This is the place to find past Food Services articles and news

4th Graders Prepare Locally Grown Butternut Squash for Thanksgiving Lunch 2010

In the spring of 2010 students from a 3rd Grade classroom at SCS where invited to participate in a program of the NY Farm Bureau and four partnering organizations: New York Farm Bureau Foundation, NYS Agriculture Society and Cornell Agriculture Outreach and Education, which includes AG in the Classroom and FFA. The students planted winter squash seeds, the seedlings were then planted with name markers of each student at the Schoharie Valley Farms (a.k.a. Carrot Barn), with the help of owner Richard Ball. During the past fall, the same students (now in 4th Grade) harvested their crop of butternut squash and then donated it to Northeast Regional Food Bank. To complete the experience, Josie Ennist, School Lunch Manager at SCS purchased bushels of butternut squash from the Carrot Barn. These same 4th grade students were invited to the Elementary School kitchen to help prepare the squash for the school’s Thanksgiving Lunch on November 18th. School Food Service staff helped by baking the squash halves earlier in the day so all the students had to do was scoop the squash from it’s skin, mash and season it for the next day’s lunch! The butternut squash was served to all Kindergarten thru 6th grade students. Many students were surprised at how good it was! By the end of the meal time, all the squash had been served to students, staff, and family members taking part in the Thanksgiving lunch!

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Traveling Lunch Ladies Arrive for “Farm to You” Fest at Schoharie Valley Schools

Comprised of School Food Service Managers of the Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project, the Traveling Lunch Ladies visited schools at lunchtime. They brought with them a message targeted primarily toward 3rd – 5th graders to “Try Something New! Try Something Local!” And surprisingly, at each school, the kids did just that! Pictured at right are Traveling Lunch Ladies Barbara Cootware, from Middleburg CSD, Peggy Cramer from Gilboa CSD and host Josie Ennist. The educational session, created especially for cafeteria lunchtime presentations using a format that accommodated the limited time and attention associated with 25 to 125 children eating lunch in the same space, was also designed to be fun. It included information about locally grown fruits and vegetables with taste-testing samples provided of purple cauliflower, zebra heirloom tomatoes, watermelon radish and more. A brief survey for their feedback on the experience was handed out. The Farm to School Project supplied fruit and vegetable shaped erasers, useful for school writing projects and a future reminder to “try something new,” as rewards for those who participated. A visit from the Traveling Lunch Ladies was conducted for each of these school districts October: Cobleskill-Richmondville, Middleburgh, Schoharie, Schalmont, Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Sharon Spring, and Gilboa-Conesville.

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