Highland Elementary School has been notified that it will receive a $999.07 Pennsylvania Departments of Education (PDE) and Agriculture (PDA) Mini-Grant to fund taste-testing and educational components for third grade students and for school garden activities.
The competitive grant, with a maximum of $1,000, is intended to provide students with access to fresh, healthy food sourced locally. According to Pennsylvania Education Secretary Pedro Rivera, “The Farm-to-School grant program will bring locally-sourced, nutritious meals to students in our schools so that they may learn healthy choices, whether at home or in school.”
The farm-to-school activities include student taste-testing of local products and school garden activities that will take place at Highland. The taste-testing will coordinate with a plant food objective in the nutrition and fitness curriculum. A “plant food party” will involve taste testing of a variety of foods such as beets, spinach, kale, chard, parsnips, collards, sugar snap peas, pinto beans, asparagus, bok choy, rhubarb, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, cucumbers, squash, bell pepper, eggplant, melons, and various berries. Students will identify the part of the plant the item came from and describe the color, smell, and consistencies of the food items. They will then discuss how many new foods they tasted, what surprised them most about the new foods, and what are some of the new foods they will ask their parents to buy or grow at home.
The school garden activities will enhance the existing bird/butterfly garden and reading garden, which is designated as an Audubon Bird Habitat, with raised garden beds for edibles. Students in the Highland Garden Club and volunteer parents will plant the seeds and starter plants for items such as snap peas, hardy herbs, carrots, radishes, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli. The school’s cafeteria manager will incorporate what is grown in the garden into the school lunch program and Garden Club students will taste test what they have grown.
The grant application was planned and submitted by teacher Francine Lee-Kim, with input with the co-sponsor of Garden Club, teacher Patricia Forrest; input from parent Karin McGarry-Rosen; and Judy Bomze helped review and proofread the grant application.