Farm to School Innovation Mini Grant Spotlight: Farm to School Excitement Grows in Emanuel County School Gardens

By Yaza Sarieh 

Yaza Sarieh is the Georgia Organics Community Collaboration Coordinator.

Georgia Organics, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) and Newman’s Own Foundation have partnered to sponsor the second annual Farm to School Innovation Mini Grants. These funds support farm to school initiatives in eight Georgia school districts that:  

• Increase access to local, fresh, organically grown foods  

• Include culturally responsive food and education 

• Include organic and/or sustainability-focused garden 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, click here. 

We are pleased to highlight mini grant awardee: Emanuel County School District. Kim Hooks, the district’s Farm to School Coordinator as of July 2022, has been hard at work building gardens for all the schools in Emanuel County!

Photo courtesy of Kim Hooks, Emanuel County School District

Kim Hooks has been an environmental science teacher for 30 years. She shifted her focus to farm to school in 2020 after realizing how dramatically the Pandemic impacted the health and well-being of her community. Kim reflected, “When COVID hit, it sent a message that we need to be aware of and connected to where food comes from. It became apparent because of all the supply chain issues... and the fact that people were becoming food insecure. If the pandemic taught us anything, it is not to take our farmers and health for granted.” 

Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, Kim was determined to expand farm to school programming in Emanuel County. One of her goals was to build a garden at every school in the district so that students could have the opportunity to grow their own food and learn about nutrition. This year’s mini grant helped Kim to repair gardens that had deteriorated during COVID and build new gardens at schools that had never had them. 

Photo courtesy of Kim Hooks, Emanuel County School District

Through garden education, students have enjoyed hands-on, interactive lessons that have encouraged meaningful, lasting connections with their environment. In one school community, students learned the importance of composting by getting their hands dirty (literally!). The students were surprised to discover how warm the compost was, which led to a discussion about how compost is made and how it can sustain plant life. They were so excited that ‘the compost was alive,’ which really sparked their curiosity and lifted their enthusiasm for the garden.  

Now that the Emanuel County school gardens are established, Kim hopes to increase the size of the gardens to grow produce for more taste tests.  The Farm to School Innovation mini grant project has impacted hundreds of Emanuel County students. Throughout the project, taste tests of school garden-grown spinach and collard greens were offered to over 200 students. Nearly 500 students have participated in gardening activities, growing some items that were ultimately served in the cafeteria.  

Photo courtesy of Kim Hooks, Emanuel County School District

As a farm to school veteran, Kim recommends getting teacher buy-in to connect gardening activities to classroom learning. While she recognizes it can be overwhelming to be a first-time gardener, Kim encourages the folks to just give it a try! Kim believes, “Failure is not a bad thing. If it fails, it is a lesson. Once a few students stepped on some plants, and they died, but it was a valuable lesson for them. Farm to school is a lot of trial and error!” 

Photo courtesy of Kim Hooks, Emanuel County School District

Emanuel County’s farm to school efforts are thriving, and we can’t wait to see how they continue to grow! 

To learn more about Emanuel County School District visit their website or follow them on Facebook and Instagram (@_emanuel.k12). 

To learn more about Georgia Organics visit georgiaorganics.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube by searching (Georgia Organics).  

Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant Spotlight: Dawson County Gives School Greenhouse a Facelift

By Yaza Sarieh 

Yaza Sarieh is the Georgia Organics Community Collaboration Coordinator. 

Georgia Organics, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) and Newman’s Own Foundation have partnered for the second annual Farm to School Innovation Mini Grants. These funds support farm to school initiatives in eight Georgia school districts that:  

• Increase access to local, fresh, organically grown foods,  

• Include culturally responsive food and education, 

• Include organic and/or sustainability focused garden 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, click here. 

We are pleased to highlight mini grant awardee: Dawson County School District. School Nutrition Director, Scott Richardson, has been leading a collaborative mini grant project at Kilough Elementary School. 

All photos courtesy of Dawson County Schools.

The greenhouse at Kilough Elementary School was in bad shape when Scott Richardson arrived in Dawson County a few years ago. Even though it was run down, Scott recognized that the greenhouse would be a place where agriculture education would thrive. To get the ball rolling, Scott applied to the Farm to School Innovation Mini Grant and received funding to rehab the space for the community to grow food.  

With the greenhouse revamp underway, interest and investment in the project has taken off, with many staff members at the school beginning to take the lead on lessons and maintenance tasks. The greenhouse has even gone beyond the Kilough school walls. Local high school students have joined the project through their Future Farmers of America (FFA) Agribusiness Management class, supporting hands-on activities such as amending beds, testing soil samples, installing irrigation/sprinkler systems and building large hydroponic tables. 

All photos courtesy of Dawson County Schools.

For Kilough students, the greenhouse has become a place where they learn life-long lessons about food and nutrition. During one activity, students tasted celery grown in the greenhouse and compared it to celery supplied by the cafeteria. Because the school had waited too long to harvest the greenhouse celery, it was considerably more sour than normal. After the taste test, one student commented, “Now I know why my mom buys food from Walmart,” which led to a discussion on where food comes from and why it can taste different. The greenhouse has provided these students with hands-on learning experiences that are more memorable and impactful than a typical lesson.  

One of the biggest takeaways Scott has from this journey is the importance of community engagement in farm to school. Scott believes that you must build a community around farm to school projects to ensure buy-in and to sustain the efforts. Getting as many folks into the greenhouse as possible, including students, teachers, parents and reporters, has helped Scott to develop excitement and support for the project. 

The greenhouse in Dawson County has provided community members from all around the district with opportunities for hands-on food education and leadership. Scott hopes to use the lessons from this mini grant project to build greenhouses in all schools throughout the district. We cannot wait to see how farm to school in Dawson County will grow! 

To learn more about Dawson County School District visit https://www.dawsoncountyschools.org/. 

To learn more about Georgia Organics visit georgiaorganics.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube by searching (Georgia Organics).