Who Grows Your “Crunch Lunch?”

By Karrie Stevens
(Karrie Stevens is CAFF’s Sacramento Valley Regional Coordinator)

Annie Main (at right) of Good Humus Farm explains the importance of compost while showing children he spreader machine.
photo: Karrie Stevens

Mrs. Standiford’s first and second graders spent the morning last week eating their way through Robert Ramming’s strawberry patch at Pacific Star Gardens on Rd. 99, just south of Woodland. “Why do these strawberries taste so much better than the ones we get at the store?” they wanted to know.

Over the past two months, and continuing through May, second graders participating in the Davis Joint Unified School District’s Farm-to-School pilot projects have been tasting the freshest produce Yolo County has to offer and seeing just exactly where their Crunch Lunch grows. The farm tours were arranged by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers as the final piece in the program designed to teach children about the cycles of life from seed to table.

Picking Carrots
photo: Karrie Stevens

The visits start with a tour, where the children see all the different things that go on in a diversified vegetable operation. They learn about seasonal food production, the different marketing strategies Yolo County farmers use and how farmers decide what they should grow. They are also are asked to think about California’s dependence on water for its food supply, and the benefits a farm can offer by providing open space and habitat for beneficial ecology.

Once the group explores the farm and tastes the wares, they go straight to work. They participated in a variety of projects including weeding and building a compost pile, planting seeds, harvesting carrots and even moving irrigation pipe. They learn that farming is hard work that involves difficult decisions and farmers often have to work as a team to get things done. They also have fun. Parents never expect to hear their children complaining because they didn’t get to work enough, but many kids thoroughly enjoyed the work and didn’t want to stop when it was time to go home.

The strawberry harvest is a big hit at Pacific Star Gardens
photo: Karrie Stevens

The classes went to four different area farms. Though these visits can take up almost four hours of a farmer’s day it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. “I can’t believe how much they have accomplished,” said Annie Main of Good Humus Farm in Capay. Each farm is different, and some projects contribute more than others. The farmers at Good Humus Farms designed the children’s work projects into the actual work schedule of the farm, making the visit much less taxing than expected.

Farm visits also help students see the connections between urban or sub-urban residents and the food and farming system. By linking school lunches to an experience on a farm, children see the interdependence of food, water and soil, as well as the people who farm. These lessons build on the salad bar, school gardens, cooking, recycling and composting programs that comprise the Farm-to-School curriculum.