By Ande Finley
Special to the Islands’ Weekly
Imagine a school kitchen overflowing with 300 pounds of organic tomatoes and green beans, 60 pounds of tomatillos and 30 pounds of carrots and beets.
Out of 12,000 square feet, including three hoop houses, and an orchard, bounty from the Lopez Island Farm Education garden has been pouring in since Aug. 1.
All this fresh produce has transformed food culture in the cafeteria.
To the delight of many, Bill Evans is back as Superintendent of the Lopez School District and as enthusiastic as ever about the Farm to School concept.
“Institutionally, the place we have come to is beyond what anyone foresaw,” he said.
The garden coordinator position has gone from donation-funded to a line item in the district budget. And processed food is scarce with all this fresh abundance. Lunch on the first day of school this year was homemade garden vegetable tomato sauce over whole wheat pasta with fresh green beans. Bowls of cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks grown by the children greet the elementary classes as they enter the cafeteria.
Under Evans’ leadership, the garden program began in 2001 as a high school elective at S & S Homestead, the farm run by Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson, also a teacher at the school. Henning and Elizabeth started bringing greens from the students’ gardens to the cafeteria salad bar.
In 2006, a comprehensive school wellness policy was adopted by the school district mandating promotion of student and family health. With the help of Lopez Community Land Trust, the district also applied for a substantial USDA grant. This grant, though unsuccessful, laid a solid foundation for the fledgling L.I.F.E. Garden and Farm Program.
With support from the Heller family in summer 2007, the district brought Antonia Demas from the Food Studies Institute to do a regional workshop for teachers and cafeteria staff on taking ownership for children’s health through food-based solutions. Educating kitchen staff was key to getting healthy food to students and chefs, Dana Cotton and Samantha Taylor were wowed by the new perspective.
Now Dana features a seasonal vegetable of the month after the kids have cooked with it in class and includes a recipe with the menus. She and Samantha made a commitment to cut out foods with high fructose corn syrup. “I wouldn’t eat half the stuff I eat now if I hadn’t been through this,” Samantha said.
Expanding the Rishi Garden, a memorial to a Lopez student, construction on the L.I.F.E. garden was begun in 2005.
Lorri Swanson joined the team in 2007 funded again by donations from the Heller family.
Lorri works with kindergarten through fifth grade classes teaching hands-on ecology in the garden. She has seen children eat new foods like kale and turnips and inspire their parents to eat organically and get gardens started at home.
Enter the Lopez Locavores. In January 2008, the first Evening Meals at School came out of a need to show families how delicious, organic food could be prepared economically at home and to showcase the L.I.F.E. garden. This month Locavores will serve their 25th meal to the community.
In August, donations through the Locavores (the Heller Family) and LCLT (Kay Keeler) hired gardeners Suzanne Berry and Valerie Yukluk to produce more food for the cafeteria. They have plans to construct compost and worm bins, furnish a fourth hoop house, overhaul beds, and create middle school projects. LCLT’s latest intern, Andy Dockstader, has been indispensable in a wide range of garden tasks and food preservation.
Recently, one of the high school students was overheard saying, “The kitchen is the heart of the school.”
This special garden program is what keeps it beating.
The Locavores’ tours of the L.I.F.E. Garden at their next Evening Meals at School is Thursday, Sept. 29, 5:30 -7 p.m.
