Orono Students Eat Healthy Through Farm2Schools Program

Orono schools use the Farm2School program to get students eating right.

By: Andy Greder | From the issue: October 2011

Photo: Cindy McDonnell

Last February, a concerned parent of two Orono students questioned the school district on what she thought was a lack of healthy foods on its lunch menu. Kate Bartel—mother of Samuel, 12, and Rachel, 9—says the food offered was inadequate, low in fruits and vegetables, and high in meats and carbohydrates.

Kris Diller, the district’s child nutrition supervisor, was quick to reply with Orono’s recent efforts to introduce more local fruits and vegetables to the lunch trays of its students. She cited Orono’s involvement in the Farm2School program, a statewide initiative to foster partnerships between local farmers and nearby school districts.

It’s an easy accomplishment to get parents, school nutritionists and growers to agree that children should eat more vegetables. It’s a daunting task, however, to get the little ones to willingly and routinely consume them. One suggestion, based on some research, was if kids are involved in planting vegetables, they are more likely to choose and consume them for lunch.

“My belief is the kids will be more inclined to eat the carrot if they grow it themselves,” Diller says. Hence, the first figurative seeds of the Schumann Elementary School garden were sowed.

For the garden to grow, it first needed to get off the ground. Orono schools teamed up with Easy Growin’, a Wayzata start-up company which created Little Acres, self-contained compartments in which to grow plants. “It enables people to set up a garden quickly, easily and affordably so they can grow food right out their backdoor,” says Cindy McDonnell, who co-owns the business with Jenni Brekken.

McDonnell’s eagerness to bring her year-old product to Orono schools was two-fold. As a businesswoman, she was looking for ways to expand her fledgling business. As a mother, she wants her children in the district to eat well. “I was excited about a community garden and the children being able to learn what the food cycle is,” McDonnell says. “And they got to learn it first-hand.”

Last May, Schumann’s third-grade class of more than 200 students went on a mini field trip—right outside the school’s doors. At the first station, the students learned that soil was broken-down organic waste from their previous lunches. (Orono is a progressive school district in establishing an on-site composting system, McDonnell says.)