Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant Highlight: Addressing Health Equity through Farm to School Programs

By Kimberly Della Donna 

Kimberly Della Donna is the Farm to School Director at Georgia Organics   

Georgia Organics and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) have partnered 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.  

To financially support the Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant, click here  

We are pleased to highlight Mini-Grant Awardee:

Douglas County School System (DCSS) 

DCCS Training and Development Manager Tempest Harris’ work includes championing an award-winning, district-wide farm to school program. Last summer, she created and developed the Farm to School Expo initiative with the help of internal and community stakeholders.

While DCCS had success for many years in infusing local foods in meals, promotions, and taste tests throughout the district, they recognized that not all schools in the district had comprehensive food education programs.

They developed a Farm to School Expo to address the inequity of that disparity and strengthen the farm to school program district-wide.  

Students were invited to participate in the First Farm to School Expo where they could meet various farmers from their community, learn about what they produce, explore animals, bees, butterflies, and composting, meet community partners who support agriculture education, and enjoy taste tests of traditional Ghanian foods such as Bissap, Jollof, and Kelewele. Students also received a “take-home bag" loaded with educational materials, seeds, guidance for growing foods at home, information on local farmers' markets and local farmers', and food resources. The resources empowered students to increase their knowledge of food sourcing and access points for fresh food. 

The exposure that the Expo offered administrators, staff, and students to the benefits of active farm to school programs increased interest in and demand for food and agriculture education in Douglas County Schools that currently don’t have those programs.

One attendee noted, “I would like to expose students to growing their own food. There are many agricultural paths that students can study to make our food better as well. Hopefully, students will see the importance of farming to our world.” With so many community partners and farmers involved in the event, community support seems ripe to satisfy the demand. In the words of one attendee “This was a wonderful experience for both the students and myself.”  

To learn more about Douglas County School Systems, visit dcssga.org/departments/school_nutrition  and follow them on social media  and at facebook.com/ douglascountyschools.

Fresh, Local Food for and by the Fox Future Farmers of Columbus

By Kimberly Koogler 

Kimberly Koogler is the Community Collaboration Manager at Georgia Organics.

On the western border of this great state, in a county called Muscogee, in a city called Columbus, in a neighborhood called Bibb City, is Fox Elementary School, where future farmers are learning and growing.

These young students are growing into stewards of the land as they learn to plant and care for vegetables in their school’s backyard.

The Georgia Organics Farm to School team had the great privilege and pleasure to facilitate and watch work unfold over the last seven months, thanks to fantastic Columbus partners and funding from the 2021 USDA Farm to School Implementation Grant.  

May 2022 UGrow Fox Future Farmers

Fox Elementary School’s faculty, administration, and community partners used these funds to engage students and their families in nutrition and agricultural education, connecting them to a hyperlocal source of fresh, organic foods found at The Food Mill and MercyMed Farm, just a five-minute stroll from the school.

Fox Elementary School is led by Principal Yvette Scarborough and their amazing community partners include Keith Sims at MercyMed Farm, Sarah Smith of The Food Mill and UGrow Inc., and the heaven-sent Till Tomorrow Team, led by Dawn Grantham, who facilitated the whole experience.

All of this great work kicked off in November of last year when the students took their first of three field trips to MercyMed Farm and The Food Mill. On any ordinary day, these two community gems partner up to offer a Medically Tailored Meal and Fruit & Vegetable Rx (FVRx) program to qualifying patients in the community. For Fox field trips, they partnered up to teach the students about growing food and the benefits of eating fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Keith Sims teaching Fox students at MercyMed

After the first field trip, some students were already expressing that they wanted to be farmers when they grew up! By the third field trip on Earth Day of this year, they were selling vegetable seedlings that they had grown under the guidance of Farmer Keith and Food Mill Program Coordinator Sarah Smith (seen below, right) to their neighbors in the community. They raised $315 from these sales!

On that same culminating Market Day experience, they took reusable totes that they had painted just for this special occasion into the Food Mill and picked out samples of local produce to take home. On their way out the door, they tasted a smoothie that included kale they had grown in their school garden.

And that’s not all! Starting in December of 2021 and through the Spring of 2022, community guest speakers visited the school about once a month to do agricultural lessons on topics, including soil, germination, pollination, harvesting, and more. Weekly, Sarah Smith met with small groups of students from each grade level in the school garden to teach hands-on lessons and grow food together.  

To encourage Fox students and their families to return to the Food Mill for locally grown produce, the school has distributed farm to school educational activity sheets to all students that they can take home, complete, and bring back to the Food Mill with their parents for a free farm to school book of their choice.  

All of these efforts have made for a rich, well-rounded, real-world, practical learning experience for the students at Fox. These Fox Future Farmers are now more empowered with knowledge and skills to grow food, as well as an invaluable connection to community organizations that are providing access to fresh, locally and organically grown foods in their neighborhood.

Fox students selling seedlings, photo by Robin Trimarchi

To learn more about MercyMed Farm, visit mercymedcolumbus.com/mercymed-farm/, and follow them on social media @mercymedcolumbus. To learn more about The Food Mill, visit thefoodmill.org/ and follow them on social media @thefoodmillcolumbus. To learn more about UGrow Inc., visit ugrowinc.org/ and follow them on social media @ugrow.inc.  

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

Goin’ West and Howlin’ Hello Local with the Wolves

By Kimberly Koogler 

Kimberly Koogler is the Community Collaboration Manager at Georgia Organics. 

The Farm to School team went west this spring to howl with the wolves!

What does that even mean?? Well, to “Go West” and howl with the wolves in Georgia Organics Farm to School fashion looks like infusing Farm to Early Care & Education and local food into the University of West Georgia (UWG) College of Education’s Early Learning Center’s Well Start for Early Learning initiative. What a mouthful!

After planning and preparing with our UWG partners, Dr. Chelsea Morris and Professor Melissa Brillhart, we began our journey west in early March with a Super Saturday of Farm to ECE trainings.  

This engaging, three-part training series began with "Growing Healthy Eaters" presented by Chef Asata Reid and Abbie Chaddick. Participants learned about how to involve students in hands-on nutrition education activities that meet Georgia Early Learning Standards (GELDS). 

Next, "Growing Socially Emotionally Healthy Learners", presented by Rachel Cochran and Shelly Roberts of Trellis Horticultural Therapy Alliance with Georgia Organics' Farm to School Director Kimberly Della Donna taught participants vegetable gardening basics and about how therapeutic themes like change, hope, and belief in the future connect to hands-on, gardening education.  

We wrapped up this most super of Saturdays with "Family Engagement through Farm to ECE," setting goals and making action plans to increase family and community engagement in Farm to ECE activities. Sixteen West Georgia pre-service and early childhood educators took home $75 in gift certificates to spend on fresh, local food at Carrollton’s local Cotton Mill Farmers Market.  

Later in March, we continued our UWG collaboration by engaging the Early Learning Center’s students and families in hands-on food and nutrition education during their Week of the Child festivities. On “Tasty Tuesday”, we sponsored a Small Bites Adventure Club taste test kit for each classroom. Students and teachers dipped locally grown carrots into a Groovy Green Goodness dressing that they prepared together.

On “Work Together Wednesday”, Professor Brillhart and her Nutrition students led a Howlin’ Wolf Chili interactive nutrition lesson and cooperative activity for the kids. Everybody worked together to prep and pass out toppings and tasted a sample of Howlin’ Wolf Chili, getting a sneak preview of the Hello Local meal kit they would take home on Family Friday.  

Family Friday was all about cooking up a delicious dinner with family. We partnered with The Common Market Southeast to source local produce for families to make the vegetarian Howlin’ Wolf Chili at home together.  

Between the UWG Early Learning Center and the Carrollton Head Start, we distributed a total of 177 of these meal kits to families!

The meal kit came with info about the farmers who grew the produce, as well as access to a fun demo recipe video, starring Chef Asata Reid and her daughter, in which they demonstrate how young children can safely help in the kitchen.

Turns out that Howlin’ “Hello Local” with the West Georgia Wolves was a blast! We look forward to partnering with the UWG Early Learning Center again in the future to provide Farm to ECE education and to ensure young children in West Georgia have access to fresh, local food, while supporting local organic farmers in West Georgia. 

To learn more about the UWG Early Learning Center, visit westga.edu/academics/education/early-learning-center/ and follow them on social media at facebook.com/COEEarlyLearningCenter.  

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant Spotlight: Nurturing Elementary Students Through Outdoor School Lessons

By Diana Pena 

Diana Pena is a CDC Public Health Associate serving as the Farm to School Program Coordinator at 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.

Georgia Organics and Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) have teamed up 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-Grants Program click here.

We are pleased to highlight Mini-Grant Awardee: Jackson County School System.

Jackson County School District is a great example of resilience; they had to pivot their original mini-grant project due to the pandemic. Despite the challenges, they've still had a successful project. Their project focuses on creating outdoor garden lessons while incorporating STEM and social science components.

FoodCorps service member Abigail Pierce has been leading a collaborative Mini-Grant Project at East Jackson elementary school.

All photos by Abigail Pierce

At the beginning of the grant school year, Abigail had proposed a culturally unique mini-grant project where she would be working with the Jackson County community to learn about community foodways; however, the pandemic got in the way of bringing speakers from the community to the elementary school.

Abigail had to adapt to the circumstances brought on by the pandemic and change her project. Her new project still provided students access to local, fresh, and organically grown food while offering weekly garden classes to students and teachers connecting them to their STEM and social science classes. However, there continued to be obstacles to implementing other parts of the project, like taste tests.

At the end of the year, they “were able to fully use outdoor spaces to implement garden classes in a safe way.” 

Abigail and Jackson County School District truly display perseverance and versatility in their project. Abigail shared some of their successes such as, “students trying vegetables like beets, carrots, and kale for the first time.” These vegetables were grown in their own school garden!

They were able to cover a variety of topics such as, “decomposers in our compost with 3rd grade, parts of the plant with our kindergarten grades, chemical and physical change when making our smoothies with 5th graders, and using five senses when taste-testing pesto with pre-kindergarten students.”

Abigail envisions the “garden continuing to grow as teachers are able to use the outdoor classrooms to engage students with hands-on activities.”

Keep up the hard work, Jackson County School System!

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To see updates on Jackson County School System, visit JacksonSchoolsGA.org/ and follow them on social media at instagram.com/jcschoolnutrition/ and facebook.com/jacksoncountyschoolsystemnutrition.

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.

Farm to School Innovation Mini-Grant Spotlight: Cultivating a Hands-on Experience for Elementary Students

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

Georgia Organics and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) have partnered to establish the Farm to School Innovation Mini Grants Program. These funds support farm to school initiatives that:

All photographs provided by Dorothy Dupree

• 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 pleased to highlight Mini-Grant Awardee: Savannah Chatham County Public Schools!

School Nutrition Coordinator Dorothy Dupree is leading a farm to school project that focuses on sustainability. Innovative thinking requires identifying gaps and leveraging assets to help bridge the disparities identified. This is exactly what Dorothy Dupree’s leadership did.

Dorothy noticed that Gould Elementary School and Windsor Forest Elementary School had robust school gardens, passionate teachers, and curated hands-on lesson plans that incorporate composting/vermicomposting (use of worms to break down organic material). All they needed was extra funding to make their project come to fruition.

Dorothy is excited to share that they have completed the assembly of their new compost barrels and vermicomposting bin. Recently, Dorothy visited one of the elementary schools and conducted a hands-on compost lesson with them. She shares: “the students were able to harvest radishes out of their garden and composted radish leaves/stems in their tumbler.” They learned about “browns and greens and set up the vermicompost.”

Some of the challenges Dorothy has encountered in this project is the students’ “aversion to the worms,” but she reminds the students that the worms “won’t jump out at them.”

Dorothy shares, “I have found that students may come into these outdoor lessons with different mindsets, but by the end of the lesson they are all extremely engaged and are excited to see what they have learned in this classroom come to life.”  

In the spring Dorothy and Savannah Chatham County School students will continue incorporating composting into their lessons by utilizing the book Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals. The Mini-Grant funds have helped them purchase books for both schools for this project.

“It’s important to consistently elevate school gardens and farm to school initiatives as part of the toolbox in educations,” she continues.

“I believe school gardens and outdoor classrooms are essential in education and should be invested in by school districts. They provide practical, hands-on experiences that students cannot get in the classroom alone.”

Savannah Chatham County Public Schools’ Farm to School project truly merges innovation and sustainability through outdoor learning.

Check out their project in the local WJCL Savannah 22: bit.ly/SCCPSSNews

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.

To read more about Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, visit www.sccpss.com, and keep up with their Mini Grant updates at: facebook.com/SCCPSS.

Family Farm Share: Collaboratively Championing a Resilient Local Food Movement & Farmer Prosperity

By Mary Elizabeth Kidd 

Mary Elizabeth Kidd is the Director of Communications at Georgia Organics.

Example of Family Farm Share weekly seasonal contents. Photo by Kimberly Della Donna.

LAUNCHING FAMILY FARM SHARE 

In September 2021, Georgia Organics announced a new program: Family Farm Share (georgiaorganics.org/familyfarmshare). Family Farm Share is funded by the Georgia Department of Early Care and the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation to address childhood food insecurity for children ages birth to five in communities across Georgia. 

Georgia Organics’ Family Farm Share team is made up of staff members representing each facet of Georgia Organics work: Director of Programs Suzanne Girdner and Kimberly Della Donna, Kimberly Koogler, and Lena Enciso from the Farm to School program, as well as Lauren Cox, who leads Farmer Services, and Director of Communications Mary Elizabeth Kidd.  

The program launched with a pilot in Waycross (Ware County) as a collaboration with local partners and key players “on the ground” to ensure that Georgia Organics can facilitate and support a program that will live on in each community and will hopefully create a model that other cities and towns can replicate. 

HOW IT WORKS

Family Farm Share will activate and connect local networks of early care & education centers, local food organizations, and nearby farmers to deliver an affordable weekly farm share sold on-site at early care centers.

The program aims to strengthen local food economies, communities' connection, and nutritional access for families with young children.

The Waycross Family Farm Share Pilot is comprised of partners Action Pact, WayGreen, Inc., Ware Children’s Initiative, and Georgia Organics.  

This program represents goals that have been laid out in our new five-year strategic plan: organic farmer prosperity, resilient local food movement, investment in local farmers and food systems, and organizational strength.  

With partnerships like this, there is a clearer, more achievable path to a more resilient Georgia food system. 

EVOLUTION OF GEORGIA ORGANICS’ COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS WORK 

The Family Farm Share program marks a transition from our six-year running Georgia Food Oasis outreach initiative which sunset in Dec. 2021.  

Similar to the Family Farm Share program, Georgia Food Oasis focused on identifying and bolstering local partnerships that connect families and farmers across Georgia communities. 

Georgia Food Oasis (GFO) communities—Augusta, Columbus, Rome, Savannah, Walton County, and Waycross—continue to demonstrate the collaborative power when farmers, educators, nutrition leaders, and local food advocates connect to share and grow knowledge, resources, and opportunities.  

Thanks to pre-existing GFO relationships like WayGreen, Inc. And Action Pact, Waycross represented a perfect launchpad for Family Farm Share. 

FAMILY FARM SHARE: UPDATES AND WHAT’S NEXT 

In November 2021, members of Georgia Organics’ Family Farm Share team met in Atlanta for the long drive to Waycross. 

During the visit, we met with family advocates and surveyed families at Action Pact’s Head Start campus to determine their current and aspirational habits with fruits and vegetables, locally-grown and store-bought. Some of that data is shared below. 

Part of the Georgia Organics Farm to School team’s mission is to also support serving and education on local food, so we visited classrooms with squash snack cups and spoke to an adorable crowd of interested young veggie-lovers (and non-veggie lovers!). We also hosted two training sessions with teachers and school nutrition staff to begin ongoing education on local food sourcing, serving, and learning. 

Action Pact Family Advocates along with Family Farm Share liaison Carol Clarke, Training & Literacy Specialist at Action Pact (second from left). Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.

Farm to School Director Kimberly Della Donna knows these partners are ready for the challenge: “Action Pact is very ready to successfully implement the Family Farm Share Program. Carol Clark, our key contact, is an experienced Farm to ECE Champion, familiar with Georgia Organics and a natural over-achiever. She has infectious, positive energy and loves her work. She's got the Family Advocates invested, who are the primary contacts with families and meet with them once per month.”  

Farmer Services Director Lauren Cox meets with Roger and April Westover of Greenway Gardens and Connie Oliver of WayGreen, Inc. to discuss seasonality, availability, and preferences for Family Farm Share families. Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.

Members of the Georgia Organics team visited Waycross small organic farmers to discuss how Family Farm Share will allow them to connect more deeply with their community members and to determine the logistics that will make this a profitable program for them. 

Key takeaways from team members confirm that this is a group of willing and able partners ready to create something powerful for the Waycross food system.

GETTING TO KNOW THE COMMUNITY 

This program will be open to Action Pact community members: Head Start families, teachers, administrators, and neighbors. Through surveying this audience, the team begins to gather data on their habits and preferences for fruits and vegetables. 

Currently, we’re working with farmers to determine how we can best align the desires of the community with their current and potential growing plans. 

Surveying Action Pact families to determine preferences along with a squash snack “thank you.”

ACTION PACT FAMILIES’ FOOD HABITS & PREFERENCES

Survey results from 102 respondents in the Action Pact Head Start campus community:

• On average, respondents answered that their family eats fruits and vegetables 5.39 days per week. 

• When asked “If cost, availability, or other limits were not a factor, how often would your family eat fruits and vegetables?” respondents answered that they would eat fruits and vegetables an average 6.4 days per week. 

• For the question “Would you be interested in a Family Farm Share that includes the following items” we gave an answer of “never” a score of 0, “sometimes” a score of 1, and “yes, all the time” a score of 2. The following table contains the average score for each item. 

• For the open response question on what vegetables families eat most often, there were 41 unique items provided and 102 respondents. The following table shows the top five vegetables from at least 20 respondents.  

• When asked what fruits and vegetables families would most like to see in their weekly farm share, the following top five, respectively: 

• Fruits: apples, bananas, strawberries, grapes, and oranges 

• Vegetables: green beans, broccoli, corn, squash, and cabbage 

Through the ongoing collection of feedback and preference data from involved participants in the Waycross Family Farm share, we’ll be able to grow and evolve the program for sustainability and replicability. 

We look forward to sharing our challenges, wins, and key takeaways as we grow this collaborative effort to bring delicious local-farmer-grown vegetables and fruits to families across Georgia! 

Stay tuned and please consider supporting this work by becoming a member or donor at georgiaorganics.org/staylocal!  

Thriving greens at Family Farm Share participating farm Greenway Gardens. Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.

Spotlight on Farm to School Innovation Grantee Jones County Schools

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.

From School Gardens to School Meals: Spotlight on Innovation Mini Grantee Treutlen County School District

By Diana Pena

Diana Pena is the Farm to School Coordinator at the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Pre-pandemic days, the annual Golden Radish Awards recognized Georgia school districts doing exceptional work in farm-to-school.

Discontinued for three years to the pandemic, Georgia Organics and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) instead 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.

After a thorough application process in the Fall of 2021, Georgia Organics and GA DPH selected and awarded 15 Georgia School Nutrition Departments.

We are excited to spotlight our first Mini-Grant Awardee: Treutlen County School District!

All images courtesy of Treutlen County Schools

Under Red Barrett’s leadership as School Nutrition Director, the funds will support the school gardens in all the schools and grow produce for school meals in her district. Red has also incorporated school garden activities into the elementary and special education school lessons.

Red has taught Treutlen County School students about what is needed for seeds to grow (water, soil, and sun), about the plants they’re growing, how to adequately space them, how to care for their garden (weeding, watering), and what to do at harvest time. They have also examined soil and compost together.

Images courtesy of Red Barrett

She has made it so that the students are responsible for maintaining the garden, she always makes an effort to tie their garden into the school curriculum.

Red shares that, “Time is our only issue...[due to] the demands of the regular school curriculum...we have those challenges.”

Nevertheless,  they have successfully planted their seeds and are now waiting to harvest the produce!

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow them on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. To see updates on Treutlen County Schools, visit treutlen.k12.ga.us/ and follow them on social media at facebook.com/treutlencountyschools.

Holiday Recipes from the Georgia Organics Farm to School Team

Georgia Organics Farm to School Intern Lena Enciso shares much-loved family food traditions from the Farm to School team!

By Lena Enciso 

Lena’s family dinner, photo credit: Carlos Maraviglia

Cooking is one of my favorite ways to connect with the people in my life and show appreciation for my loved ones. I enjoy any opportunity to exchange recipes and learn about the foods other people like to make for their friends and families. Since Thanksgiving is this week, the Farm to School team has decided to share some of our favorite holiday recipes.  

Growing up, I wasn’t a big fan of stuffing. My dad’s recipe had a mushy consistency and flavors I didn’t enjoy. In high school, I took my Thanksgiving stuffing destiny into my own hands and decided I would prepare a different recipe for my family. So, I asked my friends and their families about their favorite recipes and one of their moms told me about this cornbread stuffing/dressing recipe from The Slate. Every year since then, we have prepared both dishes and our family members vote on their favorite (it’s a tie every time, but I choose to believe they’re just protecting my dad’s feelings). 

Diana Peña shared that she doesn’t usually have what some would consider “typical Thanksgiving” dishes with her family. She showed us a recipe for one of her favorite dishes--with a vegan twist that incorporates jackfruit instead of beef! She shared, “Birria (sauce with beef) is one of my favorite Mexican dishes and something my mom cooks on special occasions, however, she has her own recipe (which I do not know), but I found this vegan chef who makes traditional Mexican dishes. This is a vegan birria recipe that I have been meaning to try. She has other dishes as well.”  

Vegan Birria Tacos from Dorastable.com

Kimberly Koogler’s Glorious Greens

Kimberly Koogler, Georgia Organics Farm to School Coordinator, decided to tell us about a recipe for “Glorious Greens,” which comes together in less than 15 minutes. It’s a great way to incorporate more veggies on the dinner table!

She explains, “I learned how to make this when I was working as an AmeriCorps VISTA Garden Coordinator at The Garden Kitchen in Tucson, AZ, where I started learning how to grow food. It's a super quick and easy, yummy, versatile recipe--you can use any hardy green you have on hand.

I like to make it for my family at Thanksgiving (when I get the chance to) to put something green on the table.”

Farm to School Director Kimberly Della Donna shared her favorite cranberry sauce recipe, which has parsley and orange peel to level up a Thanksgiving classic!

Cranberry Sauce by Kimberly Della Donna

She said, “I've been making this since Bon Appetit published it in 2005. It's a good thing everyone loves it- because it makes a ton!

“I usually end up eating it late at night on Thanksgiving over vanilla ice cream- it's one of those transcendent dishes that works for both dinner and dessert.”  

If you decide to try any of our favorite holiday recipes, be sure to share photos over social media with us by tagging @GeorgiaOrganics!

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org, and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

My Farmers Market Experience: Fifth-Grader and Farm to School Fan Aubry Angelety

By Aubry Angelety

Aubry Angelety is a 5th grade student at Burgess-Peterson Academy.

My name is Aubry Angelety, a 5th grader at Burgess-Peterson Academy. I have really enjoyed doing some of the activities and learning about farming.

Aubry Angelety

I love going to the EAV Farmers market each week too. I loved it when we tried okra. My favorite books are all of them! I learned how to grow a pumpkin.

We love getting apples from the market too. I also enjoy looking at the people who are playing music. I got a chance to meet a great baker too. Danny sells Proof Bakery goods. He is so nice. My favorite part of attending is when I can see my friends and play with them too.

I love the farmers market and will continue to go every week with my mom.

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From Aubry’s mom:

“Aubry really enjoyed going to the farmers market on Thursdays. Ten straight weeks and several books later she made a friend of one of the vendors, thanks Danny for being so sweet and enjoyed some healthy eats.

Thanks BPA for promoting healthy eating and an appreciation of buying and supporting local.”

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Georgia Organics partnered with Community Farmers Market (CFM) to host a “Farmers Market Book Club” this Autumn in Atlanta. Burgess-Peterson Academy and Parkside Elementary students received farm to school activity sheets that featured a farmer they could meet at the market. They were encouraged to do the activities and bring their completed sheets to the East Atlanta Village or Grant Park Farmers Markets to meet farmers and choose a book each week about local food and agriculture.

Jenna Mobley USDA Grant Farmers Market Book Club

CFM also offered students a $5 token for fruits and vegetables each time a student turned in an activity sheet. The program was incredibly popular among students, parents, teachers, and farmers.

Aubry and Connelly, who staffs the Kids Booth at East Atlanta Village Farmers Market

At the time of publishing, students had collected about 1300 books and spent $8845 on local produce. This program is funded by a USDA Farm to School Grant.

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To learn more about Community Farmers Markets, visit cfmatl.org and follow them on social media @communityfarmersmarkets.

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.

October Farm to School Month: Honoring History & Culture through Farm to School Curriculum, Recap

By Kimberly Koogler 

Kimberly Koogler is the Farm to School Coordinator at Georgia Organics.  

For the grand finale of our October Farm to School Month Wednesday webinar series, we gathered at the Parkside Elementary School garden with Jenna Mobley of Tending Our Common Ground, Tasha Gomes of FoodCorps Georgia, and Suzanne Welander, a founding member of Parkside Elementary School’s garden.

To honor and get grounded in the garden space we were in, Suzanne Welander told us all about the history and evolution of Parkside’s school garden, including all of the many and various contributions made by so many different community members over the past 15 years.

Tasha Gomes Parkside Elementary Garden

We spent a lovely hour together, learning about culturally responsive teaching practices, talking about our favorite meals, exploring how that simple prompt can be turned into a culturally relevant and rich garden project for your whole class that promotes each student’s individual identity and celebrates the diversity in your classroom. 

If you were not able to join us for this, I really encourage you to watch the recording. It will not only inspire you, it will also leave you feeling good. Here are some golden nuggets to take away:  

• Culturally responsive teaching…  

• Honors those who came before us and those who are with us presently. 

• Acknowledges and promotes each of our individual student’s identities and celebrates diversity DAILY. 

• Engages in student-centered instruction, centered on students’ unique interests, abilities, and life experiences. 

• Connects to, affirms, uplifts, and validates your students’ family and community traditions and knowledge. 

• Are you a school garden leader having trouble getting teachers or other school community members engaged and invested in your school garden? Ask them how they want to use it and what they need to do so! How would the school garden best serve them and meet their needs?  

• A favorite children’s book to open the conversation about food and culture is The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin. 

• Have students catalog what they eat all week in a food journal and/or have them choose a favorite meal. Then you can plan your garden together, choosing plants that make up part of the students’ favorite meals. 

• There are many opportunities to invite parents into this process, too. 

• You could compile recipes brought from home into a class cookbook. 

• Encourage and model for students how to respectfully express curiosity about their peers and their lived experiences.  

Tasha Gomes mealtime traditions (photo by Jenna Mobley)

To learn more about FoodCorps Georgia, visit foodcorps.org, and follow them on social media @foodcorps_ga.

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and at facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.  

October Farm to School Month: Livin’ la Vida Okra con Mis Pequeños Genios, Recap & Video

En Español y English (scroll down)

Livin’ la Vida Okra con Mis Pequeños Genios—Resumen

Por Kimberly Koogler

Kimberly Koogler es la Coordinadora de Farm to School en Georgia Organics.

El miércoles pasado, el equipo Farm to School se reunió con María Claudia Ortega en su guardería familiar en Marietta, GA, My Little Geniuses para conversar con ella y ver como ella hace Farm to ECE todos los días con sus estudiantes chiquitos.

My Little Geniuses excited about okra!

Maria Claudia teaching knife skills

Empezamos entrevistando a María Claudia para conocerla un poco más, de donde es y de su familia y su trabajo. María Claudia y su esposo, Jesus Silva vinieron desde Colombia, su país de origen, hace aproximadamente 20 años. Vienen de familia agricultora y María Claudia había estudiado la educación especial en Colombia. Llegaron acá y a pesar de que fue bastante difícil empezar de nuevo en un país nuevo, donde el idioma principal es inglés, lograron a abrir su guardería My Little Geniuses dentro de su propio hogar. Con el correr de los años se ha hecho una guardería de gran reputación con un excelente programa de Farm to ECE.

Luego María Claudia describió para la audiencia dos ejemplos específicos de actividades Farm to ECE que ella ha hecho con sus propios estudiantes:

1. El primer de cómo cortar y preparar el okra con los estudiantes para hacer una prueba de sabor de okra frito al “air fryer”

2. Y el segundo de una exploración de hojas diversas y otra prueba de sabor de diferentes hojas de tres maneras distintas.

(photos: onion bed screen shot, garden tour screenshot) Por último, nos dio un recorrido por su huerta donde se cultivan muchos vegetales diversos para utilizar ahí en la guardería diariamente.

En caso de que no pudiera asistir, aqui hay algunos puntos clave:

• Los beneficios de cultivar y cosechar en un entorno ECE son muchos, incluyendo:

• La comida que uno cultiva y cosecha por si mismo está mas fresca, segura, sabrosa, y sana.

• Ya no hay que comprar tanta verdura del super.

• Es un programa rico y bonito que ofrece oportunidades sin fin de aprendizaje diferentes para los niños.

• Empiece con algo pequeño, poco a poco, sea constante y diligente, y su programa de educación jardinería crecerá con el tiempo.

• Toda cosa (literalmente)y cada falla en el jardín es una oportunidad de aprendizaje para los niños.

• El okra hecho al “air fryer” sale muy rico. 😉

Se puede hacer aderezo “Ranch” de yogurt griego, especies, e hierbas, y a los niños les gusta toda verdura mejor la que tenga “Ranch”.

Un programa de jardinería en un centro ECE queda mejor si se involucran a los padres. Por ejemplo: Maria Claudia nos dijo que la mayoría de las familias de My Little Geniuses son Mexicanas que comen picante, y por eso, cultiva varias clases de chile/pimiento para compartir con ellas.

Echa un vistazo a la grabación para obtener más información sobre My Little Geniuses y su programa modelo de Farm to ECE.

Para obtener más información e inscribirse en Livin ’la Vida Okra, visite bit.ly/livinlavidaokra.

Para obtener más información sobre Georgia Organics, visite georgiaorganics.org y síganos en las redes sociales @GeorgiaOrganics y en facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.

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Livin’ la Vida Okra con Mis Pequeños Genios—Recap

By Kimberly Koogler

Kimberly Koogler is the Farm to School Coordinator at Georgia Organics.

Last Wednesday, the Farm to School team met with Maria Claudia Ortega at her family daycare center, My Little Geniuses, in Marietta, GA to talk with her and see how she does Farm to ECE every day with her young students.

We began by interviewing Maria Claudia to get to know her a little more and learn where she’s from and about her family and work. Maria Claudia and her husband, Jesus Silva, came from Colombia, their home country, about 20 years ago. They come from a farming family and Maria Claudia had studied special education in Colombia. They arrived here and despite it being very difficult to start anew in a new country, where the primary language spoken is English, they managed to open their family daycare center My Little Geniuses out of their own home. Over time, they have gained a great reputation and have created an excellent Farm to ECE program.

My Little Geniuses making air fried okra.

Then Maria Claudia described for the audience two specific examples of Farm to ECE activities that she has done with her own students:

1. The first one about how to cut and prepare okra with students for a taste test of air-fried okra.

2. And the second about an exploration of different leaves and a three-part taste test of different edible leaves.

Lastly, she gave us a tour of their garden, where they grow a bunch of different vegetables to use daily in their ECE center.

In case you missed it, here are some key takeaways:

My Little Geniuses tasting okra!

There are so many benefits of growing food in an ECE setting, including:

• The food you grow yourself is more fresh, safe, tasty, and healthy.

• You don’t have to buy as much produce from the store.

• It’s a rich and beautiful program that offers endless different learning opportunities for the kids.

• Start small, be consistent, and your gardening education program will grow over time.

• Literally everything and every failure in the garden is a learning opportunity for the kids.

• Turns out air-fried okra is delicious.

You can make your own ranch dressing using Greek yogurt, herbs, and spices, and kids like vegetables better with Ranch.

Garden tour with Maria Claudia.

A gardening program in an ECE Center is even better with engaged parents. For example, Maria Claudia told us that the majority of My Little Geniuses’ families are Mexican and like spicy food, so she grows several different varieties of hot peppers to share with them.

Check out the recording to learn more about My Little Geniuses and their model Farm to ECE program.

To find out more about and sign up for Livin’ la Vida Okra, visit bit.ly/livinlavidaokra.

To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org and follow us on social media @GeorgiaOrganics and facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.