N. Powder kids have a hand in lunch

Jimmy Price checks the progress of the potato patch at the Powder Valley School garden.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

When they sit down to lunch, students at Powder Valley School are seeing the freshest vegetables on their trays — produce they helped harvest from the school garden.

“It’s a pretty neat opportunity for the kids,” said Skye Flanagan, who teaches fourth grade.

Last week, he and his students went to check the potatoes.

He wasn’t sure what they’d find.

They dug up softball-size tubers.

“Digging up those potatoes was incredible,” he said.

This is year two for the garden, which is part of the Farm to School program at Powder Valley.

An initial grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture helped establish the garden, needed tools, and a coordinator, Vicky Brown. She is one of two in Oregon — the other is in the Salem-Keizer district.

But she down plays her involvement, taking back seat to the students.

“The kids are the ones who planted. I am just the steward,” she said.

The idea of Farm to School is to connect students with the food they eat, from planting to harvesting to consuming, while improving student nutrition by incorporating fresh produce into the school meals.

Plus, it’s fun.

“Kids love getting dirty,” Flanagan said. “It gets them out there and they realize they can grow it at home.”

According to the ODA, school gardens become outdoor classrooms and “provide an opportunity to integrate lessons in science, math, reading, environmental studies, nutrition, and health.”

The seeds, all donated, were sown by students last spring. The summer work — watering, weeding, harvesting — was done by Brown and three students.

The garden is impressive.

“It is amazing — 50 foot rows of beets,” she said.

They picked 200 pounds of golden cherry tomatoes, and still have more red tomatoes on the vine.

Other crops include potatoes, beans, peas, corn, lots of onions, peppers, lettuce and more.

Nearly everything is eaten fresh.

“We always have a big corn-on-the-cob feast for a couple days,” Flanagan said.

Does growing their own mean students are more willing to try a new vegetable?

“We like to hope so,” he said. “A lot of kids are eager to try new things.”

The pepper crop is an adventure this fall, Brown said, because all the labels were washed away.

In the Farm to School program, Powder Valley brings local producers into the school and works to use as much local food as possible.

Another grant this year will buy more garden supplies, and Brown hopes to expand the garden so that students can take produce to the Farmers Market.

She said the garden is a success thanks to a lot of help.

“It’s doable because it’s such a willing community,” Brown said.

The town benefits too: She said vegetables harvested during the summer were donated to the local food bank or residents she’s named “Badger consumers.”

She’s also given beets to The Lunch Bunch, a volunteer-run lunch offered every Friday to all ages.

And the school staff helps too, Brown said, specifically pointing out Flanagan’s enthusiasm for the garden project.

“It takes an inspired teacher to inspire the rest,” she said.

She has no doubt the garden, and Farm to School program, will continue to grow.

“It’s going to keep moving ahead,” she said. “The kids love it — teaching them where food comes from is back to the basics.”