SFUSD School Food Workshop
On Friday, June 7, we realized another important facet of our work at Climate Farm School: building connections between disconnected parts of the food system. We hosted the San Francisco Unified School District Student Nutrition Services team (SFUSD SNS) at Green Valley Farm + Mill for a one-day workshop. SFUSD is the largest public food provider in San Francisco, and they want to source more food from ecologically-minded California farmers and offer healthier meals. The SNS team is working to overcome challenges from regulation to supply chain logistics in order to change the way their 55,000 students eat. Led by their Executive Director and Future Dining Experience Manager, 15 SFUSD staff gathered for a day of learning, working in the soil, cooking, and eating together.
We started with a brief history of the Farm to School movement in California, and heard from Elizabeth DeRuff (Honore Farm and Mill) about her work to revive Hourani wheat, a resilient ancient grain, and grow it out as a local, whole grain food source now serving several CA school districts. We went out to farmer Alice’s fields to help her plant peppers, basil and prep beds with compost, then cook a seasonal, locally-sourced, plant-based “school lunch” inspired by Alice Waters’ forthcoming school food cookbook alongside Gary and Ryan. In the afternoon, we welcomed Dylan from FEED Sonoma, Annie from Filigreen Farm, and Claire from CAFF’s Farm to School program to share farm-to-school sourcing success stories. The day closed with SFUSD reflecting as a team on achievable goals for the next 6-12 months and 2-3 years. They left with a resource and contact list, along with inspiration and stronger team relationships to fuel the work ahead.
Putting farmers and food hubs in direct contact with larger institutional sourcing partners is an important and powerful step we can take as farm-based educators to build a better food system! We are interested in hosting more one-day workshops for teams wanting to connect to the local food system. If you have ideas or are interested in bringing your organization / company to one of our host farms for a corporate volunteer day or professional development experience on the land, please reach out!
