By Alicia Holloway
Alicia Holloway is a Farm to School Contractor at Georgia Organics.
October is Farm to School month, and supporters of these programs throughout the United States advocate and promote Farm to School and Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) activities during this time. Farm to School and ECE programs lead to many positive outcomes for kids and farmers. Increases in students’ willingness to try fruits and vegetables and increased revenue for local farmers are two key examples of the impact of school nutrition in nourishing communities.
There is a lot to celebrate!
Georgia Organics has organized a statewide campaign in honor of October Farm to School Month for over ten years. The campaigns encourage students of all ages to learn about, eat, and grow a specific produce item. Upon signing up, participants get free access to an electronic toolkit filled with veggie-themed lessons, activities, recipes, resources, and more! This year’s theme was “Pepper Palooza,” but recently, we have celebrated “Spinach to Win It,” “Livin’ la Vida Okra,” and “Oh my Squash.” Check out all the free resources from previous campaigns here.
This year’s pepper campaign was a sizzling success!
Participating communities estimated that their Farm to School Month activities involved over a million students! As a contract worker on the Community Collaboration team, I’ve seen first-hand the incredible work schools and ECE centers are doing around the state. High school students mentored elementary students by leading pepper-themed learning activities, cafeterias served school garden-grown peppers, and dozens of classes cooked and taste-tested pepper recipes. I’ve seen videos of students singing songs that they wrote about peppers, telling pepper jokes, laughing, smiling, and genuinely enjoying learning about growing their own produce!
