Fighting Food Deserts with a
Farm to Table Experience
Farm to Table Experience
By: Kimberly Sheppard
During the 2017-2018 school year, Students at Eagle’s Landing have been
exploring the challenges posed by living in a Food Desert. This has been as part of our
service learning initiative. Students in classes from Geography to Health have
studied the issue on the local, national, and international scale. Economics
and Government classes have discussed alternatives to traditional farming
to address food deserts. Students in other classes explored service solutions
to the issue. Local farmers like Ron Swanson, Southern Belle, and several
others shared their experiences with students in a full day learning
exhibit. One option students pursued was to establish a community garden with
the Agricultural Science program under the leadership of Chansi Coleman.
Students came together to work to resolve issues of food access with a farm to
table experience. ELHS began with a winter vegetable garden established with
the assistance of many of the programs in the CTAE Department. The ROTC
program built raised beds. The vegetables were planted and harvested with the
help of ELHS FFA. Government and Economics classes had the opportunity to
grow container gardens. In February, with the help of visiting Chef Cory Thomas
and Chef Greg Duloc, ELHS brought the winter harvest to the table. Chef Thomas
demonstrated healthy recipes for the winter vegetables harvested. Chef Duloc
demonstrated one of his recipes for eggrolls and took some of the harvest for use
at his restaurant to allow the mayor and the superintendent to sample ELHS
students’ work. Our work is not finished this year, but this broad theme allowed
multiple courses to collaborate. Our goal is for this example to show the
possibilities, increasing the number of collaborative and authentic and real world
lesson units next year.
exploring the challenges posed by living in a Food Desert. This has been as part of our
service learning initiative. Students in classes from Geography to Health have
studied the issue on the local, national, and international scale. Economics
and Government classes have discussed alternatives to traditional farming
to address food deserts. Students in other classes explored service solutions
to the issue. Local farmers like Ron Swanson, Southern Belle, and several
others shared their experiences with students in a full day learning
exhibit. One option students pursued was to establish a community garden with
the Agricultural Science program under the leadership of Chansi Coleman.
Students came together to work to resolve issues of food access with a farm to
table experience. ELHS began with a winter vegetable garden established with
the assistance of many of the programs in the CTAE Department. The ROTC
program built raised beds. The vegetables were planted and harvested with the
help of ELHS FFA. Government and Economics classes had the opportunity to
grow container gardens. In February, with the help of visiting Chef Cory Thomas
and Chef Greg Duloc, ELHS brought the winter harvest to the table. Chef Thomas
demonstrated healthy recipes for the winter vegetables harvested. Chef Duloc
demonstrated one of his recipes for eggrolls and took some of the harvest for use
at his restaurant to allow the mayor and the superintendent to sample ELHS
students’ work. Our work is not finished this year, but this broad theme allowed
multiple courses to collaborate. Our goal is for this example to show the
possibilities, increasing the number of collaborative and authentic and real world
lesson units next year.
It is not very often that the learning is so savory and satisfying.
For more information please visit www.henry.k12.ga.us/ and click the Personalized Learning Tab.
