Crescent School lunch offers Wild Edge pork/beef
Linnie Didier, Head Cook at Crescent School was all smiles as she served locally raised meat for lunch.
Meatballs made with local Wild Edge pastured pork and grass fed beef were served on noodles with garlic bread and several choices of fresh vegetables and fruit. The high school and middle school students were the first customers in the lunch room and expressed appreciation for the flavor and the opportunity to eat locally. The true proof was in the empty food trays at the end of lunch with very little designated for trash.
High School Spanish Teacher Carrie Cobb came up to the cafeteria even though she had brought her own lunch from home. She said so many students had told her how good the lunch was that she was eager to give it a try.
Next came a hungry crowd of elementary students, with Linnie and Assistant Cook Tamara Ewing offering them personal choices as they served the food.
My favorite moment was when one of the students who had brought a lunch from home finished his lunch and then got in line for the school lunch. He is the 9-yr.-old son of one of our CSA families who has enjoyed our pork and beef many times at home.
The elementary students may not have had as good a percentage as the older students when it came to eating all the food on their trays, but they were very interested in hearing about our farm. I had set out a bucket of cracked barley and the students were eager to feel the barley and hear about where it came from (Adolphsen Farms in Agnew. We purchase two totes at a time to feed the pigs, chickens and rabbits.) The students also asked plenty of questions about the Ozette potatoes and farm fresh eggs. Or, they shared about their own experiences raising pigs and chickens or growing potatoes at home.
We are proud supporters of the Farm to School Program which aims to connect students directly to the food they eat by engaging them in gardening, visiting local farms, and sampling local foods at school. Our farm display promoted other local regenerative farms, and after looking at some of the pictures, one student commented that their class had made a field trip to Hidden Penny Farm in 3rd grade, and just recently to The Sawtooth Ranch where they had planted trees. These are exciting opportunities that last a lifetime.
Wild Edge was the first farm to be invited to accompany students as they experienced the food we raised, but Stacey Larsen, WSU Extension Farm to School Consultant, hopes there will be many more such encounters. Stacey worked with several local school districts last year to help them create a vision for purchasing from local farms and introducing more scratch-cooked menu items during the school year. Crescent School District was one of 6 local school food purchasing authorities to receive a Fall 2023 WSDA Farm to School Purchasing Grant. Crescent School offers free lunch to all students through the National School Lunch Program in order to fulfill state requirements. This assures a high percentage of Crescent students will be enjoying fresh, local fish, meat and produce this year.
If you’d like to get involved, sign up for the Farm to School newsletter. Port Angeles School District is implementing a similar program. Click here to read more about PASD’s Farm to School commitments.