Programs | Davis Farm to School Connection

School Gardens

The Davis Farm to School Connection supports a district-wide school garden coordinator to assist the school garden program at all fifteen school sites. 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. Each school site has a garden coordinator to enlist volunteers to run the program for each classroom at the elementary level.

For more information on how to start and sustain an instructional garden at your school site, visit the California School Garden Network site at www.csgn.org

Lunch Time

The Davis Farm to School Connection has worked 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.

Davis Farm to School is providing a cooking school for the school lunch staff, offering lessons six times a year in seasonal and from scratch cooking.

Kids Recycle

We work to reduce solid waste through a comprehensive district-wide waste management and recycling program and a Davis Farmers Market waste reduction program. The district supports stipends at every level of education for parents who assist the school custodian in running a post-consumer lunch recycling program. It is envisioned that the district will have a waste reduction policy.

For more information, visit the Recycling Is Simply Elementary web site at www.davisrise.org

For more details on each program, see our Annual Report (pdf)

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