School farm grants bring fresh produce to Stanislaus cafeterias. And hens to a jail
Kim Fuentez looks forward to the vegetables her staff will soon serve to Denair students, fresh from a campus farm.
Her district is one of six in and near Stanislaus County that received recent state grants aimed at making cafeteria fare more healthy and local.
Turlock will use its money to upgrade the district farm, school gardens and purchases from other local growers. The Riverbank district will put its grant into the hydroponic method of gardening.
And in Tuolumne County, a grant will launch egg production by jail and juvenile hall residents.
The grants come from the Farm to School program at the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Sixty projects got a total of $8.5 million this year.
Growing at Denair High
The Denair Unified School District will use its $20,000 to fix up a one-acre patch that was neglected in recent years. It is on the high school grounds but within easy walking distance of the junior high, an elementary school and a charter school.
“Our kids from all of our campuses are going to be able to enjoy vegetables grown by our students,” said Fuentez, food services coordinator for the district.
She was on hand when The Modesto Bee visited last week. Several students were building wooden planter boxes, likely to be brimming with produce by the Aug. 11 start of the new school year.
The students filled the boxes with native soil enriched from compost piles on the site. In a few weeks, they will transplant seedlings already emerging in the campus greenhouse.
The bounty will begin with tomatoes, squash, peppers, melons and other warm-season crops. Fall and winter will bring spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and more.
The students on the work crew are part of the summer Life on the Farm course, for sixth through 12th grades. It is taught by high school ag teacher Holli Jacobsen, who wrote the grant application.
‘It’s grown by us’
Thomas Guzman, about to be a Denair High senior, already had gardening experience through 4-H and FFA.
“I think this would be very beneficial, providing the fresh produce to our lunch programs,” he said. “We know where our food is being grown. It’s grown by us.”
Fellow senior Kaydence Erickson has an FFA goat project but needed to hone her gardening skills.
“I’m not very good with plants, but they taught me stuff,” she said. She also likes the idea of less frozen food in cafeterias.
The grant requires the school farm to supply at least 1,000 pounds of produce over the next year. That’s a small part of the total served at breakfast and lunch, but the effort will pay off in kids learning about food sources.
Jacobsen hopes students of all ages will get their hands dirty in the 14 planter boxes. Twelve of them are 10 feet long, 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. The other two are adapted for special education students.
The site eventually will produce fruit such as grapes and nectarines, and maybe honey. One spot will have native flowers to attract pollinators, along with the kinds of bugs that eat pests. A worm bin will help with composting.
Turlock expands local sources
The Turlock Unified School District will use part of its $104,764 grant to upgrade its student farm, said Jennifer Lew-Vang, director of child nutrition.
The Taylor Road site will get planter boxes, irrigation for row crops and a greenhouse. Students from all over Turlock will tour the place to learn about farming and nutrition. The farm’s produce will go into their daily meals.
The grant also will provide soil for school gardens around Turlock. And the district will increase its local purchases with grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Culinary students will learn how to prepare the food in ways that reflect various cultures. The results will go to student meals and to “order-out” sales to teachers.
The district plans a Farm to School Expo sometime next spring. And it will restore the Real Fresh trailer, which delivers meals and educate kids at various sites.
Hydroponics in Riverbank
The Riverbank Unified School District will spend its $29,391 grant on “hydroponic tower gardens” at 14 sites. They use nutrient-rich water rather than soil to grow plants.
Students will raise fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers in the towers, which will be in classrooms and cafeterias. The produce will go into meals at schools and at Riverbank’s senior center.
The effort will involve culinary students and also have after-school “nutrition clubs” for kids.
An idea hatches near Sonora
A $248,457 grant will add egg production to the farm where Tuolumne County Jail inmates already work. It also will involve residents of the Mother Lode Regional Juvenile Detention Center, just east of Sonora.
The farm will host field trips for students in the county and supply eggs for school meals. Juvenile offenders will learn food production and cooking.
The partners also include the Jamestown School District, the county Office of Education and the University of California Cooperative Extension.
Two other grants in region
The Banta Elementary School District, east of Tracy, got $20,000. The grant will go to campus gardens and to lessons on how food is grown and marketed.
Another $20,000 went to the Groveland-Big Oak Flat Unified School District in Tuolumne County.
Part of the money will go to “rotational” grazing by livestock, which allows already grazed areas to recover. The manure will be composted into fertilizer.
The district also will create a “culinary pathway” for high school students.
This story was originally published June 20, 2021 at 7:43 AM.
