{"id":1441,"date":"2019-06-18T13:56:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T21:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2019-06-25T12:14:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T20:14:42","slug":"specialty-crop-school-success-story-humboldt-county-office-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1441","title":{"rendered":"Specialty Crop Block Grant School Success Story — Humboldt County Office of Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“We are encouraging curiosity about food in students and building their confidence to take the “risk” of trying fruits and veggies that are foreign to them.” — Erin Derden-Little, Farm to School Coordinator for Humboldt County Office of Education<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Humboldt\nCounty Office of Education<\/a> (HCOE) provides collaboration, management\nand support to the 32 school districts within Humboldt County, one of the\nlargest and most rural counties in the state of California. There are\napproximately 18,500 students enrolled in Humboldt County schools, over 55% of whom\nqualify for free and reduced-price meals. HCOE <\/a>Nutrition\nPrograms & Services<\/a>\nworks to provide teachers, school food service staff, students, parents and\ncommunity members with the tools and resources to support Humboldt County students\nin making lifelong healthy choices. One of the most successful ways HCOE is\nworking to support students\u2019 healthy lifestyles is through its robust farm to\nschool program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HCOE has a long track record of supporting farm to school.\nWhen Farm to School Coordinator Erin Derden-Little joined HCOE in 2016, a team\nof women had already been carrying out Harvest of the Month and other nutrition\neducation activities for nearly 20 years. The program\u2019s longest standing activity,\nHarvest of the Month, offers a powerful framework that reaches students in\nevery part of the school day. Each month, HCOE delivers a ready-to-go curriculum\nand materials to over 200 K-5th grade classrooms, 26 after school programs and\n18 pre-schools and playgroups \u2013 making it possible for over 4,800 children to\ntry a featured produce item each month. Derden-Little said the program makes an\neffort to source 70% of produce from local farmers and has featured a wide\nvariety of specialty crops including hakurei salad turnips, leeks, persimmons\nand kohlrabi. For each local produce item featured, HCOE creates a short video\nabout the farm and produce item; these videos are shown in the classroom and have\nbecome a favorite of students and teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By connecting school food service with Humboldt County\nfarmers, HCOE is also helping schools source local produce for their meal\nprograms and has assisted districts with following local procurement guidelines\nand developing bid documentation. Derden-Little explained that local sourcing\nis a challenge for HCOE\u2019s smaller, spread-out districts because it\u2019s not feasible\nfor farmers to deliver small volumes over a wide geographic area and there are\nno other distribution options for schools to source local produce. To overcome\nthis barrier, Derden-Little said HCOE has begun ordering extra quantities of\nlocal produce for interested school districts as part of their regular Harvest\nof the Month program. HCOE pays the farmer for the entire order, then uses an\ninter-district transfer process to collect payment; the produce is then\ndistributed to districts with their regular Harvest of the Month deliveries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the classroom and the cafeteria,\nDerden-Little said after-school programs have also been an area of focus for\nHCOE. Currently, 26 participating after-school programs receive a Harvest of\nthe Month snack recipe at the beginning of the month and a more extensive\nrecipe near the end of the month. After-school leaders work with the kids to\ncreate the recipe, then parents get to sample the finished product at pick-up\ntime. To further support healthy eating at home, each month six to seven after-school\nprograms also distribute bags of ingredients and recipe cards to 20 families as\npart of HCOE\u2019s Family Meal Market program. That means between 120 and 140\nfamilies are receiving fresh produce and recipes from HCOE each month. Derden-Little\nexplained the Family Meal Market program is a way for HCOE to help low-income\nand vulnerable families as they reach the end of their paychecks late in the\nmonth. The program has been a success, and Derden-Little said participating\nfamilies have reported purchasing ingredients on their own to make the recipes\nagain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derden-Little said one of the greatest impacts of HCOE\u2019s\nefforts is that students are becoming less afraid of trying new foods,\nespecially healthy foods. HCOE regularly collects feedback from Harvest of the\nMonth teachers; one teacher noted, \u201cEvery time we try a new food at least one\nstudent who didn\u2019t think they were going to like it finds they do. Families\nhave shared with me that their kids come home asking them to buy certain\nproduce, so they are helping their families make healthy choices!\u201d By serving\nflavorful and nutrient-dense produce and building the connection to farmers,\nDerden-Little said HCOE is creating a positive and fun experience for students\nand changing the culture around healthy eating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out HCOE\u2019s Harvest of the Month videos on their Vimeo\nchannel<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This article is part\nof a series highlighting organizations that are successfully promoting\nspecialty crops in schools. Made possible by Specialty Crop Block Grant\nfunding, these success stories aim to inspire similar efforts, ultimately\nincreasing student access to, knowledge of, and demand for California specialty\ncrops.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We are encouraging curiosity about food in students and building their confidence to take the “risk” of trying fruits and veggies that are foreign to them.” — Erin Derden-Little, Farm to School Coordinator for Humboldt County Office of Education The Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) provides collaboration, management and support to the 32 school […]<\/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-1441","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-nf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","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=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1443,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}