Decatur Farm to School (DF2S) is a Wylde Center program that works to improve nutrition, knowledge of where food comes from, hands-on outdoor education, environmental awareness, and appetite for fresh fruits and veggies by leading efforts in the classrooms, cafeterias, communities, and gardens of the City Schools of Decatur. The DF2S committee is led by parents, teachers, community members, Wylde staff members and has been active since 2010.
Open Spots on the Decatur Farm to School Committee
Joining the Decatur Farm to School (DF2S) Committee is a great way to get involved with the work of getting our students outside in their school garden and making the connection to what they are learning in the classroom and eating in the cafeteria and at home.
The DF2S Committee is currently seeking new members for the remainder of the 2022-2023 School Year including School Garden Liaison's to represent each school in the district.
Sign up for the Farm to School newsletter!
The Wylde Center now offers a monthly farm to school newsletter for teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. This monthly update will offer helpful information for school gardeners, like seasonal gardening tips, curriculum ideas, and professional development opportunities for teachers.
View previous newsletters here.
Decatur Farm to School Grant Program
The Decatur Farm to School Executive Committee members would like to invite you to apply for a Decatur Farm to School Grant! Who can apply? Teachers, Administrators, PTA members, or parent volunteers on behalf of their CSD School.
Wylde Center’s Decatur Farm to School Grant Program was initiated to support the City Schools of Decatur (CSD) in their efforts to provide farm to school experiences to their faculty and students. Up to three $500 grants will be awarded to CSD per school year. Each school may only receive one grant per year. Funds may be used for garden support, field trips, teaching experiences, and/or materials, as related to farm to school education. Grant applications for the 2022/23 school year will open in May 2022. Your application must be received no later than August 31, 2022.
The Decatur Farm to School Executive Committee expects to select up to three grant recipients by September 9, 2022. All applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision. If selected, the school is obligated to use the funds and complete the objectives by the end of the 2022/2023 school calendar year. Leftover funds are will be returned back to DF2S. Decatur Farm to School requests that, upon completion of funded task(s), grantees provide a written summary, with photographs and additional documentation, as needed. Written summaries and/or any additional documentation, such as photos, may be included in a future DF2S school newsletter.
Decatur Farm to School High School Internships: Returning Summer 2023
Internship grantees will work with local farmers, chefs, restaurant managers, and market managers as they learn what it takes to grow, sell, procure, and prepare fresh produce and local foods. In addition to training in Farm to School concepts, grantees will work at two locations during the summer to gain exposure to both the agricultural and consumer sides of Farm to Table.
Internship hosts in the past have included Farm Burger, Leon’s Full Service, Love is Love Farm, Global Growers Network, Community Farmers Markets, and the Wylde Center.
More about Decatur Farm to School
Community
DF2S was introduced to teachers and staff at a district-wide professional learning day in January of 2010. While enjoying a delicious lunch made from locally sourced food, the group learned the basics of the F2S concept and began to gather ideas on how to implement F2S into their own classrooms and schools.
Since 2010, we've had community restaurants and businesses support DF2S through our twice-yearly dine-out.
Classroom
- Funded by a Kaiser Permanente grant received by the Decatur Education Foundation, the Wylde Center and Georgia Organics trained more than two dozen Decatur teachers in Farm to School concepts and helped them develop activities and curriculum experiences to bring Farm to School ideas to the classroom. Classroom activities have included taste tests (students taste new menu items, then graph and present data as a math lesson), video production (students wrote and produced a video commercial for vegetables), and studies of worms and compost.
- Activities developed in these teacher trainings are being compiled and shared so that other teachers can incorporate Farm to School concepts in their teaching.
- Students and teachers were able to attend the 2010 Georgia Organics conference funded by the Kaiser Permanente grant.
Cafeteria
- In addition to the traditional lunch line at the middle and high schools, there is a new cafeteria line called “Fast ‘n Fresh” including a salad bar, and either a sandwich station, baked potato bar, or other specialty bar. This line replaces the “a la carte” line at the high school) where nachos, fries and other less healthy items were previously sold). Fries, ice cream and cookies are sold on Fridays only.
- Each month we spotlight one locally grown fresh fruit or vegetable and offer this item once a week on the lunch menu at all schools. “Produce of the month” has included fresh, local watermelon, tomatoes, apples, and greens.
- Volunteers have conducted taste tests of the “produce of the month,” asking students if they liked the new produce items and if they would try them again. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
- In addition to the “Produce of the month,” we buy as much locally grown produce as possible.
- Cooks Warehouse, a local gourmet cooking store and school, has sponsored and led three hands-on cooking workshops for all school nutrition staff. Recipes focus on working with fresh produce, and some of these recipes have been incorporated in the school lunch menu.
Gardens
Now that F.AVE has installed their garden, all of the schools in City Schools of Decatur have gardens! Six of the eight schools actively participate in garden-based education during the school day as part of the Wylde Center's Garden to Classroom program.