Leon County schools are expected to get $100,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for what is a farm-to-school program.
In 2019, the District earned $20,000 from the USDA to complete the program. This year, the local school district is one of six Florida agencies to get the grant.
The program aims to help communities, in this case schools, have new and nutritious food. The initiative also provides broader economic opportunities within a network to local farmers.
In addition, the initiative focuses on the food and agricultural schooling of school-age youth while selling school gardening activities.
With the $100,000 grant, the Leon County Public Schools District plans to continue and expand its existing farm-to-school program to Woodville K-8 School near Woodville Road, authorities said.
Woodville’s deputy principal, Elizabeth Rudd, said the school hopes to expand its existing curriculum by expanding school gardens and planting citrus fruits. She said the school may have goats.
“We are very grateful for this funding, but the grant will last forever, so we need our program to be as sustainable as possible,” Rudd told the Democrat in Tallahassee.
The school’s late school program includes chickens, water ponds, a greenhouse, and a blueberry and fig orchard. Rudd said he grew up on a dairy farm, which helped with the program’s operations.
“We haven’t had the ability to paint with local farmers yet, however, the reaction of the net paintings has been amazing … so many other people in our domain,” Rudd said.
Rudd said the companies, in addition to Esposito Garden Center and Ace Hardware, contributed to the school.
“We win fertilized seeds, herbs and hen eggs,” he says. “Country Feed Store and Garden Supply even took out their tractors and helped us plow our field.”
Rudd added that by expanding the farm-to-school program, any school harvest on the site can be implemented in the cafeteria menus.
Florida-grown products are served in the county’s 40, according to the School District’s Department of Nutrition Services.
“If we grow products throughout the school, they go straight to our cafeteria,” Rudd said. “If a student grows something individually, such as through a classroom activity, we let him eat it himself.
As the school district continues to plan to reopen the new coronavirus pandemic in August, Rudd said the school hopes to continue its farm-to-school program while following the rules of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The woodville acre orchard will allow students to move within a six-foot social distance while still having the opportunity to paint on the floor of their lawn and greenhouse, Rudd said.
Lately, the school is using online resources to continue the anti-pandemic program, he added.
“The emergence of chicks has been a favorite throughout the school, students love to see the process,” Rudd said. “We made the decision to do it virtually and have a women’s live stream where teachers explain what’s going on and academics can see at any time.”
According to the USDA, for the 2020-2021 school year alone, all farm-to-school grants will serve more than 7,600 schools and more than 2.5 million youth in the United States.
“Our program has flourished a lot in 2019, but I need it to come back even more powerful after COVID-19,” Rudd said.
For more information about the farm-to-school program and grant recipients, https://www.fns.usda.gov/cfs/farm-school-grant-program.
Rachel Biangel holds a degree from Florida State University.
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