Lunchtime at the Chilmark School and the requests were piling up fast and furious.
“Could I have more kale, please?” “Can I have more wheat berry?” “My favorite was the beet chips!”
Beet chips?
It’s true and thanks to the Island Grown Schools’ Chilmark Community Lunch initiative, students could see beet chips replacing generic potato chips more often in the months ahead.
The first spring community Island Grown Schools meeting will be on Tuesday March 10 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Island Co-Housing Common House in West Tisbury. The meeting will focus on plans for school gardens this spring and summer, and on new opportunities for collaboration between Island farms, schools, and new sources of wind energy.
Island Grown Schools, the Island Grown Initiative’s farm-to-school program, is set to bring more local produce into school meals and snacks in 2009, developing a connection between cafeterias and farms that helps create a year-round market for locally-grown foods and a source of off-season income for Island farmers.
Farm to School Primer
Noli Taylor, Aquinnah resident and program coordinator for the Island Grown Initiative, will discuss the Island Grown Schools program and ways for Vineyarders and visitors to get involved on Thursday, August 21. Island Grown Schools, part of the national farm to school movement, seeks to increase the amount of Island-grown foods served in Vineyard schools, develop school gardens at every school here, increase in-class agricultural education, and strengthen ties between Island family farms and schools.
