Farm to School Team Update

Our Farm to School Programs connect kids with new foods & local farms

Our Northeast Indiana Farm to School Team loves working with the students, teachers. school administrators, food service directors, farmers and community partners all participating in our Farm to School programs.

We’re working together to introduce thousands of local kids to new fruits and vegetables, and to the local farmers who grow them.

Check out our Farm to School photo gallery below!

Parkview Youth Well-being staff connect virtually with students at Bluffton-Harrison Elementary School to lead taste tests of local produce.

Harvest of the Month Taste Tests

Each month our Harvest of the Month Taste Test program offers participating schools the opportunity to enjoy taste tests of our Harvest of the Month product. This produce is purchased from a local farm, and then washed, cut and prepared into sample sizes and delivered to the schools by the dedicated staff of the Youth Well-being Team at Parkview Health.

This past winter an average of over 3,800 local students in 18 participating K-12 school and early childhood education programs across our region tasted local salad greens, radishes and pickled beets. Our thanks to the farmers at Amish Aquaponics in Allen County, BroxonBerry in Wells County, and Berry Hill Farm and RiverRidge Farm in Wabash County for growing this colorful, fresh produce! We’re already planning our kale taste tests for April!

We want to thank our friends at Windrose Urban Farm for processing and pickling the local beets for all these students to taste. Some of the kids loved them, and some did not, but they all learned from the experience.

Harvest of the Month - Carrot Video

We’re proud to release our latest Harvest of the Month farm video about carrots. These videos teach our Farm to School students and their families where food comes from and introduce them to our local farms and farmers.

This latest video was recorded at Berry Hill Farm in Wabash County in early December during the farm’s extended fall carrot harvest season. Myron Metzger, the farmer & owner of Berry Hill Farm, explains how carrots grow and how he harvests them. He shares how he grows a wide variety of produce on his farm and encourages everyone to grow food in their backyard.

Our sincere thanks to James Wolff of Allen County Purdue Extension for his help recording and editing this video. Check out all our Harvest of the Month videos and Local Food Videos.

Tower Gardens teach students how food grows

With funding from the USDA Farm to School Grant awarded to Wells County Revitalization last year, our partners from the Parkview Health Youth Well-being Team are helping the schools participating in our Farm to School program install school gardens. Many of the schools have chosen indoor Tower Gardens as a way to help teach their students how food grows.

In recent weeks new Tower Gardens have been delivered to Garrett High School, Lakeland School Corporation, Franke Park Elementary School (FWCS), Manchester Elementary School and East Allen County Schools. Over the coming weeks more schools will install their gardens as part of this hands-on learning program.

Farm to School Photo Gallery

Our thanks to the staff & students at Bluffton-Harrison Elementary School, the Parkview Youth Well-being Team and the staff at Windrose Urban Farm for sharing photos of their recent Farm to School experiences.