FOOD COLUMN
BY MAREE GAETANI
Vermont City Redefines Garden-Based Learning and Local Food
What do local food and school gardening mean to Vermont’ s largest school district?
The Burlington School Food Project is a food service and Farm to School program that connects students and their families with whole, fresh and local foods, school gardens and is an integral department of Vermont’ s Burlington School District.
The program defines a product as local when it is grown or processed within the state of Vermont or at one of their many schoolbased gardens. The majority of their vegetable purchases are ultra-local, which is defined as a 30-mile radius. The Burlington school system is so committed to local food and garden-based learning that it has hired Sarah Heusner as food education manager, and Christine Gall as garden education coordinator.
Christine currently divides her time between the Burlington School Food Project and KidsGardening, a national nonprofit based in Burlington, dedicated to creating opportunities for every child to learn through the garden. After earning a B. A. in history at Haverford College, Christine dove headfirst into the world of garden and food-based learning. She spent time working for a variety of educational farms in both New York and Vermont, including Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, the Merck Forest and Farmland Center and Shelburne Farms, before transitioning to educating within a school setting and as a Food Corp member.
DIRTY HANDS It’ s arguably the first hot day of May, the growing season in Burlington, with temperatures soaring into the low 90s and bright sunlight shining down on a group of 40 or so sixth graders collected on a quarter-acre plot of land nestled behind Lyman C. Hunt Middle School. Perched on picnic tables, the students
The Fork in the Road is integrated into academic classes, such as business and culinary arts at Burlington High School, and students receive mentoring from the local restaurant community.
listen as Christine explains what their class will be doing in the school district’ s largest production garden. Within moments, the youth spring to action. Armed with shovels and rakes, they turn over long rows of cover crop, revealing dark soil and the occasional earthworm.
Over the course of the day, more than 200 students pitch together to transform the dormant, weed-ridden space into a fully tilled and compost-rich garden ready for planting. That task will be completed by a group of visiting Burlington High School students participating in a two-week, year-end studies course called Burlington Farming: Growing the Future.
Across the district, every school is similarly readying their garden for the growing season. Many of these schools have Outdoor or Garden Committees of invested teachers and parents dedicated to organizing garden celebrations and planning summer maintenance schedules.
FOOD FIGHTERS From kindergarten classes to a specialized food science course offered at the high school,
PHOTO COURTESY KIDS GARDENING. ORG
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