Organized walks leave the NHP Forest Center at 10:30 am and Noon – to the Purple Crayon and Woodstock Farmers Market/ Nordic Ski Hut / and South Peak.

Along the way sample local foods prepared by area farm to school students and local foodies.

More information on partners and activities at: ActivitiesPage

And today, Michele  Obama’s Let’s Move initiative hit the wires, as she announced her ambitious campaign to combat childhood obesity.  Meanwhile, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack says he’s encouraging schools to focus on community gardens and school gardens.

This national campaign ties in very well with Vermont’s Get Moving initiative and NH Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) as well as so many of our local efforts here in the Upper Valley.

OK – game on.

The UVFTS has had a “fruitful” fall – with several new farm to school programs being launched, new FTS coordinators hired at three schools, forums held for FTS stakeholders and a new steering committee created to help guide the UVFTS bus / tractor down the road/row.  We are grateful to the Wellborn Ecology Fund for a capacity building grant that supports our activities and has helped leverage over $30,000 in additional funds to support FTS efforts in the Upper Valley.

Our recently revised website – www.uvfts.org – provides information about coming events; useful links; tools to connect farms to the classroom, cafeteria and community; a blog and social networking features.  One exciting component is the “Your FTS” page, which allows any FTS program to post and update their own web page, or link to an existing page.   The website is a work in progress, and comments are very welcome.

In 2010, the UVFTS will be holding a series of forums targeted to specific FTS issues.  The first will be a Farm to Cafeteria Working Group – on January 20^th (1-4 PM at the Woodstock Elementary School in Woodstock Vermont).  This gathering is designed for school cafeteria staff and FTS stakeholders to explore challenges and develop strategies related to incorporating local food into the school lunch program.  “Seasoned” cafeteria staff will share lessons related to procurement, processing, storage, serving and marketing local foods.  There is no charge for the session, but participants must register through email to Peter@UVFTS.org or by phone at 802 291-2019.

Wellborn funds also support  UVFTS site visits to schools in the Upper Valley that are interested starting, expanding or sustaining their farm to school program.  Contact us for more information about site visits to your school.

Check out the new web site – www.uvfts.org – and contact Peter Allison atpeter@uvfts.org or 802 291-2019 to register for the Farm to Cafeteria Working Group, to post a page on our website, request a site visit or share your news.

Peter Allison

Director, UVFTS

Here is the recipe and some information on beans: Vermont Bean Soup

Sometimes in Vermont we hear well-meaning people say, “why don’t they serve local food every day?” – and the answer is, money, time, equipment …. and sometimes interest and know-how.

That’s where the farm to school movement comes in – there are lots of examples of schools that have schemed, negotiated, and stretched to find ways to integrate local/healthy, ecologically or organically grown food into their lunch offerings.

Right here in the Upper Valley, the Sharon Elementary School was serving meatballs from a local farmer this week – they have worked out a deal to get the meat at only a slight premium to commodity beef – and the kids love it, and they know it is not going to be recalled.

The farm to school movement can be thought of as one of those “nice” initiatives. I think its nice. I also think it is, in the words of Joanna Macey, “subversive.” Getting kids to understand where their food comes from, tasting local, whole foods, growing, cooking and learning about food and farms and soil and energy, will help to create future citizen leaders who will ask good questions, and bring some sanity back into the food systems that we rely upon three times a day.

 

 

 

By embedding  the Climate Scoreboard on your own websites, blogs, and Facebook pages, you will be able to follow and share with others the progress of the negotiations in Copenhagen from day to day, and continue tracking progress in the months following the conference. As positions in the negotiations evolve the Scoreboard will automatically update to reflect the changes.

I look forward to getting your comments, suggestions and additions – the intent is for this to be a very interactive site for those of us working to connect local food and farms to the school cafeteria, classroom and community.

Peter