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Farm to School Trip to Delaware!

Katherine Bryant is an intern with the D.C. Farm to School Network, and a seasoned community food security advocate.  This blog describes her recent farm to school “field-trip” to Delaware and the Eastern Shore.

Greetings from the watermelon capital of the world!

I had the honor of joining a small group of Washington, DC school food service providers, D.C. Farm to School Network Coordinator Andrea Northup, and a D.C. City Council staffer on a trip to Delaware – a fitting ‘initiation’ into the role of D.C. Farm to School Network intern. The goal of the trip was to get a feel Delaware’s local food supply, and explore how to connect that supply with the demand for local foods in the D.C. school system. Our knowledgeable and well-connected host, fourth-generation watermelon farmer and Delaware Fruit and Vegetable Association president David Marvel, led our energetic and passionate group on a wonderful journey of learning, networking, and of course – eating!

Just a few hours from D.C., Delmarva (a catchy name for the Eastern Shore region of Delaware Maryland, and Virginia) makes its mark as the epicenter of watermelon production.  They produce a notable portion of the country’s corn and lima bean yield as well. Our first stop was the S.E.W. Friel sweet corn farm. We were able to snag a few minutes with the farmers amidst the busyness of the growing season full in swing – which means around the clock harvesting, packing, distributing and marketing of products. We stood in awe of the over 13-feet tall machines capable of harvesting 60,000 lbs of corn per hour.  We chatted with some of the many folks who work in concert to bring that sweet corn all the way from seed to harvester to tractor-trailer truck to storage facility to point-of-sale (e.g. supermarket) to a family’s refrigerator.

Would you have guessed that both schoolchildren and Delmarva watermelons use the same form of transportation? In our exploration of the watermelon’s journey from farm to table, we learned that retired school buses are rendered windowless and accompany teams of migrant workers as they walk through fields tossing watermelons on board.  The roads of Delaware are flooded with melon-filled busses on their way to washing facilities, auctions or markets. We saw Lakeside Farms, a family-owned operation where watermelons are grown, washed and packed for shipping.  And we watched in fascination at the Laurel Produce Auction as truckloads of locally-grown produce were paraded and sold to the highest bidder. From mid-July until mid-September, the Auction sells an average of over 2 million watermelons!

DC Student Delivers Produce to DC Schools

This is the story of a rising D.C. high school senior’s experience volunteering with the D.C. Farm to School Network, a program of the Capital Area Food Bank that works to get more healthy, local foods into D.C. schools.  Bella Herold volunteered during a special event – Strawberries & Salad Greens – when the Network [...]

Fresh, Local Strawberries & Salad Greens in DC Schools!

Local lettuce and berries for school lunch being prepared at CentroNIA
If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3rd 2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays!  Over 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches.  This was [...]

Need District Healthy Food Leaders at DC Environmental Network Brown-Bag

Need District Healthy Food Leaders at DC Environmental Network Brown-Bag
On May 6th Mayor Fenty named Christoph Tulou Director of the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE). On June 24th at noon, the DC Environmental Network and Earthjustice would like to invite you to a brown-bag luncheon to welcome Director Tulou to the District.
Although many [...]

Healthy Schools Act: Next Steps!

As the Coordinator of the D.C. Farm to School Network, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Councilmember Mary Cheh’s office on a landmark piece of legislation – the Healthy Schools Act. The Act passed through the final Council vote on Tuesday May 4th. It now goes on to the Mayor’s desk [...]

Healthy Schools Act is close to passing! ACT NOW.

Great news! The Healthy Schools Act passed unanimously in both the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment and the Committee of the Whole on April 19th and April 20th!

Now the entire council has to take a final vote to pass the bill as a law! The final council vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 4 – we can’t rest until the Act is PASSED and FUNDED!

Please take a moment today to show your support of the Act by calling or emailing the D.C. Council. You can learn more about the act at www.healthyschools.marycheh.com.

Please call and/or email your ward representative, the at-large representatives, and the chairman. You can call (202) 724-8000 to be connected:

Council Chairman Vincent Gray (vgray@dccouncil.us)
Ward 1: Jim Graham: (jgraham@dccouncil.us)
Ward 2: Jack Evans (jevans@dccouncil.us)
Ward 3: Mary Cheh (mcheh@dccouncil.us)
Ward 4: Muriel Bowser (mbowser@dccouncil.us)
Ward 5: Harry Thomas Jr. (hthomas@dccouncil.us)
Ward 6: Tommy Wells (twells@dccouncil.us)
Ward 7: Yvette Alexander (yalexander@dccouncil.us)
Ward 8: Marion Barry (mbarry@dccouncil.us)

At-large Councilmembers:
Kwame Brown (kbrown@dccouncil.us)
Michael Brown (mbrown@dccouncil.us)
David Catania (dcatania@dccouncil.us)
Phil Mendelson (pmendelson@dccouncil.us)

The Healthy Schools Act is On the Move!

The public hearing on the Healthy Schools Act on March 26th was well attended, and D.C. City Councilmembers heard an impressive contingent voice their support for the bill. Read some of the wonderful testimony and find more information about the act on Mary Cheh’s site.

The Healthy Schools Act: Up for Debate!

Do you think that farm to school programs that get local foods on school cafeteria trays are important for D.C. kids, local farms, and our community? Please read and sign DC Farm To School’s online petition in support of farm to school in the Healthy Schools Act! It only takes a few seconds.

The Healthy Schools Act covers a wide range of issues – many of which are connected to food access, nutrition, and community food security for D.C. kids. Please find more information about the bill, the most latest full-text version, links to news articles and more at our website.

We’re really excited about the bill, because it creates a farm to school program in the District of Columbia. However, if the Council is serious about creating a farm to school program, they’ll have to make a few changes to the Act, and they’ll have to commit to funding for farm to school in the bill. We have four priority requests:

1) Mandate that schools purchase healthy, local foods whenever possible, and provide financial incentives tied to local purchasing;
2) Provide a central space for processing and storing healthy, local foods for school meals;
3) Require that schools disclose where and how school foods are grown; and
4) Require collaboration among government agencies and community partners to integrate hands-on farm to school education into the cafeteria and classroom (including a mandatory Farm to School Week each year).

It’s not too late to testify (or submit written testimony) in support of the bill or these changes — the public hearing is on Friday! We have secured a room with books and activities for kids (and a television screen with live coverage of the hearing), so you can bring your little ones!

Friday March 26th at 11:00 AM
Room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW

To sign up to testify or submit testimony, please contact Ms. Aukima Benjamin at (202) 724-8062, or via e-mail at abenjamin@dccouncil.us.

You can read more about our priorities for the Healthy Schools Act on this one-pager, and also on our website at www.dcfarmtoschool.org. Thank you!