Caroline County Public Schools’ Food Services wrapped up Farm-to-School Week with a special event at Preston Elementary School on Friday, October 2. Community partners and some school staff were invited to lunch at Preston Elementary’s cafeteria, where students are regularly served fresh fruits, vegetables, and other goodies straight from local farms. Student Brymlee, pictured here in stripes, said her favorite part of her school lunch is the strawberries, which she agreed are the freshest and tastiest strawberries around.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
Preston Elementary’s cafeteria serves fresh fruits and veggies to students every day, including watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, celery, corn, and more, all from local farms and producers. “It's coming 10 miles and not 5000 miles to them,” said Brewster, “so it's nutrient rich.”
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
CCPS Superintendent Dr. Derek Simmons addresses the small crowd at the event. Attendees were fed veggie pizza, blue catfish sandwiches or fillets, as well as other fresh produce for lunch. Then, all nine of Caroline County’s public school cafeterias provided samples of their Maryland crab soup for attendees to compare.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
Ian, a 4th grader at Preston Elementary, said that he has learned the importance of “eating the rainbow” from CCPS. He explained that all the things we eat - especially our fruits and vegetables - “do different things for our body”, so we should “try to eat something from all the colors of the rainbow” each day.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
Brewster shared that while feeding students locally sourced produce and ingredients is important for their health and nutritional know-how, it also provides a benefit to the farmers. “It's a guaranteed market for them,” she said.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
Representatives from Mid-Shore Meals to Monday attended the event and participated in the Maryland crab soup tasting. Mid-Shore Meals to Monday is a partner organization that helps provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks to students in need that they take home in a backpack on Fridays and return on Mondays to be re-filled for the next weekend.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
CCPS’ environmentally-conscious food service practices don't stop when the students’ bellies are full. Staff member Anne Schmick explained that students are encouraged to reduce food waste by sharing unopened food or composting leftover scraps. “If it’s an apple they haven’t bitten to, or a sandwich they haven’t opened, then we have a share bin so kids that want to get extra food, they can get it,” she said, “But they can compost any fruits, vegetables, meats, bones, salads, any dairy that's like yogurts or cheeses and things like that.” That compost is then hauled away and used to create more fresh, tasty produce.
Photo by Kennedy Thomason Schultz
