Farm Fresh Produce Headed to San Diego Schools (Video)

The program is called Farm to School.

 

A newly hired Sustainable Agriculture Specialist wants the San Diego Unified School District to get a bigger share of its fruits and vegetables from local and organic farms. In these days of budget concerns, the Specialist didn't cost the School District a dime.

Farm to School Specialist Vanessa Zajfen is picking fresh produce, with grower Robin Taylor, at Suzie's Organic Farm in Imperial Beach. In a few hours, the fresh organic produce will be served to students.

"We want kids to know how tasty fresh fruits and vegetables can be, specifically those that are grown in their own backyard," Zajfen said.

Zajfen has a Master's degree in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University.

She was hired with Federal Stimulus money, at no cost to the school district, to help fight childhood obesity and educate students.

"Food doesn't just come from the grocery store, it doesn't just come from a plastic and paper bag, there is a whole other side to it that I think kids are not exposed to," Zajfen said.



But on this day, students will be exposed to produce picked that morning. Zajfen and Food Services Director Gary Petill prepared the first locally grown organic salad bar, at Kearney High School.

Going with all local produce at every school will take time, but that is their initial goal.

"We want to be at about 25% of all of our produce to be locally grown from our farmers and growers," Petill said. We think that's aggressive, but we think it's also achievable."

On the first day, Petill stood behind the salad bar welcoming students, "Welcome to the organic salad bar."

"Try some of the organic lettuce, it came out of the ground this morning," Petill exclaimed.

Students load up, and dig in. What do they think of the organic salad bar?

"It was more fresh that the ones we usually have," one of the students said.

"It was nice to have something pesticide free, you know, something real, you know," another student explained.

Food Services wants to keep it real and get more local growers involved with the Farm to School program.

Eventually, Food Services would like to take on the responsibility of processing and delivering local produce to all San Diego Unified Schools.

Petill says it would be cheaper for the District, instead of having produce shipped in from other countries or driven in from other states.

"We want to actually take it from the farm to our table and to wash it and bag it and send it off to our schools with our own drivers and it keep all of our work in house, so we're in-sourcing our own people to do the work," Petill said.

Zajfen says these changes will hopefully change eating habits.

"Being able to influence them when they're young and continue to nurture them and expose them to these amazing programs and good foods, fresh fruits, and vegetables and actually watch them grown and mature into good healthy eaters, is really what we're trying to do here with our Farm to School Program," Zajfen said.

Beginning in October, Food Services will also feature a "Harvest of the Month." Every Wednesday, for a month, a local grower's produce will be featured at every school's salad bar. Next month, it will be locally grown organic Valencia oranges.

Article by Jack Gates, NBCSanDiego.com

Nuns Running Charitable Organic Farm (Video)

The Sisters of Villa Maria farm for ministry and service.

 

 

GOOD EATS: The Sisters of Villa Maria donate their organic produce to local food banks.

With so many news reports about crime and destruction, it's easy to forget that there are good people quietly doing good deeds. A tiny farm called Villa Maria straddles the Pennsylvania/OhioThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the small convent is home to a 300-acre organic farm that supplies produce for local charities.

 

According to the Post-Gazette, five paid employees and "an army of volunteers" work to "help the sisters accomplish their mission of feeding the poor and teaching how to live in harmony with God's creation." The nuns have been on the site since 1864, when they founded a hospital to treat smallpox victims with herbs. The sisters have been farming the land ever since.

 

Originally, the land was unwanted, supposedly unusable wetlands transformed under the careful, patient hands of the French sisters, according to the newspaper. The article mentions that until the '60s, the nuns raised livestock and produce, with the farm supporting 600 sisters. Villa Maria stopped these practices when crises struck both the American Catholic Church and agriculture industry.

 

So currently, the farm operates under land manager emeritus Frank Romeo, who has worked there for nearly 70 years. Romeo has seen the farm transform from its heyday to its current status, and saw the beginning of the outreach in which the sisters give food to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

 

 

In addition to physical food donations, the Villa specializes in educational programming. Led by Sister Barbara O'Donnell, the Education for the Earth campaign unites the sisters' "mission of cultivating the virtue of humility ... to their cultivation of the land." 

 

The article quotes O'Donnell saying, "We want to care for [this Earth] in a sustainable way, so that we can have a healthy habitat and healthy soil for healthy food for future generations of all species."

 

Educational programming at Villa Maria teaches visitors how some critters, like praying mantis, eat harmful pests that might destroy the crops. But it also focuses on the union of environmentalism and faith. Visitors learn how gardening is a spiritual act and how to use organic methods. The Post-Gazette mentions that the farm is not certified organic because the sisters cannot afford the certification fees, but Romeo insists their methods have been organic since the beginning. 

 

The story mentions USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services employee Ed Petrus, who talks about the sisters' eagerness to adopt the new regulations from his organization. Petrus hosts retreats at Villa Maria to demonstrate practices for other growers.

 

Another employee of the Villa, John Moreira, is director of the farm's operations and specializes in maintaining the old-growth forest on the property. The story describes how Moreira uses his education and experience to ward off blight and preserve chestnut and hickory trees throughout the Villa. His work has proved to be especially important the past two years because tomato blight struck the region so heavily.

 

The article mentions that potatoes are the largest donation crop for the sisters and, since this vegetable is susceptible to the same blight as tomatoes, Moreira has his work cut out for him using organic farming techniques - in this case, crop rotation and planting the potatoes a mile away from last year's location — to save the harvest.

 

The service aspect of Villa Maria comes not only from the donated food but also from the service retreats hosted on the land. Volunteers use their vacations to farm for 10 or more hours per day while they study with O'Donnell. The sisters also work with youth offenders from the inner city as an alternative to incarceration and trade other volunteers food and housing for their work laboring on the land.

 

Each season, the results are thousands of pounds of food donations and hundreds of lives enhanced by service in the Villa's fields. The article ends by describing the sisters' concerns for the land after they pass away. According to the article, "they want to ensure that others — even if they aren't sisters — will carry on their legacy."

 

The Villa has a market barn where visitors can purchase produce as well as wreaths or hand-made oils produced by the retired sisters. Additionally, more than 1,200 people attend their annual Harvest Day Celebration on Oct. 2 to "thank God for the harvest and to thank the volunteers for their labor" over a meal produced entirely on site. The article ends by saying the sisters love this annual celebration because it allows them to demonstrate how the land, which was a gift to them initially, can continue to give gifts to everyone.

 

Article by Katy Rank Lev, MotherNatureNetwork