A recent development in our programmatic activity is trying to figure out the best way to bring these food traditions and products to the most number of students possible. We had the students participate in the planting, care, and harvest of Parr Field and invited the students of the schools to help us make chicos. The final product is something special in that high-quality horno-roasted chicos are harder and harder to find. We could sell these chicos for fundraising, last year we sold out at $20 per pound.
We decided that a good way to get students to taste the fruits of their labor is to make these chicos available through the school lunch program. We donated 20 pounds of chicos to the Enos Garcia Elementary kitchen staff to prepare and serve these chicos to the students. We were told that 20 pounds is enough for 250 students. This is a good ratio to work from in order for us to figure out our future production that would be needed to feed the entire student population.
Many people and organizations are trying to figure out how to inspire youth into agriculture, are trying to create farm to school programs, and otherwise create conditions for local food security. We too are trying to address many problems at once and consider our efforts as a continually evolving work in progress. We are happy of the model we are creating to fulfill our goals and mission, recognizing there is still much room for refinement, expansion, and development. In this way we hope to create a robust program that is worth of inspiring other efforts in the spirit of “school to farm to school.”
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