Published 8:15 am Friday, October 18, 2024
BRIDGEPORT, Ore. — Lua Siegel, Luckiamute Valley Charter Schools garden teacher, directed students to hold off until the count of three to eat their morning snack.
“But we can’t wait that long,” exclaimed fifth-grader Kianna Gilbert, only half joking.
At about 9:30 a.m., the students simultaneously bit into their snack, joining more than 40,000 children across the state.
And the children are adventurous eaters. Quince and purple cabbage were on the menu Oct. 17.
The Oregon Crunch at Once celebrated the state’s agricultural bounty, the farm to school program and healthy school meals.
The charter schools’ Bridgeport campus has two garden plots where students grow fruits and vegetables and raise ducks. (The birds combat the prolific slug population in the Coast Range foothills.)
“We make science come alive. It’s not just sitting at a desk,” said Christy Wilkins, executive director of Luckiamute Valley Charter Schools.
Reading, writing, math and history also are integrated into garden lessons, she added.
Students have harvested about 500 pounds of produce this school year, Siegel said.
Lisa Charpilloz Hanson, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, was among those present for the crunchy event.
“You are so lucky you get to be a producer and a farmer. … You are growing food,” Charpilloz Hanson told students.
The Oregon Legislature has invested $41 million in Oregon’s farm to table program since 2012, including more than $10 million in each of the last three bienniums, said Michelle Markesteyn, an Oregon State University faculty member who manages the program.
“Most of this goes to Oregon schools to buy Oregon foods” including dairy, beef and seafood, Markesteyn said. Funding also leverages more federal dollars.
The program includes 600 ag producers and 800 schools with gardens.
Tony Diaz, owner of Tony’s Produce, grew the cabbage for the snack and received big applause.
To children, he’s better known as Mr. Tony, the schools’ custodian.
Diaz has been farming more than 30 years and leases 15 acres to grow a variety of produce, including ingredients so children could make salsa in September.
He sells to restaurants and directly to customers at the Independence Farmers Market.
But he said Oregon’s farm to school program is a big part of his business.
Just as important is seeing children get their hands dirty like he did as a boy.
“It brings me good memories. … If we don’t teach them, there aren’t going to be farmers anymore,” Diaz said.
Siegel said she tries to buy more unusual fruits and vegetables that aren’t regularly part of school meals.
“We are looking for more local farmers to partner with,” Siegel said.
October is Farm to School Month and the USDA released its new Farm to School Census Oct. 15.
During the 2022-23 school year, districts across the U.S. purchased about $1.8 billion on local foods, or about 16% of their total food spending.
Participation in farm to school activities has grown 14% since the 2019 Farm to School Census.
Roughly 85% of school food authorities in Oregon — or about 1,320 schools with 536,000 students — serve local food.
That compares to 71% in Washington, 67% in California and 58% in Idaho.
