BS&L Grows Farm to School in Brattleboro

Sprouting kits, blooming gardens, outdoor exploration, and more—Brattleboro schools had a great year of Farm to School activities. Over the past school year, we have seen the flexibility and adaptability of Farm to School programs. At Food Connects, we work with schools to coach teams and implement Farm to School activities. This year, Brattleboro Savings & Loan (BS&L) sponsored a portion of our work in the Brattleboro schools.

"At BS&L, we understand that good nutrition and access to healthy foods is critical to developing lifelong healthy eating habits and overall good health,” says Dan Yates, President and CEO at BS&L. “That's one reason we support this important program." 

Students gardening at Green Street School.

One of the most effective ways to get kids to eat new foods is by engaging them in growing their fruits and veggies. Taste tests and school gardens throughout the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) bring these experiences daily. The Farm to School efforts don’t end when the school year finishes either! A perennial Farm to School question is, what do you do with the gardens when students aren’t there? Each school has a unique answer to this question; the WSESD partners with Food Connects to ensure the gardens thrive throughout the year. 

Tara Gordon, Food Connects Garden Coordinator, has worked hard all summer tending to the plants and inviting families into the space. Tara’s consistent presence ensures the beds don’t get out of hand, whether it’s an early-season drought or soaking rains. She is also a friendly guide for families interested in learning more over the summer months.

“It's amazing to see the gardens come to life in the summer, the colors, the smells, the heights and fullness of the plants, and of course the fresh fruits and vegetables we can enjoy, making the garden such a wonderful place to spend time in the summer.” reflects Mary Kauffman, Oak Grove School Principal. “Each month, Tara can be seen throughout the school working with classes, both inside and outside, to learn more about gardening, harvesting, and cooking!” 

Summer Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon.

Support from Brattleboro Savings & Loan helps Food Connects bring the needed resources to Tara and Oak Grove for successful programs, whether that’s cooking supplies, seeds, community connections, or a partner in curriculum development. Visit Oak Grove during their annual Harvest Dinner to see the fruits of everyone’s work—delicious foods grown on the campus and engaged students proud of the healthy meal they had a part in creating.  

For many, Farm to School is the highlight of the day, principals included! “I love spending time in classes when Tara is the guest visitor,” says Mary Kauffman. “We get to learn about the harvest, see how easily it can be included in our everyday lives, and get to taste something delicious.”

Planting Day Returns to Westminster

Take your pinky and thumb and spread them apart; press them into the soil, marking two holes. Now drop a sunflower seed in each hole and lightly cover it with soil. Westminster Center School’s Kindergarten classes continued the thirty-year tradition with seeds saved from the previous year’s sunflowers during a cloudy yet deceptively warm Planting Day this past May.

Returning after a hiatus last year due to COVID-19, Planting Day is a school-wide event to get the school gardens ready for the growing season. Every class in the school came out to work with Mandy Walsh, the school’s librarian and Farm to School teacher. Joined by Conor and Laura from Food Connects, Mandy led each class on a tour of the gardens before diving into their project for the day. 

Fourth grade learned how any potato could become a “seed potato” and then planted the “eyes” in four mounded rows. Sixth grade was responsible for planting the corn, and then they got to work watering the rest of the garden, fed the chickens, and looked for snakes in the tall grass. Each grade had a specific crop that needed planting and saw how their efforts contributed to the garden’s success.

Throughout the day, the garden transformed from a tilled patch of soil to rows filled with plants. When students return in the fall, the crops will be ready for harvest. Students will work together to create a Harvest Supper to share with the community and celebrate their collective work.

The Living Schoolyard: Nature, Learning, and Landscape at Oak Grove School

Seeds planted during the 2018-2019 school year at Oak Grove School are bearing fruit as a living schoolyard and a vibrant garden featuring native plants take root on Oak Grove’s campus. Over the past two and a half years, a collaborative process between school staff, parents, students, and administration unfolded, making steady progress in spite of several obstacles. Principal Mary Kaufmann celebrates the project’s success, stating that “the schoolyard has developed into a lovely and welcoming space. Kids love to be outside! The more we have worked on the space, the more time we see classes outdoors.” 

The visioning process for the project began in 2018 as a conversation between then principal Jeri Curry and a group of parents interested in making improvements to the playground. They identified problems including: 

• A lack of quiet spaces for students in need of a less stimulating recess environment

• Outdated play structures and not enough swings

• A lack of shady areas on hot, sunny days 

• Limited choices for a range of play opportunities across all ages, especially pre-K and older students

Every project needs champions, and there are several champions of Oak Grove’s living schoolyard project. This project weathered a change of administrators, superintendents, and facilities manager, as well as a school district merger and a global pandemic. It’s not been easy, but as the rewards start to emerge, it’s worth it. Some of the champions who helped bring this vision to reality are:

• Former principal Jeri Curry. Curry began the project in her final year as principal, acknowledged parents' ongoing concerns about the outdated playground, secured start-up funds, formed a committee, and approved the idea to invest in mapping a long-term, broad scope vision by hiring a designer.

• Current Oak Grove principal Mary Kaufmann. Kaufmann has supported the continued progress on the project’s goals through many transitions and prioritized hiring a school garden coordinator.

• School garden coordinator Tara Gordon. Gordon led the move of the school garden and is connecting the garden to the classroom through meaningful hands-on learning and curricular connections for all students.

• Former facilities manager Greg Frost. Frost supported the garden relocation, built outdoor stump seating and other outdoor classroom spaces, and managed many other project logistics.

• New facilities manager Chad Pacheco. Pacheco continues to support the project as he enters into his new role.

• Academic support teacher Laura Haskins. Haskins leads the Oak Grove Green Team and has been planting trees with students on the playground for many years.

• Fifth-grade teacher Karen DiIorio-Bowen. Dilorio-Bowen has been integrating nature-based education into her curriculum for many years and built part of her curriculum around the living schoolyard this year.

• PTO chair and parent Tara Davis. Davis immediately took a keen interest in the project—standing at the crossroads of parent, neighborhood, and teacher perspectives as a former teacher interested in outdoor education and a neighborhood resident. 

The project began with visioning, which included surveying students, staff, and parents to get feedback on which playground elements these stakeholders wanted to keep and what new ideas people had that could be expanded on and prioritized. As part of this visioning process, the team brought in Nancy Striniste, a landscape designer with a background in child development, to help create a master plan redesigning the playground and school gardens. Certain elements of the plan have already happened, such as:

• Relocating the school garden

• Building a footbridge for creative play

• Creating a new, wider, curved welcoming pathway at the playground entrance

• Building cedar stump seating for the outdoor classroom

A highlight has been the move of the garden. Kaufmann says the garden has “grown and flourished thanks to the work of Tara Gordon and the students at Oak Grove.” Kaufmann notes that students take pride in the work they do in the garden. She sees many benefits in students “being able to be a part of something so beautiful that leads to harvesting and enjoying their hard work.” According to garden coordinator Tara Gordon, “The Oak Grove School garden is developing into a special place abundant with a rich array of perennial and native plantings, garden cultivars and annual florals, vegetables, fruits, and even mushrooms.” These plantings are designed to support and encourage outdoor learning, foster connections to nature, and provide opportunities to learn about the local landscape. Gordon sees garden education as an integral part of the school curriculum and community development. Community engagement has been one of the keys to success—during the fall of 2020, a group of “guerilla gardeners” came together and planted more than a hundred spring bulbs donated by various community members and kept the location of the plantings secret from the students for a spring surprise.

Student involvement is another key component of the project. The school invited all students to participate in the Pennies for the Playground initiative—a program designed to teach the power of the penny. Back in November 2020, tennis ball piggy banks were distributed to all students. As a show of gratitude, students were invited to collect pennies to help support the living playground project. Working with pennies made it accessible for students and families from all economic backgrounds. Collaboratively, the school community has raised $649.34 so far, including $163 raised by a penny challenge organized by Brattleboro Savings and Loan. Students voted recently to spend this money towards another step in the master plan—creating a new digging area won by a landslide. This will be completed over the summer and ready when students return to school.

DiIorio-Bowen’s fifth-grade class has been a key partner in the project this year through participation in the Wild Treasures program, 350 Vermont’s Rewild Vermont project, and a collaboration with Edible Brattleboro to plant additional trees on the campus. Kaufmann says, “The work the fifth graders did this year to learn about the carbon cycle and the environment led to an amazing culminating activity in which plants and trees were added to the playground, bringing more beauty and function to the space.” Karen’s students worked and consulted with Gordon to develop a plant list and placement throughout the school grounds following the master plan. Plantings included a whole array of native perennials, including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous pollinator plants. The project's budget also includes an extensive signage collection with artwork and research by the students displayed throughout the gardens. The fifth-grade planting day culminated with a closing circle around the new sugar maple tree. Students placed handfuls of soil around the tree roots along with special wishes they had written on pieces of paper to place into the hole. Together, everyone recited the Earth Pledge and sang the official state song of Vermont, “These Green Mountains.” 

Jen Tourville's pre-k class has also been involved in lots of garden work this year, setting aside time weekly for planting, harvesting, and cooking together with Gordon. They are also enjoying an infusion of local produce into their snack program thanks to a CSA grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.

All classes took part in the project in one way or another, thanks to Gordon’s ability to engage all classrooms in food preparation with garden produce, foraging education in the neighborhood, and a dedication by all staff to get students out in the gardens and onto the living schoolyard regularly.

This project has relied on the incredible generosity of spirit, time, resources, and skills coming from the community. Many thanks to:

• Edible Brattleboro for donating fruit trees and a hickory sapling,

• Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) and local arborist Bob Everingham from All About Trees for donating large cedar stumps for stump seating,

• numerous neighbors and community members who donated supplies for a mud kitchen playspace for preschool students, bird feeders for classrooms to feed birds throughout the winter, and permission to tap maple trees in the neighborhood,

• Heritage Maple Farm for supporting the first school sugaring operation by supplying buckets, taps, and other resources,

• Hamilton Lumber for providing firewood for the wood-fired sugaring operation,

• and the Food Connects Farm to School team for their continued support throughout the garden move, providing professional development opportunities, and a matching donation to the Pennies for the Playground initiative.

Davis made a point of reaching out to the community via Facebook, Front Porch Forum, and casual conversations with neighbors. She believes in creating connections, “especially as we emerge from the pandemic—connection is vital in bringing joy and meaning not only to Oak Grove students but our community at large. Everyone benefits when we work together for the collective good - in this case, the creation of a vibrant living schoolyard that also happens to lie in the heart of the Oak Grove neighborhood.” 

Looking ahead, there are several next steps in the process for the living schoolyard:

• The creation of a sensory path around the playground’s perimeter, funded by a grant from RiseVT, This path will build upon the new bridge, incorporating a living tunnel and a balance trail.

• The construction of an edible mushroom garden along the north side of the building will feature shiitakes and oyster mushrooms. 

• A digging area, funded by the Pennies for the Playground initiative, some mounds for climbing, and some cob construction structures.

Kaufmann sums up the success of the project, saying, “our school grounds are something we take pride in, and the work of the living schoolyard team, the community, and the students and staff at Oak Grove School have made it a wonderful place to be and to learn!” The living schoolyard project actively seeks support from local businesses and community members who want to be involved. For more information, call Oak Grove School at (802) 254-3740 or email principal Mary Kaufmann at mkaufmann@wsesdvt.org.

The Apple of Dummerston School's Eye

Dummerston School will begin growing apples this year thanks to a donation of 12 apple trees from Scott Farm! All of the donated trees are Kerry’s Irish Pippins, a semi-dwarf tree first recorded in Kilkenny, Ireland, in the early 19th century. The trees are heavy fruiters and are at their peak during the first few weeks of the school year. A group of dedicated Dummerston school staff, including principal Julianne Eagan, teachers Molly Stoner and Keith Marshall, and paraeducator Hannah Van Loon, worked together to plant the new orchard one Saturday morning in mid-May. We can’t wait to see this project bear fruit!

Principal Julianne Eagan plants trees. Middle school teacher Keith Marshall and his new puppy lend a hand.

Raised Beds Return to BAMS

Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS) teachers Jess Montenieri and Elyse Wadsworth wanted to see more opportunities for students to engage in outdoor learning. Reflecting on the past year, Elyse noted that “it's been difficult to see students spending so much time on Zoom with very little opportunity to move around, go outside and just be kids. We saw the raised beds as a great way to get students outside, even if it's just for a daily watering and check-in.” 

Jess and Elyse found energetic partners on the newly formed BAMS Leadership Team. Parents Amit Sharma and Sheila Humphreys were thrilled to see some of the strong Farm to School programming present in the elementary schools make its way into the middle school. 

More BAMS parents, Jacob Leach and Sam Schneski, offered to pitch in with some carpentry know-how, connections with local sawmills, and some donated supplies. Quickly, this team formed a plan to build new raised beds on the campus, the first step towards a more robust outdoor education program for the school.  

Parents, staff, and a few students gathered on a cool spring day, ready to get to work. Over the next couple of hours, they built four new raised beds, filled each with compost donated from Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) and Renaud's Tree Care, and planted starts donated from Walker Farm. A couple weeks later, 7th-grade students decorated the beds with their artwork. The beds now feature kale, brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, and many different types of herbs. 

The team planted primarily fall harvest crops—meaning easy summer maintenance and a bountiful garden ready to welcome students back in September. Jill Kelley, the Brattleboro Enrichment Activities for Middle School (BEAMS) Director, also joined in the build day and plans to incorporate maintaining the beds into student activities during summer camp. Next year, students will try to prepare the vegetables a few different ways, experimenting with the new foods and finding the dish that is just right. 

BAMS Principal, Keith Lyman, helped construct the beds and is excited to see more opportunities to get kids learning outdoors in the coming years. 

“We are always looking for new ways to engage students and families in our school community, and I am so proud of the work everyone has done to begin this work,” Keith said. “The more we can get kids outside learning through the world around them, the more likely we will have happy and engaged students. The gardens are beautiful, and the student artwork made the plain wooden walls come to life! I look forward to the fruits (or vegetables) of our labor!”

In the meantime, keep an eye out for the new raised beds next time you're driving by BAMS. They’re a hopeful sign of more to come!

Garden Renaissance Day at Putney Central School

The Putney Central School (PCS) community celebrated May Day 2021 with a garden renaissance work party. School staff, students, and their families turned out on a chilly, sunny morning to prepare the garden for the upcoming season. Together they revitalized the six 4 x 12 foot raised beds, which, after nearly a decade of use by classrooms, needed fresh wooden frames and soil amendments. They also planted seven new fruit trees (plum, cherry, apple, and pear) in the school’s large orchard (with another ten apple trees being planted by 4th grade the following week). They celebrated the roughly 11,000 square foot (¼ acre) freshly tilled garden area—a revitalized project for the school that will be a crop-bearing garden growing vegetables to process, freeze, and serve the school meal program.

Principal Herve Pelletier was pleasantly surprised by the strong turnout of school families, eager to gather together in person outside after a long winter to celebrate spring. This work party was an opportunity to breathe new life into the school’s decade-plus old Farm to School program—a central part of the school’s curriculum and culture. “We first started our involvement with Farm to School about ten years ago,” says Herve, “and so to see the energy around this event and the commitment to the work that needs to be done is just great.” 

Sustainability Coordinator and Food Service Director Steve Hed is delighted to move forward with the more extensive garden. As a champion of local food and hands-on farm, food, and nutrition education for all students, he dreams of producing more food on campus and increasing student involvement in the garden. A combination of grant funding and local funds made it possible to build a much larger walk-in fridge and freezer for the school, which has made it finally possible to dream big and create a production garden on campus. 

Students will help grow, harvest, and prepare fresh produce from the garden, with support from Steve and classroom teachers who will integrate these experiences into the curriculum. Steve and his team will serve these hyper-local foods at school meals so that all students can share in Putney Central School’s harvest. Steve is passionate about teaching students the importance of nutrition and health. He believes that school food service should be a significant part of the curriculum. “Teaching kids, particularly at a young age, how to eat right now, just like learning ABCs, can impact them positively or negatively throughout their whole life,” says Steve.

In addition to the families and staff who turned out on May 1 to build and plant together, several other community partners supported this project, including:

• Apple trees from Scott Farm Orchard

• Plum, cherry, and pear trees from Mark Mowrey

• Tree expertise from PCS parent and Sullivan County (NH) Natural Resources Director Lionel Chute

• Raised bed timbers from Carl Mosher

• High-quality compost from Bazin Farms

• Rototilling the newly revived garden plot by Eric McGowan

• Seeds, garden support, and Farm to School coaching and programming from Food Connects 

“Honestly, it would be impossible to take on a project of this scale without the support of so many of our parents and community members,” says Herve.

Putney Central School is laying the foundation now for a program that will have a considerable impact on the lives of children in the community for many years to come, and we can’t wait to see the fruits of their harvest over time!

Taste Tests: From Garden to Classroom to Cafeteria

Taste tests are an integral part of Farm to School programming and an easy way for newer schools to jump into FTS while making some “3 C’s” connections (classroom, cafeteria, and community). Guilford Central School has been at it for a while and their FTS Coordinator, Sarah Rosow, works with each grade to make dishes for the rest of the school to sample. Back in October—before there was 2 feet of snow on the ground—I joined Sarah and a group of fourth-graders to harvest some kale for their monthly taste test. 

Sarah and two fourth graders cleaning a bed in preparation for winter.

I met the group in front of the school in their vegetable garden. As it was nearing the end of the season, many of the beds were cleared out. But there was still plenty of kale and this was one of the last harvests of the season. Students collected bunches of curly and dinosaur kale that all went into the salad spinner. Back in the classroom, some students washed the kale while others prepped the other ingredients that would go into the pesto recipe. Guilford is lucky to have a Farm to School classroom (a repurposed science classroom) that gives students more space to work and store their projects, making the preparation of the taste tests a bit easier. But, all that is really needed is a clear working surface and some kitchen utensils for students. 

The Farm to School classroom at Guilford Central School.

The finished product before mixing with pasta for the taste tests.

During the taste test preparations, students were not only learning about growing vegetables but also building culinary skills as they read the recipe and washed and chopped the ingredients. The last step was to combine everything in a food processor and taste the end product themselves before bringing samples to each of the school’s classrooms.  

Ideally—once all the students get a chance to taste the pesto—the next step is to coordinate with the school kitchen to get the new item on the menu. That way, students will already be familiar with the dish and there will be excitement stemming from the student involvement. 

Interested in starting taste tests in your school? Check out these resources to get started:

Food Connects HOM page- links to both VT and NH HOM materials

VT HOM Facebook page

HOM Calendars (contact Conor for a copy)

By Conor Floyd

Reflection: Summer 2019 Garden Program

Green Street School Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, spent her summer working for Food Connects to care for school gardens at 5 area elementary schools in the towns of Brattleboro, Guilford, and Vernon. This summer garden program was made possible in part thanks to a grant from Rise Vermont. Here are a few highlights from Tara’s summer in the gardens:

Teachers from Academy School met with Tara in the spring to orient her to the garden and show her some of the crops they were growing. This included popcorn seedlings donated by Wild Carrot Farm that needed to be hand-pollinated. Throughout the summer, Tara connected with families on the playground while she was working in the garden. School staff helped with watering and harvesting. Funding for school gardens and the supplies needed can be difficult, but Tara reached out to the Brattleboro community and they did not disappoint. She was able to get a bale of straw donated for mulching, needed to combat the weeds and help the garden flourish. Teachers and students are looking forward to harvesting from their beautifully tended garden this fall!

Green Street School had families and neighbors who helped in the garden throughout the summer. The harvest was bountiful over the summer and extra produce was shared with school staff and neighbors. Tara was able to process and save some produce for school year classroom activities as well. Green Street has an ongoing relationship with Yalla Vermont growing and harvesting cilantro, parsley, and calendula for the Yalla kitchen. Because of Tara’s and the Green Street School community’s work this project continued throughout the summer. Tara also tended heirloom peas as part of a project in collaboration with the Brattleboro Words Project. These peas are an early variety which was grown in Brattleboro in the late 1700’s, and seeds from this year’s harvest will be available next year through a seed saving project in collaboration with Brooks Memorial Library!

Guilford Central School has well-established gardens and a great core group of active families who came to the garden throughout the summer to garden and harvest with Tara. Surplus produce from the school garden was brought to the Guilford General Store a couple of times and the school garden was highlighted on the General Store’s menu! Guilford Central School’s Farm to School Coordinator, Sarah Rosow, was a great partner for Tara, with many garden systems already in place, including a well organized tool shed and a clear plan for summer planting.  In addition to her work in the garden, Tara was also able to process some calendula and basil for Sarah to use this fall with her students.

Oak Grove School invited Tara to work in the garden with some classes in the spring to seed and plant, and learn about weeds. The Brattleboro Town School District summer school was based at Oak Grove this year, which allowed Tara to work with students and teachers regularly in the summer. Neighbors also showed support for the garden—in particular, a nice neighbor just across the street donated a bale of hay for mulch. The bulk of the food grown in Oak Grove’s garden will be harvested by students this fall and each class will cook a dish for the annual harvest dinner in October.

At Vernon Elementary School, the river bed soil is very rich and the plants flourished. The primary goal for the garden in Vernon this year was to provide families a space to grow and harvest over the summer, and crops were planted with summer harvesting in mind. Several families worked with Tara throughout the summer, and extra produce was brought to the Vernon pool to share with the community. Next year, this group hopes to have a Vernon School Garden Booth at their 4th of July town festival.

Community building was an essential of Tara’s work this summer. Tara created Facebook groups for each school garden as a tool to reach parents during the summer, and she made colorful flyers to spread the word about her weekly school garden parties.  She also made connections with Edible Brattleboro, a local college student, and several high school students who used community service hours to help her tend these gardens. Many hands made the work a little lighter!

It was incredibly helpful to the schools to have someone care for their gardens and build community in the gardens over the summer, and Food Connects is pleased that we were able to offer this program for the third year in a row. Many thanks to Tara for her hard work tending gardens and building summer garden communities at each school, and a big thank you to Rise Vermont for helping to fund this important and valuable work!

Photos By: Tara Gordon

Welcoming Our Summer Garden Coordinator

Food Connects extends a warm welcome to Tara Gordon—our new summer garden program coordinator for five area schools this summer (Academy School, Green Street School, Oak Grove School, Guilford Central School, and Vernon Elementary School). Tara is a mother of two, has a multidisciplinary background in the biological sciences, was the Garden Coordinator for Putney Central School for three years, and is now the Green Street School Garden Coordinator. Tara finds gardening to be a wonderful way to instill a sense of purpose, a practical way to grow awareness of our place in nature, a way to cultivate our curiosity and creativity as caregivers, and a way to develop a closer interrelationship with the natural world. She is looking forward to working in the gardens with students and families over the summer.

Summer garden care is a crucial part of a healthy school garden program. Without someone tending gardens over the summer, gardens get overgrown and underwatered, making the fall harvests smaller and the overall gardening experience less pleasant for students and teachers. This is the third year that Food Connects has offered this valuable service to schools. Some schools have been able to find funds within their existing budgets to “buy-in” to this program, however not all schools have been able to find funds even though they have the need. We are grateful to Rise VT for a grant this season which allows us to expand our program and serve the communities of Guilford and Vernon.

West River Education District Hires Garden Coordinator

Leland & Gray Union Middle & High School and NewBrook School have combined forces to hire local farmer and educator, Sam Kilmurray, to coordinate garden activities for students at both schools this spring. Modeled after similar programming in Guilford and Brattleboro, Sam will work with classroom teachers to get even more students working in the garden. She is excited to involve students in planting, maintaining, and harvesting spring crops and will coordinate with teachers to reinforce classroom concepts whenever possible. Co-owner of Amazing Planet Farm in Williamsville, VT, Sam has immense experience in farming. Having participated in the Four Winds program over the past 3 years, Sam is also an experienced outdoor educator and enjoys teaching students new and useful skills for understanding the world around them. This position is generously funded by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, Food Connects, and WRED Medicaid funding.