CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A celebration of healthy school food and the people who provide it to our community’s children was hosted by the Lake County Farm to School Project, a program of North Coast Opportunities, or NCO.
The event, “Feeding our Future: A Celebration of Healthy School Food and Nutrition Services,” was held Wednesday, July 30, at Brassfield Estate Winery in Clearlake Oaks, and was a resounding success for all who attended.
This invitation-only gathering brought together school food service staff from around Lake County for a day of culinary and nutrition training that focused on farm to school, networking, skills development, training and celebration.
Due to the devastating wildfires last year, this event was rescheduled three times, and ultimately canceled.
This was the first time this event was held in Lake County; the previous two were held in Mendocino County and all have been hosted by NCO.
The Lake County Farm to School Project, coordinated by Terre Logsdon, works with five of the six school districts in Lake County through a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Participating districts in the project include Konocti, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Middletown and Upper Lake.
Due to still being in summer school session the staff from Kelseyville could not attend, but were treated to a tour of local farms earlier in the summer.
Food service staff from the Konocti, Upper Lake, and Lakeport Unified School Districts were in attendance at this event.
Major sponsors of the event included the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Clearlake, Brassfield Estate Winery, A&B Collision, Clearlake Oaks-Glenhaven Business Association, Hardester’s Markets, Finch Gardens and the Lakeport Lions Club.
All attendees received gift bags that included samples from Ukiah Paper and Supply, Sutter Lakeside Hospital, GoRaw, Zevia, Bobos Oat Bars, Justin's NutButter, Numi Tea, 80Acres, as well as a recipe book from BeWell Lake County and Hope Rising Lake County.
The keynote speaker was Miguel Villarreal, food service director at Novato Unified School District, who partnered with Chef Hollie to pilot “the Joyful 12” which connects the “3 Cs” – Cafeteria, Classroom, and Community.
This successful program demonstrates that when an entire school community is brought together, behavior change can be impacted by creating a culture around food education and healthy eating which entices students to consume more vegetables and fruits at school.
As the child of migrant farm laborers, Villareal was one of the students that depended on the free and reduced lunch program.
His gratitude for those healthy meals and the caring people in the cafeteria who served it helped launch him on his current career path in school food service, and inspired him to bring innovative farm to school practices to the Novato School District.
A panel presentation on the Harvest of the Month, or HOTM, program, “Anchored in Schools – Expanded to Community,” included representatives from school gardens, NCO, teachers, and non-profits.
HOTM – which offers sample tastes of locally-grown fresh fruits and vegetables to students – was started in Lake County many years ago at Cobb Mountain Elementary School, which also has a vibrant school garden.
Cindy Leonard, parent volunteer at the school, spoke about the HOTM program and how for many students it is the first introduction to a new fruit or vegetable.
Currently, the HOTM program is offered in all but one elementary school in Lake County, serving tastes of locally-grown fruits and vegetables to over 4,100 students per month.
The elementary school-based HOTM program is funded and operated by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-ed) Project Director of the Public Health Division of the Lake County Health Services Department.
Shelly Sandhoff, another provider of HOTM programming with Be Fresh program of Lake Family Resource Center, provides food demonstrations, nutrition and physical education trainings throughout Lake County.
Be-Fresh works with the Cal Fresh eligible population to encourage healthy eating while on a fixed income.
Recipe samples featuring the HOTM selection are done at a variety of locations including school sites, grocery stores, food giveaway sites, veteran clinics and homeless encampments, and with the tribal and migrant populations.
Lakeport Unified’s seventh grade science teacher, Lisa Prather, spoke at Feeding our Future about the importance of school gardens growing the HOTM selection, as well teaching science in the garden.
With HOTM, Prather said, her students learn how to scientifically observe the texture, smell, and taste of new foods. Each month, students look forward to the new fruit or vegetable they will get to sample.
“Thanks to Jackie Courtney, our Director of Food Service, some of the produce [from the school garden] gets incorporated into the salad bar in the school cafeteria,” Prather said. “The students love eating what they grow and are further encouraged to sample new items found in the salad bar.”
Working on a Partnership to Improve Community Health (PICH) grant from the Center for Disease Control, NCO staff member Jen Dalton gave an overview of how the Lake County Be Well Program ( www.lakecountybewell.org ) is working with locally-owned grocery stores and restaurants to highlight the HOTM selection each month, and is in the process of developing recipe cards for each month of the program.
The calendar for the HOTM selection is based on what is available locally and seasonally, and can be viewed and downloaded from the NCO Farm to School web pages at www.ncoinc.org/programs/farm-to-school-lake-county/ .
NCO’s MendoLake Food Hub Coordinator John Bailey spoke to the school food service staff about how schools can order directly from the hub and have locally-grown produce delivered directly to their schools ( www.mendolakefoodhub.com ).
The outgoing FoodCorps Service Member, Ben Feldman, who served in Konocti District last school year, spoke about his service year and made recommendations to the school food service staff on helping children to embrace healthier eating including recipe taste testing, cooking lessons in the classroom, featuring HOTM on the school lunch menu, and highlighting local farmers and what they are growing on the menu and in the cafeteria.
To close the day, participants gathered to brainstorm ways to bring all of this information back to their school kitchens. The feedback from participants will be used to design custom trainings for each district that will occur in their school kitchens this fall.
For more information on the Lake County Farm to School program, please visit www.ncoinc.org/programs/farm-to-school-lake-county or www.facebook.com/NCOFarmToSchool .