Become a Volunteer Farm Educator at Arcadia

"Watching kids see a carrot pulled from the ground for the first time is something special. Their eyes light up and and you can almost witness the synapses in their brain fire. Before your very eyes, their schema for a carrot has changed. That's pretty awesome." - Volunteer Farm Educator

Arcadia Farm field trips are full of aha! moments: when a child sees a pumpkin on the vine for the first time, when kids try radishes - and actually like them, when a teachers gets a great idea for his school garden. Volunteer Farm Educators are a key part of making it all happen.

They help monitor the space, provide instruction and supervision, and assist with general garden maintenance. We provide training for volunteers who can commit to one Wednesday, Thursday or Friday each week from 9:30am to 2:30 per week from April 1st to June 15. The full volunteer position description is here.

Helping kids discover where their food comes from is pretty magical and we happen to think it has long-term impacts, like healthier lifestyles and a healthier environment. If you want to get involved, email info@arcadiafood.org with your resume and a note describing your interest. We'd love to have your help!

Calling all early birds: Register now for Arcadia Farm Camp

Warmer months may seem far away, but we're already excited about a summer full of food, farming and fun: Registration for the 2013 season of Arcadia Farm Camp opens today! This year, we're even offering an Early Bird discount to campers who complete registration on or before March 15, so sign up now!

We're already busy planning a jam-packed schedule full of hands-on activities. There's tried and true activities, like building bug houses and making squish squash pasta, plus new ideas to try, like a food miles relay race and solar oven cooking. (101 Gardening Projects for Kids is one of our favorite resources for fun kids stuff.) We'll be working with our new Farm Director Stephen to find the right projects for young farmers and we're definitely recruiting chefs for some tasty seasonal cooking demos - email liz@arcadiafood.org if you know a chef who wants to stop by!

Plus, we're already accepting donations to the Arcadia Farm Camp Scholarship Fund. If you think it's important for all kids to have the opportunity to discover where their food comes from, head over to our scholarship fund page to learn more.

Looking for a few fantastic interns

At Arcadia, our interns are essential. We love the energy and talents they bring to the farm, and they're involved in all aspects of our small operation. Interns gain important skills and knowledge that help prepare them for careers in sustainable agriculture, outdoor education, nutrition, nonprofit management, and more.

This spring, we're offering two different internship positions. Farm Interns will focus on our small-scale sustainable farming operation, while Farm Education Interns become an integral part of our farm field trip program. Follow the links to learn more.

Deadline for applications is February 1st. Help us spread the word!

Field trip registration opens Monday!

We're opening registration for 2013 field trips to Arcadia Farm on Monday, December 3.

Here are some reasons our field trip program is awesome:

• We encourage kids to try new healthy fruits and vegetables by showing them where food comes from.
  
• The Groundhog Garden, our kid's educational space, is a fantastic classroom where kids can interact with each other and with nature in a positive way.
  
• We help reinforce classroom learning by providing hands-on lessons where students can experience the concepts they've learned in school. For example, check out the photo above: instead of just learning about decomposition in a book, kids can dig in the compost and even touch worms!
  

We've gotten some great feedback from teachers, like the comment below.

I thought the trip was very well organized and the volunteers were really great with the students. All the topics were interesting, age-appropriate and relevant to what we were studying at the time. I loved that the students got the opportunity to get hands on with their learning and their favorite part was tasting all the different things from the garden. - DCPS third grade teacher, fall 2012

Our program is designed for pre-K through 5th grade groups of up to 60 students. In 2013, Arcadia Farm field trips will take place on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays starting March 20. Learn more by visiting the field trip page on our website or you can download an overview of the program here for Virginia schools and here for DC schools.

We hope to see you out at the farm soon!

Wrapping up our fall field trip season

After a bustling, exciting fall season, Arcadia Farm is quiet this week after our final field trip of 2012 last Thursday.

We started the program last fall with the belief that experiential learning can play a key role in helping kids form healthy and sustainable eating habits. In other words, we think that when kids have the opportunity to learn about where good food comes from, they're more likely to eat it and they're more likely to become healthy adults. We also think the farm is a great place to explore and reinforce the concepts kids learn in their classrooms, like plant life cycles, decomposition, and pollination. Plus, the farm is FUN, for kids and adults alike.

We welcomed about 350 kids to the farm this fall and just under 1000 kids in 2012. Here are some highlights from this fall's trips:

• We got lucky: we had NO cancellations due to weather this season! In fact, we hosted most of the trips to the farm under sunny fall skies.
  
• Inspired by our trip to the Washington Youth Garden, we added farm-fresh honey tasting to our Pests and Pollination station. Not surprisingly, it was a huge hit.
  
• Education Coordinator Brandi strengthened our Taste Sensation station by incorporating healthy recipes like a honey mustard dressing and a beet salad. (Check out the kid on the right: he can't get enough of that beet salad!) She also made some awesome additions to the salad bar, including roasted eggplant and hard boiled eggs from the farm. Yum!
  
• Awesome intern Lacey filmed one of our trips, and is in the process of creating some videos of our lessons that we can share with future farm educators (and you!).
  

What really stood out this season is our fantastic field trip crew: Kasey, Eli, Adriana, Brandi, Teiji, Marta, Lammot, Morgan, Lacey, Amanda and Mallory. It was a joy to watch this awesome group of farm educators grow and learn over the course of the season and it's because of their skills and passion that we have a successful field trip program. Kudos to the field trip team!

See you in the spring! (Email liz@arcadiafood.org for more information about spring field trips).

Sign up for a field trip to Arcadia Farm this fall

We're excited to announce that registration for our fall field trips to Arcadia Farm is NOW OPEN! We'll take 2nd, 3rd & 4th graders and other interested groups of up to 50 students for interactive visits to our sustainable farm.

Arcadia Farm field trips will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:30am to 1:30pm from September 5th to November 1st, 2012.

The field trips are aligned with age-appropriate curriculum standards, and teach students 1) how to grow food sustainably with the natural cycles of the earth; 2) which fruits and vegetables are available in our region during different times of the year; and 3) that fruits and vegetables can be healthy and delicious!

Click here to register for your Arcadia Farm field trip. Space is limited, reserve your date today! For more information about our field trip program, please contact brandi@arcadiafood.org. You can also visit our Flickr page to see some photos from previous field trips to Arcadia Farm.

We hope to see your group out at the farm soon!

Help out with our fall field trip program!

Have you been looking for a way to get involved with Arcadia? Have a flexible schedule? Like working with kids? Then read on...

We're looking for Volunteer Farm Field Trip Assistants to help make field trips to Arcadia Farm safe, educational and fun. Field Trip Assistants will,provide instruction and supervision, help monitor the space, and assist with general garden maintenance.

Here's what some former Volunteer Farm Field Trip Assistants had to say about their experiences:

"I enjoyed learning and teaching about sustainable farming just as much as the children did. It was so nice to meet and work with the team of women on the farm and the children were delightful. Tasting the honey straight from the hive was a thrill as was picking up the chicken and her fresh eggs." - Volunteer Field Trip Assistant, Spring 2012

"Watching kids see a carrot pulled from the ground for the first time is something special. Their eyes light up and and you can almost witness the synapses in their brain fire. Before your very eyes, their schema for a carrot has changed. That's pretty awesome." - Field Trip Assistant, Spring 2012

We’re looking for volunteers who can commit to one Wednesday or Thursday from 9:30am to 2:30 per week for the duration of the Arcadia Farm field trip program, which runs from September 5 to October 31. For more information, read the full description here.

To apply, email Liz (liz@arcadiafood.org) with your resume and a note describing your interest.

Looking ahead to fall field trips

Our tomatoes aren't yet ripe, but we're already thinking about squash and sweet potatoes. In other words, school is winding down for the summer (happy last day, DCPS!), but we're already looking forward to hosting field trips in the fall.

Want to know more about our program? Read on.

What will students learn on the farm?
After a farm field trip, second, third and fourth grade students will be able to make the connection that healthy, fresh food comes from the earth, and will understand the process of growing food sustainably. Students will be familiar with and recognize fruits and vegetables that grow near Washington, DC, so that they will be more likely to eat those healthy foods when they see them in the cafeteria or at home.

To learn more about how Arcadia Farm field trips meet 2nd, 3rd & 4th grade learning standards, click HERE for DC standards and HERE for VA standards.

When do field trips take place?
Arcadia Farm field trips in fall 2012 will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm beginning Wednesday, September 5 and ending Thursday, November 1 2012. Weather cancellations will be rescheduled for Fridays during the season.

How much do field trips cost?
Field trip fees are calculated according to the percentage of students eligible for Free or Reduced Price (FRP) Meals at your school:

70-100% eligible for FRP meals = $50 per trip
41-69% eligible for FRP meals = $250 per trip
0-40% eligible for FRP meals = $400 per trip

Note: We want to make our field trips accessible to as many students as possible. If cost is a problem for you, please let us know.

Can I bring kids from my summer program on a field trip?
Our own summer program, Arcadia Farm Camp, runs from July 16-July 27, but we can host trips on a very limited basis during other weeks this summer. Email liz@arcadiafood.org to request a visit.

Where can I find more information?
Please contact liz@arcadiafood.org with questions or to be added to our email list. We'll start registering schools during the first week in August. To see more pictures or read stories about past field trips, visit Arcadia’s blog or Flickr page.

Andrea's Leaving Arcadia :(

It is with both excitement and sadness that I share with you all that I will be leaving the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia at the end of June. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working to connect local farms with DC schools over the past four years, but I am ready for something new. I am most likely off to Minneapolis, MN next to work on farm to school programs with Minneapolis Public Schools.

Things will look a little different for farm to school in Washington, DC in the coming months:

• There will be a Farm to School Specialist position created in the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to work alongside the School Garden Specialist and focus on local procurement in DC schools.
• DC Greens will be the new organizational home for the D.C. Farm to School Network's information sharing, community engagement, and outreach activities - the "network" part of the Network. DC Greens will oversee the farm to school newsletter, website, and community advocacy presence, and will convene the Network's Advisory Board.
• Arcadia will continue to conduct educational farm field trips, visits by its Mobile Market to DC schools, and a farm summer camp.

And finally, there are some other really exciting farm to school updates I'd like to share:

• I am honored to have won the NRDC Going Green "Young Food Leader" award! Check out this great video (start at 6 minutes).  Grist also wrote a really nice piece, and the Huffington Post is posting a series.
• The D.C. Farm to School Directory is complete! It lists local growers interested to sell to DC schools, and schools looking to buy local products. Download it here.
• We published a report called What's Local in D.C. Public School Meals, which looks at how much produce served by DCPS' vendors (Chartwells, DC Central Kitchen, and Revolution Foods) was local from September to December 2011. On average, it was a whopping 35%! Download it here.

Sincerely,

Andrea Northup, commonly seen in carrot costume, always enthusiastic about salad bars, and forever connecting farms and schools!

Strawberries & Salad Greens 2012

“Our students always look forward to this day! We had a great time. One first grader said that this was the best lunch he’d ever had!” – Teacher, Hearst Elementary School

Every child in D.C. Public Schools and in dozens of public charter schools across the city enjoyed fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens in their school lunch on Wednesday May 23rd! Strawberries & Salad Greens Day was a huge success, reaching students in over 150 cafeterias with farm-fresh school meals, and coordinating food education stations in over 50 school lunchrooms. 

The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia, in conjunction with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, D.C. Public Schools, and Whole Foods Markets coordinated the event. Let me walk you through the event, with the help of some great pictures:

Farmers in the mid-Atlantic region grew berries and greens for D.C. schools. Produce for the event came from farms such as Spring Valley Farm in West Virginia, River View Farm in Pennsylvania, Barajas Farm in Virginia, and Kilmer’s Farm in West Virginia. Schools also worked with Sam Ullery, School Garden Specialist, to plant their own berries and greens in their school gardens as well!

D.C. Public Schools hosted a kick-off event at Maury Elementary School in Ward 6. Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh were among the many dignitaries who came to celebrate. Students at Maury made strawberry parfaits with Whole Foods Markets, tried colorful salads with Sweetgreen, tasted a home-made strawberry vinaigrette with Chartwells, and learn about root vegetables with Chef Indigo. See a slide-show of pictures from the great event here.

The D.C. Farm to School Network coordinated over 30 volunteers to help out with “Where Food Comes From” tables in school cafeterias. These educational displays included plants, seasonality charts, stickers, and more to remind students of the farm-to-table process. Thanks to Whole Foods, volunteers had awesome t-shirts and banners to hang! In total, over 50 schools in all 8 wards hosted “Where Food Comes From” tables in their cafeterias.

And of course, students enjoyed the fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad in their school meals! Most D.C. Public Schools served theirs with all-muscle chicken, corn on the cob, a whole wheat roll – a great meal to mark the start of warm weather.  Many thanks to D.C. Public Schools and their foodservice vendors (Chartwells, Revolution Foods and DC Central Kitchen), as well as the charter schools and their participating vendors.  See a full list of participating schools and vendors on the Strawberries & Salad Greens website.  The produce was a hit –

“We encouraged students to try tasting the lettuce and most really enjoyed it. One student actually ran around telling others, “you HAVE to try this!”  – Volunteer, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School

Photo credits: Kathy Brown, Sam Ullery, and D.C. Public Schools

Gearing Up for Field Trips at Arcadia Farm

Enthusiasm, passion, patience: these are a few of the qualities that make a great teacher, according to the staff, interns, and volunteers at our field trip training this past Saturday. As we discussed the basics of farm-based education, we also talked about how we as educators can embody those qualities and make each trip empowering for students.

In just a few short weeks, Arcadia Farm will start hosting spring field trips for kids from DC and the metro area. The goal of the training was to make sure our fantastic volunteers, interns and staff are prepared to make those trips great. Although the rain kept us indoors for most of the day, we spent time role playing activities about soil, plants, bees, chickens and harvesting so that everyone had practice teaching our spring lessons.

Amy Best, Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University, joined us for the training to discuss observation-based research. She has been helping us develop a comprehensive system for evaluating our programs and she'll be observing field trips to help us measure our success and improve our programs.

Sophia from Brickyard Farm, where they're starting a field trip program, also stopped by to hear about what we're doing. So did Jamie from Sweetgreen, who made a special guest chef appearance at one of our fall field trips.

Thanks to everyone who came! And special thanks to our friends at Chipotle for providing lunch for our hungry staff and volunteers.

We're enthusiastic, passionate, patient and just about ready to welcome a crop of future growers to our farm! See you in a few weeks!

Tour de D.C. School Food

As the D.C. Farm to School Network Director at Arcadia, I love it when school food friends from other districts come to town - it's a great chance to check in with some of my favorite schools and programs here in the District!  Last week, I took Doug Davis, Director of Food Service for Burlington, VT Public Schools and Julia Bauscher, Director of School & Community Nutrition Services in Louisville, KY on a tour of a few model DC school food programs.  Here's what we saw -

It all started with breakfast at CentroNia, a multi-cultural learning center that runs a host of educational programs for the community, including D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School.  Sofia Bustos, CentroNia's lovely Nutritionist, toured us around the colorful building, rooftop playground, and tiny basement kitchen where they produce over 1,000 meals each day from scratch.  We had yogurt, cereal, and fresh fruit for breakfast while Sofia told us about CentroNia's innovative programs that engage parents, teachers, students, and the entire school community in a culture of nutrition and wellness.

Breakfast at D.C. Bilingual - cereal, yogurt and fresh fruit

Sofia's enthusiasm and hospitality were reflected in the awesome nutrition posters, colorful student artwork and friendly staff at the school.  In fact, she was recently appointed Chilean Health Ambassador by the First Lady of Chile, Cecilia Morel. So Sofia is now an Adviser for Chile's national program “Elige Vivir Sano” (Choose to Live Healthy), which is similar to First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign.  Congratulations Sofia!

Sofia Bustos, CentroNia's Nutritionist, here with the First Lady of Chile Cecilia Morel

Our next stop was DC Central Kitchen's new Nutrition Lab - a 6,000 square foot facility that opened about a year ago as a production kitchen for the 5,000 meals DCCK produces each day for schools, shelters, and other social service providers.  DCCK's Local Initiatives and Procurement Coordinator Joelle Johnson led us on a tour, where we saw a giant 100-gallon drum of local apples being blended in to apple sauce, and hundreds of whole-wheat wraps being loaded up with fresh mixed greens and chicken salad. 

DCCK staff making applesauce from local apples!  Take our word for it, it smelled delicious.

Most of the employees at the Nutrition Lab were graduates of DCCK's Culinary Job Training program, which equips ex-offenders and homeless individuals with the skills they need to start fresh in the food service industry.  We also had a great chat with Ed Kwitowski, the Executive Chef for the school food service programs DCCK operates at 7 D.C. Public Schools, about some of the challenges they've faced and lessons they've learned from serving scratch-cooked healthy meals over a thousand low-income schoolchildren each day.

Our last stop - lunch!  We visited E.W. Stokes Public Charter School, where Stokes' Wellness Coordinator Trisha Nakano kindly told us about some of the exciting ways the school integrates health and wellness in to each child's learning experience.  For example, each year she coordinates the Taste of Stokes festival, a fall harvest celebration where students and families celebrate the bounty of their school garden and challenge students to "Think Globally, Act Locally." Trisha joined us for baked tilapia, kale chips (many of which came from Stokes' own school garden!), whole wheat rolls, chilled carrot curry soup, and salads from the salad bar. 

E.W. Stokes' salad bar - it tasted as good as it looked!

It was restaurant-quality food, and the kids were gobbling it up just as fast as we were.  Stokes' Chef Lisa Dobbs joined us - she's the brains behind the delicious recipes and smooth operations of their school meal program, which puts out breakfast, lunch, dinner, and family to-go meals for 320 students each day out of a teeny tiny kitchen.

Doug and I also got a quick peek at the Farm at Walker Jones, where we met with Farm Director Sarah Bernardi and got to see the wonderful things they're doing on about an acre of green space surrounded by downtown Washington, DC.

Many thanks to Sarah, Sofia, Joelle, Ed, Trisha and Lisa (and all of their staff) for the wonderful day!

Save the Date for Arcadia Farm Camp!

We're glad to announce the dates of Arcadia Farm Camp's pilot sessions! Over the past few weeks, we've been moving forward with planning a truly awesome summer camp program. We had help from some fantastic parents at our focus groups in January, and we'll use their feedback as we develop camp policies and procedures.

We're hosting two one-week sessions: July 16-20, 2012 and July 23-27, 2012. We're planning to open registration in late February or early March. For more details, head over to our website. If you still have questions, don't hesitate to email liz@arcadiafood.org for more information. You can also sign up for future summer camp updates here.

We're excited to welcome your child to Arcadia Farm Camp this summer.

Healthy Schools Act Snapshot

The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia thinks the Healthy Schools Act is pretty great.  It's a local law passed in 2010 that sets high standards for health and wellness in all Washington, DC public and public charter schools.  We're especially excited about the nutrition and food quality requirements that schools must adhere to, which translate to more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables in school meals.  It even gives schools a financial incentive to serve local food!  Learn more about the Healthy Schools Act on our website.

We worked with D.C. Hunger Solutions and a number of other community organizations to pull together a Healthy Schools Act Snapshot for the 2010 school year, which was when the Healthy Schools Act first went into effect.  The document shows how differnt parts of the Act have been implemented thus far, and which areas have the biggest room for improvement.

Check out the Healthy Schools Act Snapshot for yourself how this landmark piece of legislation is overhauling the health of Washington, DC schoolchildren, is working in communities in our nation's capital!

Meet Tom - Mobile Market School Educator

We just hired Tom Flanagan as our Mobile Market School Educator! Tom's going to be coordinating educational visits to schools by our Mobile Market, and putting on local food throw-downs in school cafeterias across the District.  Here's some more about Tom:

What past experiences have prepared you for this position?
I've had all sorts of jobs so far in my life -- you name it, and I've done it. I've worked at a coffee shop, a driving range, a nonprofit, and a soup kitchen; I've worked as a landscaper, a mechanic, a carpenter, and a baker; I've done marketing, organizing, teaching, and mopping. Now, as I step into this position with Arcadia, I can see how each of these unique experiences is going to contribute to the success of this program.

Recent experiences that I'll be drawing on most heavily include working with kids in the KIPP schools tending a small garden of edibles (with some minor success), and working with volunteers at Miriam's Kitchen to produce healthy meals for DC's homeless population.

What’s your favorite healthy recipe?
I have an adaptation of a lentil soup recipe that I stole from a food blog a few years back. It uses french beluga lentils that maintain their shape a bit more than the green lentils you usually see. Using some of my homemade canned tomatoes and adding in a stiff green toward to the end makes this a very clean tasting, healthy and hearty meal, perfect for a cold winter night (if we ever have those again!).

Tom doing some serious canning. 
That's what we like to see in an Arcadian.

If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
I'd probably be an apple, because I go best with either peanut butter or cheese, but not at the same time. Does that make sense?

What about this position are you most excited for?
I'm most excited to be working with kids, helping them find food they like and learning from them what makes food appealing to people of all ages. But I'm most excited for the opportunity to work with a small and highly motivated team, building a program that will get kids psyched up to eat their local veggies!

What’s your favorite season for growing produce and why?
I love the early spring farmers markets - all the good strong leafy greens, the spicy arugula, the sweet strawberries, the pencil-thin asparagus, the tart rhubarb... So much goodness happens in the first few months of the growing season. Second favorite, of course, is tomato season. Because tomatoes!

2012, Here We Come!

Arcadia’s gearing up for 2012! We have ambitious goals - here’s what our staff are most excited about for in the upcoming year:

After a stellar first season, our Farm Director Mo Moodie, is excited to expand Arcadia Farm at Woodlawn to an additional 2 acres (“the Lower Field”) this growing season. Our Mobile Market needs fresh fruits and veggies to sell in and around DC, so she’s gonna grow ‘em. We’re also welcoming some living, breathing new members of our farm family: chickens & ducks!

Benjamin Bartley, our Mobile Market Director, is excited to get Arcadia’s farmers’ market bus on the road this season! He’s establishing a “Double Dollars” program that will match fresh produce purchases dollar-for-dollar from low-income folks using WIC, SNAP, and the Senior Farmers’ Market Promotion Program – up to $15,000! He also aims to engage thousands of students, parents and families when the Mobile Market makes educational stops at schools. Keep your eyes peeled for a produce-filled school bus soon!

Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Director, is rolling out a number of food, nutrition and farm education programs this year. She’s most excited for a Farm to School Workshop for school food service providers later this winter, and the launch of our Farm-Fresh Feature program. The Farm-Fresh Feature will include a suite of educational materials and programs for schools to help them celebrate a different sustainable, local fruit or veggie each month. Stickers, handouts, banners, taste-tests and more will get kids jazzed about the local options in their school meals!

Liz Whitehurst, our Farm Education Coordinator, aims to build off of a successful season of school field trips to Groundhog Garden, our youth space at Arcadia Farm. Her main goals are to make field trips accessible to all schools, regardless of their ability to pay for a bus to transport students. Liz also plans to grow at least 50% of food for education programs at Groundhog Garden. Whole Foods generously donated hundreds of pounds of produce for field trip programming last year, but Liz’s planned expansion of Groundhog Garden will allow us to stock our salad bar with produce grown just a few feet away.

Wow, we’ve got a lot in store for the upcoming months! Help us reach our goals by donating to Arcadia (email info@arcadiafood.org to learn how) and stay in touch – follow us on twitter, find us on facebook, and be sure to get on our email list.

Farm to School Person of the Year 2011: Whitney Bateson

Since she was hired almost four years ago as the Resident Dietician for D.C. Public Schools at Chartwells-Thompsons, there has never been a doubt that Whitney Bateson wasn’t in the business to serve the children of the District of Columbia. Whitney has been a driving force in making DCPS school meals healthier, more sustainable, and more locally-sourced. At Chartwells she was tasked with creating menus and assuring compliance for approximately 125 school DCPS sites serving breakfast, lunch and in some cases dinner each day. Planning approximately 70,000 meals each day is no small task, but Whitney Bateson took the challenge head-on.

Here ia Whitney with Jeff Mills, Director of Food & Nutrition Services for DCPS,
learning from a vendor at a healthy food showcase.  Look at the concentration!!!

When I first met Whitney, we were both new to Washington, DC. I called her up to talk about farm to school programs, and she patiently walked me through the process of how food travels from farm to tray in the D.C. school meal system. I immediately sensed that she shared my enthusiasm, and she took on the challenge of sourcing more local produce for DCPS school meals.

Whitney fast went from farm to school novice to expert at Chartwells. She scheduled meetings with produce distributors, researched local farms, worked out the logistics of local purchasing for special events (like Strawberries & Salad Greens), and enthusiastically participated in many of the farm to school workshops, events, field trips and meetings hosted by the D.C. Farm to School Network. It’s truly been a pleasure watching her knowledge and passion for farm to school grow over the years.

Whitney was our most enthusiastic Farm to School Field Trip participant! 
Here she is holding sweetcorn on our trip to Delaware (third from right).

Not only do I respect Whitney’s work, I admire her incredible dedication to child nutrition; her willingness to push for change against great odds; her consistently positive and outgoing attitude; her natural curiosity (including a willingness to ask difficult questions); and her unwavering work ethic. These traits will take Whitney far as she moves on from her position at DCPS to become Director of Wellness Initiatives at Chartwells, where she will take on the role of coordinating sustainability and wellness programs for Chartwells across the country.

As someone who’s seen what DCPS school meals menus looked like four years ago, I commend Chartwells for now serving minimally-processed, healthy meals featuring a local food almost every day in the spring and fall (and a few days per week in the winter). I want to acknowledge Whitney Bateson for playing a lead role in this transformation to more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and local produce. Granted school meal reform in Washington, DC has been a result of local and national partnerships, government agencies, and policies, but Whitney Bateson is one of the true unsung heroes of the movement. We are sad to see her move on to the national arena, but glad she still calls Washington, DC home!

Farm to School Field Trip - Blue Ridge Produce!

I can't think of a better way to spend a weekday morning than travelling to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley to connect local growers with D.C. schools.  Earlier this week, eight of my favorite school food service providers and farm-to-school stakeholders from Washington, DC took a field trip out to Elkwood, VA to visit Blue Ridge Produce.  We got a first class tour of their new facility, which serves as a local food distribution "hub" for Northern Virginia and Washington, DC markets.

Jim and Mark, the co-founders of Blue Ridge, brought us up to speed with a history of the new organization and how it got started.  We began our tour in the huge warehouse and freezer space, which will be brimming with produce come spring for wholesale buyers around the region. 

We moved our way in to the (thankfully warmer) greenhouses, with thousands of square feet of space ready to grow hydroponic vegetables, herbs and greens.  The potential for the space is huge - Jim and Mark described plans for a commercial kitchen, demonstration compost operation, and sustainable farm in the works.

Many thanks to Jim, Mark, Craig and the Blue Ridge team for a wonderful and informative visit.  And thank you to Beatriz, Sofia, Lisa, Jaime, Benjamin, Jeff, and Whitney for coming on the trip.  I look forward to working with all of you to make more healthy, local food available to Washington, DC schoolkids!

Top 5 Awesomest Things in the Groundhog Garden

Things at Arcadia Farm's Groundhog Garden were pretty awesome this fall, but here are some of the awesomest things of all:

1) Farmer for a day! All of the kids who go on a field trip to Arcadia Farm get to try their hands at farming, and in doing so, learn what it takes to grow food sustainably. From planting seeds to tending to bees, they get hands-on experience in the day-to-day life of a farmer. And they get to wear great hats!

2) Salad Bar: Our friends at Whole Foods donated a salad bar to the farm, which was both a great teaching tool and a fun way to eat healthy food straight from the ground.

If nothing else, we hope that field trips to the farm will make students more likely to eat fruits and vegetables when they see them on their cafeteria trays. Since more and more DC schools have salad bars, they are one way we connect the farm to the cafeteria.

3) Chef demonstrations: Chefs from all over DC and Virginia came to the farm to teach our students simple, healthy recipes using fresh food. Special thanks go out to the chefs themselves: Alison Reed, Robert Weidmaier, Michael Bonk, Tianna Feaster, Chef Indigo (at right), Chef Jamie and our very own Benjamin Bartley.

4) New shed: With the help of builder Jesse Cooper and some generous volunteers, we designed and built a new shed especially for our Farm to School programming. It will serve not only as an education station and storage space, but also a place for kids to explore and play. Plus, it's pretty darn cute.

5) Arcadia staff in vegetable costumes: It's no surprise: (DC Farm to School Network Director) Andrea makes a great carrot. The awesomest moment of the whole season might have been when a kindergartener grabbed her and yelled: "I'm gonna eat you!"

Ready to sign your class up for a spring field trip? Email katherine@dcfarmtoschool.org and ask her to add you to our list!

DCPS Wellness Policy includes Farm to School

D.C. youth have among the highest child obesity, hunger, and poverty rates in the nation.  Since these kids spend a lot of time each day at school, we have a great opportunity to influence their health and wellness by making positive changes to the school environment.

D.C. Public Schools worked with community partners to design a Local Wellness Policy.  This document lays out a road map to make DCPS schools healthy, safe, and green.  Over the past few months, Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network was a part of this coalition that updated the Local Wellness Policy for its launch this week.  The policy sets ambitious targets for physical activity, nutrition, and environmental sustainability for DCPS. It also outlines a community engagement and implementation plan.  Download a copy of the wellness policy HERE.

We're excited to see Farm to School in the Wellness Policy!

• School meals will include fresh, locally-grown foods from farms engaged in sustainable practices whenever possible.
• Schools should encourage more student interaction with the food preparation process, including farm visits, cooking demonstrations and taste tests.
• DCPS will incorporate farm to school/food origin education into its standard curriculum.

We look forward to working together with DCPS to make the vision articulated in the Local Wellness Policy a reality.