Spartanburg County Schools Eat Local celebration

Hugh Weathers, Commissioner of Agriculture, will participate in the It Takes You! Eat Local celebration at Arcadia Elementary School, 375 Spring St., in Spartanburg at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

The event, sponsored by Chartwells School Dining Services a Division of the Compass Group, is designed to encourage the schools that they service to feature at least one or more locally grown produce items on their menu daily the week of September 21-25, 2009.
The celebration is part of an on-going partnership between Chartwells and South Carolina distributors, schools, and farmers designed to help children develop healthy eating habits. But, the program also helps to improve South Carolina farm income and direct access to markets.
For their effort to provide locally grown produce in their schools, Chartwells and Spartanburg School District 6 were presented the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) ‘Best Practice Award.’ The purpose of the award is to encourage and reward outstanding practices in schools in the southeast region of the U.S. and to share the winner’s strategies with other schools so that they can also improve their programs and services that are delivered to their students.
Commissioner Weathers is expected to commend the public-private partnership among Chartwells, produce distributors, and participating farmers and school districts. All around, the promotion educates students and customers about sustainability practices, the benefits of eating fresh, local produce and how buying local affects our communities and wellness.
For more information about the local produce in Spartanburg schools program, contact Ron Jones, Chartwells Director of Dining for Spartanburg District Schools.

Lucy's Tasty Treasures!

Lucy's Tasty Treasures is a great set of videos put together by Dr. Katherine Cason at Clemson University. The video series follows Lucy and her friends as they go on a summer assignment to learn more about where their South Carolina food comes from! The kids go on an adventure to Titan Peach Farm, Walter P. Rawl produce farm, Happy Cow Creamery, Split Creek Goat Farm, The Happy Berry and other farms throughout the state. To find out more about this great video series and the lesson materials that come along with it, please visit: http://www.clemson.edu/lucystastytreasures/

School Lunch & Garden discussion on NPR

Earlier this week there was a discussion on NPR about two different school food service programs that are taking steps to have healthier school lunch programs. The School Food Service Director for Baltimore City Public Schools talks about a farm that he owns and allows children to come out and reconnect with how food is produced, in addition so supplying the food service program. He also discusses steps he is taking to purchase from other local producers and how he wants to change some of the choices currently being offered in school vending machines.
The other presentor is from Conneticut and he talks about how they are doing more to purchase local and seasonal products to help children reconnect with their food and what it looks and tastes like in its raw, un processed form. For the transcript and full discussion, please visit:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112247365

SC School Garden Survey

The Department of Agriculture would like to invite you to participate in the South Carolina School Garden Inventory. The 2008 distribution of this survey resulted in five schools throughout the state being awarded “Eat Smart …it’s in the Garden” mini grants. Once again, we would like distribute our School Garden Inventory to learn more about school gardens throughout the state.
The data gathered from this inventory will be used to determine a pool of potential applicants the Department of Agriculture invites to apply for the 2009 “Eat Smart…it’s in the Garden” mini-grants sponsored by Eat Smart Move More…SC.
We are trying to reach as many schools across the state as possible. Therefore, please share this email with your colleagues and encourage others to complete the survey.
The survey should take no longer than 10-15 minutes to complete. Please submit your survey responses by Friday September 4, 2009. If you have any questions please contact Beth Crocker at bcrocker@scda.sc.gov. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance with distributing this survey throughout the state.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PcsTATbr_2fHm4HFR5OI0JoA_3d_3d

National Gardening Association grant program

The National Gardening Association has announced that it will be providing 100 grants in 2010 to qualified youth gardening programs in 2010. Grant applications are due by November 2, 2009. Qualified applicants must plan to have a garden program that will involve at least 15 children. Grants will be awarded in the amount of $500 gift cards to Home Depot and/or the Gardening with Kids catalog produced by the National Gardening Association. For more detailed information about the grant application and awards process, please visit: http://www.kidsgardening.com/YGG.asp

August 23-29, 2009 - National Community Garden Week!!

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has declared August 23-29 to be National Community Garden Week!! Vilsack supports community gardenting because it encourages Americans to connect with the land, the food it grows and their local communities. A community garden is an opportunity to educate everyone about from where food comes, whether that is a Farmers Market or a garden, and is important to increasing generations of healthy eaters. Community gardens can be anywhere whether it is in the country, a city or a suburb. It can be one community plot or can be many individual plots, at schools or other public facilities; the possibilities are endless!

Currently there are thousands of community gardens nationwide including 'The People's Garden' at USDA Headquarters on the National Mall. Earlier this year, Vilsack broke ground on 'The People's Garden' - a vegetable garden on USDA property that recently was expanded to include sustainable landscaping for the entire grounds. Since May 21, USDA has harvested and donated more than 170 pounds of produce to the DC Central Kitchen. The DC Central Kitchen offers job training in culinary and food service skills to DC's homeless.

Information about 'The People's Garden' initiative is available at www.usda.gov/peoplesgarden

Here's an Idea!!! Adopt a Classroom :)

For those of you who are looking for ways to get community and parent support for your school gardens and outdoor classrooms, check out http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/ Teachers who register with this organization will have an opportunity to share their programs and projects with interested funders. Check it out!