Rockville HS Ag Program, Food Service, Launch 'Farm to Tray' Program

VERNON, CT — A farm-to-table concept Vernon Public School Director of Food and Nutrition Elizabeth Fisher has been touting for months has become a reality. Students in Rockville High School’s Agriculture Science and Technology program are growing cucumbers and lettuce their classmates will enjoy in the school cafeteria.

School officials are calling it "farm to cafeteria tray."

"Project Homegrown" is a partnership between the Vernon Public Schools Food and Nutrition Department and the ASTE program. In addition to growing fresh produce, kitchen scraps from the cafeteria are being composted and the compost is added to the soil used to grow the fresh produce.

Fisher hinted about the success a few months ago then elaborated this week.

"I have been thinking a lot about the ASTE program and how we could work together," she said. "I reached out to Erika Bahler, who is the director, and asked if they’d be interested in starting a collaboration and Erika said 'absolutely.'"

The impetus was a grant program through the North Central District Health Department to encourage farm-to-school programs and to help cover costs, which consisted largely of vegetable seeds, bins for vegetable scraps, and other supplies.

Last Wednesday, Rockville High Senior Jessica Donovan harvested the first cucumbers. Junior Troy Balsewicz made a first cutting of the lettuce he and his teachers and classmates grew. When the weather gets warmer, the ASTE students will also grow cherry tomatoes in a garden they have prepared. The garden club will continue to grow food through the summer and fall for the Vernon Schools nutrition program.

"I can’t think of a better way to reinforce for the Rockville High School community the important contributions of the ASTE program and agriculture in general," Vernon Schools Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary said. "Our students will be enjoying fresh vegetables grown by their friends just a few hundred feet from where they are eating. This is great for everybody."

Bahler said students in horticulture classes and the after-school garden club are enthusiastic about providing classmates with hyper-locally sourced lunches in the cafeteria and showing off what they do at ASTE.

"They're excited about the fact that what they are growing is going to be in their school lunch, that they’re going to find it in the school cafeteria when they get lunch each day," Bahler said.

Donovan said, adding locally-grown food is easier to transport and helps reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.

“It's great to have fresh produce that is locally grown,” Donovan said, "Adding locally grown food is easier to transport and it helps reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases. You get to see where the food you grow goes and the affect it has on your community. Other students also get to see what we’ve been doing in the ag program."

Donovan snipped the cucumbers from their vine, which is growing in an ASTE greenhouse. Bahler helped her determine which cucumbers were ready to be picked and which need some more growing time.
Bahler showed Balsewicz how to cut the lettuce, also grown in a green house, then he finished the job, placing the mixed greens in a bucket for delivery to the cafeteria.

"It's a really nice opportunity to be able to do this," Balsewicz said. "We're able to provide something for the school and our fellow students get to see what the ag program is doing. Many of the people over there really don’t know what goes on over here."

And while the Vernon Public Schools Food and Nutrition Department uses locally grown produce as much as possible, the produce grown by the ASTE students takes it a new level.

"You can’t get any fresher than next door," Bahler said.