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Job Watertown Schools and Russos – Making Harvest of the Month Happen

Watertown’s Director of Food Services Stephen Menyhart, has been enthusiastic about promoting local foods and nutrition education with Watertown students since he started working in the district in 2013. He recently partnered with ChopChop Kids, the non-profit publisher of ChopChop Magazine (based in Watertown), and the school’s Wellness Committee to create a cooking class for 4th and 5th graders at the James Russell Lowell Elementary School.  The students participated in 8 weeks of lessons about nutrition education and basic cooking skills, recipe writing, and menu planning.  They even had a visit to Watertown grocer and produce distributor Russo’s for a delicious demo with their Cheesemonger.

Menyhart was also among the first to sign up for Mass. Farm to School’s Harvest of the Month program in its pilot year.  Knowing that Menyhart had a good working relationship with Russo’s and that Watertown and several other neighboring city school districts also use Russo’s as their primary produce distributor, Simca Horwitz of Mass. Farm to School thought that Russo’s might be a great resource to encourage Harvest of the Month participation in other districts.  Simca suggested a meeting at Russo’s with owner Tony Russo and and Menyhart went to work coordinating the meeting.  Food service directors from Waltham and Somerville Public Schools quickly jumped on board.

Districts were encouraged to come to the meeting with information about their average usage of Harvest of the Month crops to share with Tony Russo.  Menyhart shared his experience implementing Harvest of the Month last year.  He spoke about times when there were challenges to locally sourcing the crops and about his successes promoting local items through taste tests with his students.

The productive conversation at the Russo’s facility also highlighted the shared need for enhanced tracking and reporting of locally-grown items.  The discussion continues this summer as food service directors in these districts look ahead to the 2014-2015 school year and effective strategies for sourcing local fruits and vegetables and promoting them through the Harvest of the Month campaign.

Click here to read an article in the Watertown Tab about Watertown Public Schools cooking class with ChopChop!



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