Cooking with Kids and the Farms to Schools Project

Cooking with Kids, an experiential and multicultural food and nutrition curriculum and education program began in two elementary schools in Santa Fe in 1996. During the 2003-2004 school year, Cooking with Kids reached 3680 K-6 students from 190 classrooms and seven Santa Fe public elementary schools.

After working to pass a Memorial in the 2001 New Mexico Legislature to encourage public schools to use locally grown produce in school meals, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Santa Fe Public Schools and Cooking with Kids collaborated to create the Farms to Schools Project. A visit to the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Salad Bar in California, for several school food service staff members and New Mexico Department of Agriculture Marketing Specialist Craig Mapel, served as a catalyst for future efforts. The Farms to Schools Project began in three pilot schools and by 2003-2004 school year the program was implemented in six pilot elementary schools and one pilot high school.

Initially, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and the State Farmers’ Marketing Association located interested farmers. In the 2003-2004 school year, approximately forty farmers sold to the school district, primarily through a farmers’ coop. The cooperative as well as individual farmers deliver their produce directly to the school sites or the central warehouse. Most products are available only during the fall and spring, although salad greens grown under cover are available now through most of the winter. Local farmers are working to develop more techniques, such as the hothouse method, to extend their growing season.

Local produce is served in a variety of ways. Several schools have salad bars where local produce is used. Farm fresh produce is also integrated into regular menus.

As previously mentioned, the Farm to Schools Project is actively involved with seven schools within the Santa Fe Public School System. However, sometimes all of the district’s twenty-nine schools receive local produce. Sunflower sprouts, watermelons, and apples are popular items used in all schools in the district when abundant.

Most of the seven schools actively involved in the Farm to Schools Project are part of the Cooking with Kids Program, an innovative food and nutrition education program that involves hands-on cooking and tasting classes. The nutrition and food education component of the Farms to School Project was expanded in 2000 after Lynn Walters, Cooking with Kids Program founder and program coordinator, encouraged the non-profit organization Farm to Table to link farmers with children through education activities, such as farm tours. In the 2003- 2004 school year, farm tours were a regular part of the Farm to Schools Project.

Three grants provided start-up funds for this project: a three year $30,750 USDA Community Food Projects grant, a $30,000 New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) contribution, and the NMDA was awarded $27,000 from the USDA’s Federal State Marketing and Improvement Program to further develop the program. Initially state bidding requirements posed a barrier to purchasing the local, often more expensive local produce; however, the project coordinators designed bid requests to specify the freshness of the product, which made the purchase of local goods less complicated.

A pilot middle school in the Albuquerque Public School District is set to receive local produce starting in the fall of 2004 as part of the Farm to Schools Project.

Contact

Le Adams, Co-director - Farm to Table; Farm to School Program Director
3900 Paseo del Sol
Santa Fe, AL 87507
Phone: (505) 473-1004
ladams@cybermesa.com