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"Late Spring and Summer Fresh" Cooking Class at Student Nutrition Services: On May 5th Georgeanne Brennan gave her last cooking class of the school year to the staff of the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services. Highlighting late spring and early summer produce, she concentrated on Asian and Mediterranean Flavor Profiles. Two of the recipes shared at the class are below. Both debuted in school salad bars this spring.
Asian Cabbage and Nectarine Salad with Ginger This gives a simple salad an Asian twist. You could also add chicken and crispy wontons or noodles for an entrée salad. For a spicier salad, use red Serrano instead of red bell pepper. Click here for recipe
Shaved Zucchini Salad with Feta Click here for recipe
Davis Farm to School Awarded by the City of Davis: On May 11th, Davis Farm to School was awarded the City of Davis 2010 Environmental Recognition Award in the "Non-Profit" category. Over the past ten years, the Davis Farm to School Connection has greatly improved our children’s environmental quality of life through school lunch reform, gardens in every school, second grade Farm Visits and recycling. A typical school day may now include a morning bug hunt in the garden, salad bar for lunch, (separating recyclables and compostable food scraps and corn starch forks to reduce waste), and a fun-filled classroom presentation in the afternoon to prepare students for an upcoming Farm Visit. The daily routine of our students has been dramatically altered, and this routine has now become a way of life in our schools. The award nomination was accompanied by letters of support from the DJUSD Superintendent, UC Davis Children’s Garden Director, the former California Superintendent of Public Instruction, school board members, and school principals, teachers, and garden and recycle coordinators.
Davis School Lunch Program Recognized Nationally: At a reception May 20th hosted by Davis Farm to School and held at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis, Dr. Janey Thornton, Deputy Under Secretary of USDA Food and Nutrition Service, addressed a crowd of 60 school food service directors, professionals, parents and students. She praised the Davis school lunch program for being ahead of the curve, working with the community and local business and providing the students with a healthy, local lunch. Dr. Thornton also spoke on the Obama Administration’s vision for an improved National School Lunch Program. The program is up for reauthorization in Congress now. Of the reauthorization, Thornton said, "The future of the country is at stake. Healthy kids today produce a healthier America tomorrow."
While in Davis, Thornton met with Raphaelita Curva, Director Student Nutrition Services for the Davis school district to learn more about the changes it’s making to school lunch, including its innovative cooking school for its employees. Thornton, a former Home Economics teacher and school food service director in Kentucky, told Curva, "I think in addition to changing the food, the thing you are doing that is so impressive is teaching the staff to cook whole grains and produce from scratch, to use spices and herbs which increase flavor and allows them to reduce salt and fat in the food, and introducing them to a seasonal approach to cooking. Until what they do is more than a job, it’s hard to make a difference. Clearly you are making a difference." Dr. Thornton said she considers the cafeteria an important learning lab at the school.
Tour de Cluck an "Eggcellent" Success! Tour de Cluck: A Bicycle Chicken Coop Crawl, took place on May 22nd throughout the backyards of Davis chicken-rearing residents. The event attracted over 500 visitors and was a benefit for Davis Farm to School, raising almost $15,000 through tickets sales and the popular chicken-themed Silent Auction. The tour Kick-Off Celebration began at Central Park on the steps of the Bicycling Hall of Fame. Local dignitaries, including several candidates for City Council, shared their best hen and rooster imitations during the Courage to Cluck contest. The crowd was then invited to visit the Fowl Food Fair, a collection of Davis Farmer’s Market vendors sampling and selling chicken and egg dishes all made with food sourced from the farmer’s market. Visitors were also enticed to bid on the plethora of chicken-themed items at the Silent Auction and Art Exhibit, including chicken mosaics, acrylic and clay artwork, a chicken coop and a custom Tour de Cluck bicycle! At 10 am, bikers pedaled from the park to one of several "coop loops" in Davis, encompassing 16 backyard chicken coops on display, complete with coop info and owners on hand to answer questions. Overall, the event was not only educational and inspiring, but tons of fun as well, and definitely bound to become an annual event here in Davis!
Second Grade Farm Tours Begin: 19 second grade classes will visit local farms this spring as part of the Davis Farm to School Farm Visit Field Trip program. Classes spend the day on a farm, meeting the farmer, helping with farm chores and eating freshly harvested snacks. All participating farms are unique and provide a wide range of farm experiences for students. At Good Humus Produce in Rumsey, students spend the day with veteran farmer Annie Main and help turn the compost pile and explore the vibrant gardens and orchards. At Full Circle Farm in Davis, students enjoy meeting the resident cows, pigs, goats, chickens and worms! At Pacific Star Gardens in Woodland, students look forward to the end of the tour when they are set loose in the strawberry patches, not to mention when they get to try their hand at flying kites in the dry pond. At The Farm on Putah Creek in Winters (at The Center for Land Based Learning), students are treated to a hay ride down to Putah Creek in order to explore the important natural habitats on a farm. All Farm Visits are preceded by a classroom presentation where students sing about the 6 Plant Parts and learn about the farm to table cycle. Through a partnership with Art in Ag, we are also able to offer a post field trip classroom presentation where a local artists visits the students and leads them in an art project about their farm experience.
USDA visit to the Davis Farm to School Program: Rayne Pegg, administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited the Davis Joint Unified School District on March 8 to observe first-hand one of the nation's most-promising public school-lunch models. District officials were honored to host the visit and showcase Davis' pairing of commodity foods with local produce as well as community partnerships with Davis Farm to School, Sutter Davis Hospital and the Davis Farmers' Market.
Pegg toured the Student Nutrition Services (SNS) central kitchen as well as Korematsu Elementary and Davis High School to see the school-lunch and recycling-programs in action and to sample the food being served to students. She also met with Superintendent James Hammond, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin -- who championed "A Garden in Every School" -- Jim Mills of Produce Express, Janet Wagner, Chief Administrative Officer at Sutter Davis Hospital and representatives from various partner organizations. They completed their tour of Davis with a visit to the Emerson Junior High school garden, one of the many school gardens used to teach a variety of academic subjects and to increase food and agricultural literacy.
"It was wonderful to get a hands-on education of the Farm-to-School Program at Davis Joint Unified School District," Pegg said after the visit. "The seasonal self-serve salad bar at Korematsu Elementary School and the garden for teaching environmental education at the Emerson Junior High are both practical models that school districts can readily duplicate throughout the country. The partnerships with the public-private sector such as Sutter Davis Hospital and Davis Food Co-op and non-profits such as Davis Farmers Market, along with ASI at UC Davis, were equally impressive," Pegg says. "The information we gained during our visit was invaluable to the USDA in our efforts to assist others in developing and expanding a farm to school program."
Davis Farm to School Connection Newsletter: The first edition of the Davis Farm to School Connection e-newsletter, "on the table", went out March 9th to over 400 people! To join our e-mailing list, please .
Student Nutrition Services Participated in A Taste of Davis: On March 12th, local restaurants, caterers and wineries from across the spectrum offered a bite or sip of their signature food or wine to guests at the annual Chamber of Commerce fundraiser, A Taste of Davis. The DJUSD Student Nutrition Services served their 7 Vegetable Moroccan Tajin to over 300 guests enjoying live music and a silent auction. Participating in community events such as this promote the Student Nutrition Services as not only a provider of local, seasonal and delicious school lunch in Davis, but also as a viable catering option for non school related events.
Student Nutrition Services Spring Cooking Class: Davis Farm to School has provided a cooking school with five lessons annually for the past two years to the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services staff to help teach them about the preparation of fresh, seasonal produce, and to help cooks develop flavor profiles for basic dishes that students love. This spring’s class on March 24th was titled "Spring Vegetables and Commodities: Latin American and the Southwest".
Slow Food Yolo Film Series: On March 26th the Slow Food Yolo Film Series benefitting Davis Farm to School Connection continued with a special screening of Nourishing the Kids of Katrina: The Edible Schoolyard at the Davis Senior High performing Arts Building. The compelling 31 minute documentary follows the story of how renowned chef Alice Waters’ Berkeley "Edible Schoolyard" program is replicated and contributes to the rebirth of the New Orleans uptown underserved Green Charter School after its devastation from Hurricane Katrina floodwaters. Slow Food Yolo was honored to welcome award-winning producer and filmmaker Robert Lee Grant who was on-hand to answer questions. Following the film guests enjoyed light refreshments including crudite platters from Capay Organics.
Winter Garden and DavisRISE Coordinator Meeting: On February 4th, school garden and recycling coordinators met for their Winter Davis Farm to School Connection meeting at Patwin Elementary School in Davis. Coordinators look forward to these meetings, held three times a year, to network, share resources and enjoy a delicious dinner together catered by the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services. At this meeting, attendees entered a raffle upon arriving and were awarded fun free prizes such as garden planting beds made from recycled materials, newspaper seedling pot makers, glossy bi-lingual garden harvest photo cards and gift certificates to The Davis Farmer’s Market. Joannie Siegler, garden and DavisRISE Coordinator at Patwin, let the group on a tour of the schools’ garden and recycle programs. Attendees then gathered as a large group for a citrus tasting activity and mini-workshops on seeding and transplanting, worm bin discussions and waste-free lunch day brainstorming. During the dinner of Farm-to-School pizza and a salad bar featuring local and seasonal produce, coordinators had a chance to chat with Student Nutrition Services staff and learn more about the exciting new lunch offerings. The next garden and DavisRISE coordinator meeting will be at Martin Luther King High School on May 6th.
Lunch-Time Taste Testings: This month was the launch of the new Taste Testing Program at school sites within the Davis Joint Unified School District. Davis Farm to School Connection recruits and trains interns to volunteer at each elementary and junior high school doing taste testings during lunch one day a week. Most interns are college students from UC Davis or Sacramento State University. These taste testings have two functions: to increase student’s consumption of local and seasonal produce in the salad bar and made-from-scratch hot bar items, and to market and promote the school lunch program to all students. Interns greet students in line for school lunch and offer taste testings before they get their food, as well as offer taste testings to students who bring their lunch from home. They promote the food in a positive manner, and offer nutritional information about the tastings to students as they do so. Feedback from the program has been outstanding so far, with many students choosing the taste tested items for their lunch.
Student Nutrition Services Participates in the Souper Bowl: The DJUSD Student Nutrition Services served soup at the Davis Food Co-op’s Souper Bowl Event on Feb. 28th. The Souper Bowl is an annual fundraiser to raise money for food for the elderly. Student Nutrition Services served tastes of Mandarin Coconut soup to a crowd of almost 400. This was the soup offered at all DJUSD school sites for school lunch in February. Representatives from the Davis Farm to School Connection Steering Committee were on hand to pass out information and answer questions.
Mediterranean Winter Fruits and Vegetables Cooking Class: On January 20th, Chef and Cookbook Author Georgeanne Brennan gave a Professional Development Cooking Class to the staff of the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services. She highlighted seasonal fruits and vegetables such as citrus, root vegetables, kale and cabbage, and how to integrate them into traditional recipes. She also shared new recipes with a Mediterranean flavor profile which the class prepared and tasted together. Two of the class recipes are below: The next cooking class at the Student Nutrition Services’ Central Kitchen will be March 24th.
Cabbage, Mandarin and Walnut Salad – Italy and Southern France This seasonal salad can be made using either traditional or Savoy cabbage. You could add raisins as well. Click here for recipe
Portuguese Kale, Potato, and Sausage Soup This is an excellent soup to serve November – March when kale is at is best and other greens are scarce. Click here for recipe
Davis Farm to School Connection presents at the California School Nutrition Association 57th Annual Conference January 28-31: In a workshop titled “The Role of Community in the Success of School Nutrition Programs”, DJUSD Student Nutrition Services Director Rafaelita Curva presented on the exemplary changes that school lunch has under gone in the past few years here in Davis. DF2SC representative Georgeanne Brennan spoke about the new in-house Cooking School at the Student Nutrition Services’ Central Kitchen, DF2SC President Dorothy Peterson spoke about the recycling programs in the schools and Central Kitchen, and Gail Feenstra spoke about the important component of evaluation in the school lunch program.
Full Moon Winter Benefit Concert sells out!: On January 30th, the Veteran’s Memorial Theater was packed full of fans ready to dance to the bluegrass tunes of local Davis band The Mad Cow String Band, and nationally famous The Devil Makes Three. All proceeds went to benefit The Davis Farm to School Connection. Davis Farm to School would like to thank all the volunteers that worked hard to make this event a reality, as well the following businesses and organizations that made generous donations: Putah Creek Winery, Sudwerk Restaurant and Brewery, The Village Bakery, Full Belly Farm, Good Humus Produce, The Davis Food Co-op, Delta of Venus Café, Dorothy Peterson, Karen Mo and Students for Sustainable Agriculture. We would especially like to thank the bands for donating their amazing time and energy to play for this event.
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