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Farm to school
By JERRY NUNN
Info Northeast
GLADWIN - Here it is, right at the start of growing season. With a gardening business to run, now is not the time you would expect Dave and Mary Moore, owners of Stone Cottage Gardens, to devote the time to return to school.
But the Moore's educational homecoming won't find their garden hot house replaced with a classroom.
As members of the Gladwin County Farm to School Program, the agriculturally minded couple and other area produce raisers will sell their farm fresh products directly to the Gladwin Community Schools. There, the healthy local foods will be used in lunches and sold directly to students and their families.
"The main benefit is that kids are getting nutritional foods," said Jerry Fairchild, owner of the 55-acre Fairchild Farms, west of town. "The producers aren't going to get rich, but it does give them another avenue to sell their products. In the long run this will be a good thing for every one involved."
A local producer who plans to enroll in the program, Fairchild and others say the program's benefits extend far beyond better nutrition and increased farm revenue.
"I see this as farmland preservation," says Kable Thurlow, Gladwin County MSU Extension agent. He also sees his roll that of a facilitator - one who brings producers and students together to form relationships beyond the school cafeteria.
Legislatively enabled by Michigan's Farm to School Procurement Act, the law requires the Michigan Departments of Agriculture and Education to work together. Programs elsewhere in the state involve agriculturists ranging from tiny hobby farmers to 2,000-acre production farms.
The School to Lunch Program benefits both farmers and students by requiring each group to visit the other on their home turf.
"Very few kids now know where their food comes," Thurlow said. While that lack of awareness holds just as true in rural areas like farm-studded Gladwin County "that's starting to change. Folks these days want to know where their food comes from; they want to know what's in that food and how it was grown. And they should. We're putting this into kid's bodies."
Towards the goal of safety and sanitation, enrollment in the program begins with an on-site visit by a committee of producers, school officials and agricultural industry officials.
That committee inspects farm practices such as fertilizer use and storage, transportation and storage options, even harvest practices.
The program entices involvement from the entire student body, according to Melody Wentworth, coordinator/advisor for the Gladwin County M-TEC office and the Farm to School Program facilitator.
While involving students bound for agricultural study, the school's nutrition students help plan the menu and the construction trades class built a rolling produce stand to wheel into the cafeteria.
Through a "try it, buy it" approach, the Farm to School program's nutritional payback will follow the students home.
"On Thursdays the kids try it and hopefully go home and tell their parents," Wentworth said. "On Fridays, the parents can send money with the kids to buy more or they can come in themselves and buy it."
"The excitement for this has been great," Wentworth said. "We've had overwhelming support from producers, from students, their parents and the community."
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