff and students have realized how special their time is together, and every minute counts. “Everyone feels so lucky to be here, and we miss each other during the remote days—we are working hard to build consistency and maximize the time we have in-person,” Kelly said. Connecting with the fully remote learners is important as well. “We’ve had some remote classes come to do trail work; and The Nebula News, a weekly segment produced by Music Teacher Bri Davenport, highlighted the exciting work that remote students have done from home. We are always looking for ways to keep the school community connected.” 

In short, the teachers’ willingness to think outside the box, has quite literally led to the shift that Academy School has been working toward for the past few years. The pandemic has fueled the increased use of the forest and garden space on a regular basis for all students, and there is no looking back! 

December 2020 Farm To School Connection

December Newsletter

WNESU Feeds Families During Thanksgiving

Farming While Black

Students Get a “Sweet” Taste Test

Bon Appetit! Cooking at Green Street School

Pandemic Silver Linings: Creative Cooking at Green Street School

Green Street School’s French teacher, Alice Charkes, fondly known as “Madame” by her students, has been integrating cooking and gardening into her curriculum for many years. This fall, her job looks a bit different. She is teaching French remotely 3 days a week, and she is one of the 4th-grade classroom teachers 2 days a week for hybrid in-person instruction.

Initially daunted by the shift from foreign language teacher to a classroom teacher, Alice seized this opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons—which she normally does with second graders each year as citron pressé—and build on some of the things she loves into the classroom, even more, this year. Smaller class sizes (Madame has 5 students in her classroom) and more time with students allows Madame to do more cooking with students than ever before. So far this year, she has made a chickpea and fresh herb salad inspired by French chef Grégory Cohen and individual pizzas. She plans to make French gingerbread and cookies later this month. 

Madame found that there are some unexpected benefits to cooking with students during COVID-19. For example, in the past, she would have small groups of students prepare different aspects of the recipe but in order to keep the spread of germs to a minimum, she divides up all of the ingredients ahead of time and each student makes their own small portion of each dish, so they learn to make the recipe from start to finish and they taste the food that they created on their own, exactly the way they like it. For example, when she made pizzas with students in November, each student had their own ball of pizza dough that they formed and shaped themselves. They topped their pizzas with freshly made tomato sauce made with tomatoes and herbs from the school garden, cheese, and toppings of their choice including mushrooms, peppers, onions, and pineapple.

Naturally, Alice incorporates French into her cooking lessons. She was teaching her students pizza vocabulary (fromage, champignon, sauce tomate, poivron, etc.) for several weeks. Making pizzas together was the culminating project for that unit. Students asked for ingredients by their French names and played Hangman with French pizza vocabulary while the individual pies were baking.

Madame has taught a pizza unit to fourth graders for many years but this is the first time that she felt that she had the capacity to actually make pizza with students. Having a small group of students all day made it possible to do a creative cooking project that would have been impossible with a whole class of students during a 30-minute foreign language lesson. In addition, thanks to a mini-grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield to purchase a cooking cart for the school, Madame and her students had everything they needed on the cart to prepare food together, including cutting boards, graters, baking sheets, and a convection oven. 

Madame also received help from Food Connects’ Farm to School program coordinator, Sheila Humphreys. They began by brainstorming together about the project. As plans took shape, Sheila was able to offer concrete support by helping Madame collect ingredients and joining Madame and her students in the classroom while cooking. Food Connects staff traditionally support member schools (like Green Street School) through coaching Farm to School teams and providing technical assistance to school nutrition programs and don't often work directly with students in classrooms but given the unusual circumstances of this school year and the increased challenge of cooking with students during COVID-19, we were happy to help out!

Alice is also working on a French garden sign-making project with Green Street School art teacher Rachel Mangean. In the spring, garden beds will have bilingual signage created by students identifying the crops grown by students. Encouraged by the success of this year’s pizza making, Madame is brainstorming with garden coordinator Tara Gordon about growing more potential pizza toppings in the school garden next year. Finally, she initiated the development of Vermont Harvest of the Month posters in French and Spanish and assisted with French translations for the posters. Alice Charkes, ‘Madame,’ is truly a Farm to School champion!

If you are interested in cooking with students during COVID-19 but aren’t sure where to start, please check out these cooking guidelines for ideas on how to do so safely.

Bon appetit!

"Sweet" Taste Tests at Academy School

Students at Academy School in Brattleboro enjoyed diverse taste tests of sweet potatoes, the Vermont Harvest of the Month for November, thanks to Academy’s garden coordinator, Kathy Cassin. Taste tests look different this fall because of meal program changes due to COVID-19. 

Currently, Academy’s Food Service Professionals are preparing unitized meals for students at multiple schools in the district and they do not have the capacity to prepare taste tests from the cafeteria for Academy School students as they normally would. Kathy was able to find a creative solution to this problem. Meeting with small groups of students, mostly outside in the school’s gardens and outdoor classrooms, each of which has its own fire pit for cooking, Kathy made roasted sweet potatoes over the fire with several groups of students. She also baked sweet potato cookies at home and brought them in to share with students (a big hit!), and she made sweet potato hummus which she served to students with sweet potato crackers and chips purchased at the Brattleboro Food Coop.

Later this month, she will support the kindergarten class with their annual stone soup celebration, and they plan to add sweet potatoes to the soup. Kathy is spreading the word about sweet potatoes to families via recipes and fun facts in the school newsletter, and sharing photos of her cooking and taste tests with students on the school garden Facebook page.  

WNESU Feeds Families During Thanksgiving

A week off from school didn’t stop the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) Farm to School Cafe team from feeding their community local, delicious food.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Food Service Director, Harley Sterling and his team distributed 523 food boxes filled with local ingredients like Grafton Village Cheese, The Bread Shed bread, Plainville Farm squash, and organic Mi Tierra tortillas. Each family also received an activity about the origin of tortillas and the ingredients to make a quesadilla as a family. 

There will be a second holiday food box distribution in December on the 23rd and 30th. Follow the WNESU Farm to School website for updates on sign-ups and pick-up times.

Book Review: Farming While Black by Leah Penniman

Farmer, author, educator, and activist Leah Penniman’s 2018 book is an essential addition to the bookshelves of educators, farmers, food and racial justice activists, and anyone interested in the history of food and farming in the US. With chapters on topics ranging from Planning Your Farm Business and Feeding the Soil to Honoring the Spirits of the Land, Healing From Trauma, and Movement Building, Farming While Black provides practical farming education, spiritual nourishment, an honest reckoning with the painful history of generations of BIPOC people in the food system, and plenty of inspiration and resources. As a progressive, educated white woman with a keen interest in food systems reading this book, I was humbled by how many of the details of this history were unknown to me and I am inspired by the work of Penniman and other BIPOC people working towards liberation through food sovereignty. I also learned tips on practical skills like seed saving and sheet composting that I can use in my own garden.

In the words of Karen Washington in the book’s foreword, “Confronting everything from the destruction of the continent’s original populace to the tyranny of colonialism, this masterpiece of indigenous sovereignty sheds light on the richness of Black culture permeating throughout agriculture.” 

In this book, the reader learns how many of the practices currently in use by organic and sustainable farmers in the U.S. have their roots in African and Indigenous farming techniques. Starting with a grounded historical account of the systemic political and economic racism that resulted in 90% of Black-owned farmland being lost in the past 100 years in our country, Penniman’s well-researched work provides a strong foundation for any food justice curriculum. Specific examples illustrate the many acts of resistance undertaken to preserve African food sovereignty, like the African women who, after being kidnapped in West Africa, braided rice and other seeds into their hair and brought them to the Americas. Each chapter also contains several “Uplift” sections that share inspiring and hopeful success stories from African Diasporic farmers to illustrate the concepts presented in the chapter.

This book would make a wonderful gift for any educators, farmers, or activists in your life, and all profits from book sales are donated to Black farmers. Pick up a copy today as a holiday gift or for yourself. 

For more information about Penniman and her inspiring work connecting food sovereignty and racial justice, check out this recent article in Vogue Magazine. Leah Penniman is the Co-Director and Farm Manager of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. 

November 2020 Farm To School Connection

November Newsletter

Compost is Brewing at Riverside Middle School

Everyone Eats! Springfield Highlights

Movie Review: Gather

Who Feeds Our Kids?

Who Grows Our Food?

Resource Roundup

Everyone Eats! Springfield Highlights

At the beginning of the pandemic, local leaders in Springfield and Chester stepped up to organize new and familiar resources to feed their communities. 

Trish Paradis, executive director of The Springfield Family Center (SCF), an institution that has been serving the community for almost 50 years, adapted services to support the increased nutrition need due to COVID-19. At the same time, Christopher Meyer, a Chester native, and Jason Tostrup, owner of The Free Range, began serving restaurant meals and meal kits for community members through their new non-profit, Chester Helping Hands (CHH). 

“We were collaborating, sharing resources and supporting each other,” said Paradis. “When we heard about the potential for Everyone Eats! funding, we decided we could partner as a hub and better serve our region.”

SFC and CHH were awarded CARES Act funding to serve as the regional hub for Everyone Eats! (EE!), a restaurant stimulus and community food program, which has distributed over 17,000 meals since the summer. 

EE! is not only feeding the community, it is also benefiting local restaurants. As the regional hub, The Springfield Family Center and Chester Helping Hands collaborate with 11 restaurants to distribute food at 10 different distribution sites in Springfield, Chester, Ludlow, Rockingham, Bellows Falls, Cavendish, and Londonderry. 

This unique community food program creates opportunities for hard-working organizations, chefs, and individuals to do meaningful work in their own communities.

“We are really grateful to be a part of this program,” shared Nick Matush, head chef and co-owner of The Copper Fox in Springfield. “In these next few weeks, with tourism especially low, Everyone Eats! will really help keep us afloat. It puts money in our pockets when we’re typically closed and that has been a big help for us.”

What’s On the Menu?

Everyone Eats! is not only meant to support local restaurants but also local farmers. 10% of the food served must be purchased locally, which has connected local farms with local chefs. At the Copper Fox, Everyone Eats! meals are a way to utilize the local ingredients they already purchase.

“The Everyone Eats! menu changes depending on what we have but because our restaurant has a local focus, we are typically above the 10% requirement. We’ve made some vegetarian options like quinoa veggie bowls and rice and beans plus we’ve made beef stew, shepherds pie, BBQ chicken, and more. Any time we serve beef it is from our locally raised, grass-fed cows. We’re proud to be serving our community high-quality food through this program.” 

Everyone Eats! Springfield will continue feeding the community, putting local chefs to work, buying from local farmers, and strengthening local networks until the end of December.

Everyone Eats! meals can be picked up at The Springfield Family Center Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and in the Springfield Plaza on November 18 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. 

Chester Helping Hands distributes meals, first come, first served on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in front of Southern Pie Cafe on the Green in Chester. Registration required for delivery.

Want to support the continued efforts of these local organizations?

Follow The Springfield Family Center and Chester Helping Hands to learn about opportunities to donate and volunteer.

Looking for a locally made meal? Check out www.vteveryoneats.org for more information on finding a distribution site near you.