{"id":1434,"date":"2019-06-15T13:52:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T21:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2019-06-25T12:13:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T20:13:19","slug":"specialty-crop-block-grant-student-farm-tour-soil-born-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1434","title":{"rendered":"Specialty Crop Block Grant Student Farm Tour — Soil Born Farms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Third graders from Pacific Elementary School head out to the field to harvest fava greens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Teaching\nkids about the benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables when they\u2019re\nyoung can help form healthy habits that last a lifetime. Research\nshows<\/a> that farm to school efforts can have positive impacts on kids\u2019\nfood choices and attitudes towards fresh fruits and vegetables, including\nincreasing their knowledge of nutrition, their willingness to try new fruits\nand vegetables, and can even lead to requesting more fruits and vegetables at\nhome. Because today\u2019s students will become tomorrow\u2019s adults, efforts to build student\nknowledge of and appreciation for fruits and vegetables has the potential to\ndrive long-term specialty crop sales and lifelong healthy eating habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks\nto a Specialty Crop Block Grant, the California Department of Food and\nAgriculture Office of Farm to Fork (CDFA-F2F) helped fund a series of farm tour\nfield trips for third graders from two Sacramento elementary schools. Over the\ncourse of three rainy winter days, Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture and Education\nProject<\/a> welcomed students from Pacific Elementary School and\nCamellia Waldorf School to visit the American River Ranch, a historic 55-acre\norganic farm located within the American River Parkway in Rancho Cordova. A\nteam of Soil Born staff members, interns and volunteers helped guide each group\nof students on an exciting morning of exploring the farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before\nventuring into the elements, students received a lesson on farm safety and\ngeared up in protective shoe covers. It was then off to the field, where they\nharvested fava greens and learned about how cover crops help build the health\nof the soil and replenish nutrients like nitrogen. After leaving the field,\nstudents stopped by the greenhouse to look at seedlings before making their way\nover to the youth garden to harvest parsley. Students next headed into the\nschoolhouse, where they received a lesson in knife safety before chopping up\nvegetables to make soup. While waiting for the soup to cook, students\nparticipated in a variety of activities, including learning about the different\nparts of a plant, drawing seed packets and journaling about their experiences\non the farm. The students wrapped up their farm tour field trip with a warm\nbowl of delicious and nutritious vegetable soup featuring the ingredients they\nharvested and prepared \u2013 with nearly all students asking for seconds!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nspecial thank you to Soil Born staff members Shannon Hardwicke, Youth Education\nManager; Alyssa Kassner, Youth Education Assistant Manager; Jenn MacLeod, Youth\nEducator; and Michelle Sikora, Cooking and Nutrition Coordinator; as well as\nthe interns, volunteers, teachers and parents that made these field trips\npossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Third graders from Pacific Elementary School prep the fava greens they harvested from the field moments earlier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stay\ntuned for more specialty crop student farm tours in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– CDFA\nFarm to Fork Staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is part of a series\nchronicling the CDFA Office of Farm to Fork\u2019s student farm tours. Made possible\nby Specialty Crop Block Grant funding, these farm tours aim to increase students\u2019\nknowledge of and appreciation for California specialty crops through direct\ninteraction with local specialty crop farmers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching kids about the benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables when they\u2019re young can help form healthy habits that last a lifetime. Research shows that farm to school efforts can have positive impacts on kids\u2019 food choices and attitudes towards fresh fruits and vegetables, including increasing their knowledge of nutrition, their willingness to try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-farm-to-fork-website"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4z2wv-n8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}