2/18
This weeks readings involved exploring websites that Sarah linked me to in relation to school gardens!
Food Span
Food span is ““free, downloadable curriculum provides high school students with a deep understanding of critical food system issues, empowers them to make healthy and responsible food choices, and encourages them to become advocates for food system change.”
- there are 17 lessons within 3 units. Ex) Unit 2: farmers, factories and food chains – lesson 1 is crops: growing problems and lesson 2 is animals: field to factory — lesson plan, powerpoint, student handouts
- for grades 9-12
- They used a term “field to plate” which I haven’t heard before, kind of like an alternative of “farm to table”
- The lessons end with a cumulative group project called “Food Citizen Action” where students design an intervention to address food system issues
- An alignment chart was included where teachers can see the topics that students will learn and what grade/credit it relates to
- They try to source to social media with #FoodSpan
All in all I think it is a great lesson plan to implement into highschool. I never learned anything related to food systems when I was in grade school but I think this could fit well in a health related class! Social media use is always a way to engage students as it is so abundant in their lives.
USDA Farm to School Census
This census focuses on schools across the United States that utilize farms or gardens as lesson plans. The website is colorful, interactive and easy to access. What I thought was cool is you could solely search for your school districts farm to school statistics so I looked up information on Glenfair Elementary in the Reynold School District (the school I intern at), that information is found below.
- 42% of school participate = 42,000 schools
- More than 96 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards by serving meals with more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; lean protein and low-fat dairy; and less sugar, sodium, and fat.
- My comment on this I remember in high school (higher income) where we retired a lot of “yummy” but unhealthy foods and replaced it with “healthier” cookies, whole wheat tortillas, whole wheat pretzels (still with nacho cheese). Yet the elementary school I intern at has a school garden and they still eat little pizzas every tuesday with sugary strawberry mashes and chocolate milk. Most wont eat their fruit they are provided. It’s easy for the USDA to generalize but in the low income school I’m at even with a garden, this statistic doesn’t exactly apply. Is Glenfair that 4%?
- 55% of Oregon school districts participate – Over $13,000,000 invested in local foods
When I looked up information on Reynolds School District, I found a survey that the USDA assigned to them with useful information. One question asked about what Reynold’s describes as “Local”. Their answer was that they get their food supplied from DUCK Delivery (they deliver produce from Oregon, Washington and california). My other internship with celebrate gets their food delivered from DUCK as well so I found that an interesting connection! Another question asked about setbacks from buying solely local and the answer was the pricing (seems to be a common theme). Also, they are proud of sourcing their apples from Oregon! The students at Glenfair eat apples every week.