Serving Up Locally-Grown During Harvest for Students Week!

Fall in Massachusetts is peak harvest time: apples and pears are ripening in the orchards and vegetables are ready in the fields.  Students throughout the Commonwealth will be savoring these locally grown foods as part of Mass. Farm to School Project’s 7th annual Harvest for Students Week September 30 – October 4, 2013.

During Harvest Week, schools and colleges promote the local harvest and serve fresh, nutritious meals prepared with foods produced by Massachusetts’ farms.  It’s a time for institutions to highlight their successful locally grown food initiatives or to purchase and offer locally grown products for the first time. If your school has plans to celebrate Harvest Week, let us know and we’ll do some bragging for you on our Facebook page.  Here’s what some schools across the state are planning:

Amherst – UMass Amherst will host local farmer visits and fresh, local produce sampling all week in dining halls, In addition, guest chef Ross Kamens, founder of Revolutionary Food will visit and cook on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Cambridge – On Thursday October 3, Peabody School will be celebrating Harvest Week with a ribbon cutting for a new salad bar featuring local produce.

Chicopee – Chicopee Public Schools will be serving local produce from Czajkowski Farm daily and farmer Joe Czajkowski will come for lunch one day. Students will also go home with grab bags of local produce, recipes and Farm to School materials to share with their parents.

Franklin – Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School will be offering a special locally-grown dish and inviting local farmers. They will also be having on the last Friday of each month a local politician come in to serve with us. The students will make posters and we will be having a recipe contest in the later months.

Groton – Groton School will be featuring three to five local products every day to be used at each of the meal periods during the week. Look for menu items such as grilled vegetable frittata using local produce, eggs, & farmers cheese for breakfast. Locally raised turkey with grilled peaches at lunch and local roast pork & paula red applesauce with local blueberry pie for dinner.

Mendon-Upton – Schools will be offering locally grown apples, pears from Lanni Orchards at school lunches during that week.

Pepperell – Fourth grade students at Varnum Brook Elementary School will walk to the Pepperell Farmers Market to browse the stands and discover more about local agriculture and the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

Pittsfield – Students will enjoy local carrot “fries” and local apples and pears in the cafeteria.

Waltham – Healthy Waltham will be providing zucchini and summer squash grown at Waltham Fields Community Farm to the public schools. They will end Harvest Week by opening the farm to the public with lots of fun activities.

Williamsburg – Students from the Anne T. Dunphy School (currently under construction) will sell the garlic that they planted last spring at the Burgy Farmer’s Market on Thursday October 3rd!

Worcester – Chandler Elementary School students participating in Mass. Farm to School Project’s Worcester Kindergarten Initiative will be joined by the Regional Environmental Council’s Mobile Farmers Market and volunteers from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.  They’ll be doing fun vegetable activities and handing out local pears for students to take home.

Worcester – Assumption College will host a week of events featuring local farmers and the foods they grow.