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School Gardens
Davis Farm to School supports school gardens at all fifteen school sites, K-12. The school garden program ties into California’s academic content standards and provides a hands-on learning experience for students. Each school site funds its garden program differently, through various grants and fundraisers. Davis Farm to School also provides a $500 PTA-Matching Garden Grant to every school in the district each school year. Each school site has a garden coordinator who manages garden maintenance, volunteers and garden-based learning. Davis Farm to School conducts meetings three times a year for all school garden and recycling coordinators, teachers and volunteers in the district. These meetings focus on resource and lesson sharing and capacity building through hands-on workshops.
For information on upcoming Garden/Recycle Meetings, or to get involved with a school garden, contact info@davisfarmtoschool.org or (530) 219-5859.
For information on how to start and sustain an instructional garden at your school site, visit the California School Garden Network website.
Lunch Time
Davis Farm to School works in partership with the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services to support their efforts to increase quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased from local farmers in the school lunch program. The community passed Measure Q (a parcel tax) which, since the 2008-2009 school year, is providing $70,000 per year for purchase and serving of additional fresh produce in the school lunch program. The $70,000 is for a four-year period, after which the parcel tax will go out for a vote and have to be renewed. Davis was the first in the nation to use this mechanism for augmenting the school lunch budget.
In partnership with the school district, Davis Farm to School coordinates a cooking school for the district school lunch staff, offering lessons five times a year in seasonal and from scratch cooking. These cooking lessons have inspired staff to incorporate more local and seasonal produce into school lunch, and to offer more made-from-scratch cooking at all school sites.
The Davis Joint Unified School District has made tremendous progress with regards to school lunch in the past few years. Currently, all secondary schools have a daily salad bar as part of school lunch, and half of the elementary schools have a daily salad bar, while the other half have a salad bar two days a week. Salad bars always include a “Crunch Mix” which is a lettuce mixture that incorporates seasonal greens, as well as at least two local, seasonal fruit or vegetable offerings, as well as a made-from-scratch prepared salad which is often made with whole grains. Hot, made-from-scratch entrees are also being incorporated on a daily basis at all school sites.
Parents, we encourage you to have your student give school lunch a try, if they haven’t already! You can pre-pay for your student’s lunch on the district website. To see the DJUSD monthly school lunch menus, go the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services link below and click on the “Lunch Menu” link in the upper left corner.
For more information, see:
- DJUSD Student Nutrition Services Website
- School Lunch Menu and Marketing Terminology
- Student Nutrition Services Mission and Vision
- DJUSD Student Wellness Policy
- DJUSD Food & Nutrition Policy
Kids Recycle: DavisRISE (Recycling is Simply Elementary)
Davis Farm to School supports the Davis Joint Unified School District in its goal to reduce solid waste through a comprehensive district-wide recycling program. The district pays stipends to DavisRISE Coordinators at every school site who oversee the lunch-time waste diversion efforts. Students are diverting all rigid plastics, glass, aluminum, paper and food waste from the waste stream. The DJUSD Central Kitchen has also made tremendous efforts to reduce waste through purchasing responsible packaging. In the 2010-2011 school year, Student Nutrition Services began a pilot program at one school site using reusable trays and forks at lunch to cut down on lunch waste. The program has been successful so far.
Davis Farm to School has worked with the school district to create an Integrated Waste Management Policy (pdf; 59kb).
Related Reports:
“DJUSD’s School Lunch Program Evaluation Report 2009-10“
In November 2008, the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) and Davis Farm to School (DF2S) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaboratively support the health and education of all DJUSD students. This report measures the progress of DJUSD in its efforts to increase farm fresh food in schools during the 2009 – 2010 school year.
Download (pdf; 504KB)
“Improving Farmer Profitability By Forging Community Partnerships in Education”
Davis Farmers Market Foundation: USDA/AMS Farmers Market Promotion Program
October 2006 – March 2008
Download(pdf; 1.3MB)
