By Diana Pena
Diana Pena is a CDC Public Health Associate serving as the Farm to School Coordinator at the Georgia Department of Public Health. She also supports the Georgia Farm to School team in our work to achieve Georgia Farm to School Alliance and Farm to Early Care and Education strategic plan goals.
Touring the World with Locally Grown Items: Spotlight on Farm to School Innovation Grantee Jones County Schools!
Georgia Organics and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) have collaborated to establish the Farm to School Innovation Mini Grants Program. These funds support farm to school initiatives that:
· Increase access to local, fresh, organically grown food,
· Include culturally responsive food and education,
· Increase local food procurement,
· And/or benefit Georgia-certified organic farmers in other ways.
To learn more about the Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant Program click here.
We are excited to highlight Farm to School Mini Grant Awardee Jones County School System. Matoshia Grant, School Nutrition Director of Jones County Schools, leads the work of this culturally responsive food education project.
With only seven schools, Jones County School system is small in comparison to others in Georgia. Their geographic locality limits students’ exposure to cultural and ethnic food, which prompted Matoshia Grant to propose this project, “to allow students to tour the world with locally grown foods.” Matoshia and Jones’s County Schools’ personnel have worked together to create taste-tests, host cooking lessons with a chef, and secure a field trip to a local farmer’s market.
Images courtesy of Matoshia Grant, School Nutrition Director of Jones County Schools
Pandemic response measures have resulted in a number of challenges for congregate meal sites that make hosting taste tests challenging. Reduced participation coupled with social distancing requirements have forced a reimagining of how taste testing events are held. Matoshia and her staff found a work-around by inviting groups of 10 students from each grade to participate. Despite this solution, some students are still not able to attend the taste test events. This does not deter Jones County School System from continuing to create and offer more Farm to School activities.
Matoshia shares they recently hosted a cooking lesson using locally grown kale from a nearby farmer’s market. She said that students have “fun seeing the kale transform from a ‘yucky’ vegetable to a crispy chip.”
Jones County Schools is also working on creating a fruit stand.
Matoshia shares she was able to connect with a local farmer’s market to source satsumas (pictured below), a type of Japanese mandarin. These fruits will be offered to students in taste tests and on the fruit stand. Procurement of these satsumas has even led to a vendor partnership, and now satsumas will be distributed in all seven schools, in addition to their fruit stand.
Matoshia is excited that, “Chef Michael Davis will be coming out to school to do a taste test and presentation on how to incorporate vegetables into tasty desserts!” Their plan is to create sweet potato tarts using carrots and potatoes.
Lastly, Matoshia and her staff have successfully secured a field trip for students to a local farmer’s market! The goal of this farmer’s market visit is to allow students to explore new and different types of food.
Although the pandemic has created limitations for Jones County Schools, their hard work and perseverance to create opportunities for their students can be observed through their abundant farm to school programming.
To see updates on Jones County Schools, visit: jonescountyschoolnutrition.com and follow them on social media at facebook.com/JonesCountySchoolNutrition and @JonesCoSchoolNutritionGa on Twitter. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.