Youths in Leelanau County have gotten a chance to eat the fruits and vegetables of their labor.
It’s all part of the Farm to School Month activities.

They have created recipes for school lunches with produce from nearby farms and learned from local farmers, who have been invited into the schools to let kids know how their food is grown.
ANGEL RAMOS, 15, adds some detail to his pumpkin’s face Tuesday in cooking class at Suttons Bay High School. “The worst part was taking the innards out,” he said with a grimace.
“I love being able to learn new ways to make old things,” said Cheyenne Tiffany, 13, an eighth grader at Suttons Bay Middle School. “We made tacos a couple of weeks ago and it was interesting because it wasn’t just plain meat and cheese. There was a lot of other stuff to make it healthier — and yummier.”

October was designated “National Farm to School Month” by Congress last year, demonstrating the growing importance and role of Farm to School programs as a way to improve child nutrition, support local economies, and educate children about the origins of food.

“I love working in the kitchen,” said Kasie Aguayo, a sophomore. “It’s easier to retain the stuff we’re learning and it’s important because it’s healthier for your body.”

Administrators and teachers at Suttons Bay have enjoyed watching the students get excited about nutrition and food.

“It’s nice to provide a new perspective on health class,” said Kathy Herman, the health and foods instructor at Suttons Bay. “The kids are learning about new resources and Kirsten has been a fantastic influence, showing them the importance of good whole foods.”

“My first impression, coming here, is that there is a disconnect between schools and farms,” said Kirsten Gerbatsch, a Service Member of a new national organization called FoodCorps. “For me, it doesn’t really make sense because there are so many farms in the area.

“There have been a few farmers who have been surprised that I’m calling on behalf of the schools. I think they’re taken aback at first because schools historically have not reached out to them to source their cafeterias. Which is a bummer.”

Gerbatsch is leading school garden efforts and assisting in nutrition education in Leelanau County. She is one of two FoodCorps members working in northwest Michigan schools under the Michigan Land Use Institute, in collaboration with MSU Extension and SEEDS.

“It’s wonderful to be partnered with three organizations but it also takes a lot more coordination on my part—figuring out who’s doing what and who can support me where,” Gerbatsch said.

FoodCorps, a new affiliate of AmeriCorps, has sent young service members to 10 states to help schools purchase and serve healthy, locally grown food; build school gardens; and connect education to healthy eating and a celebration of local farms.

“Some of the high school students, and even the middle school students, are starting to ask me questions and I don’t think they realize how deep these questions are that they’re proposing,” Gerbatsch continued. “One of them will raise their hand in class and will be totally off-topic, saying stuff like, ‘where does our school food come from?’ and I have to say, ‘I don’t really have an answer for you but I ask those same questions.’ That’s the first step — kids asking those questions themselves and then recognizing that something’s not quite right and that it could be different.”

This month, Gerbatsch taught kids in Suttons Bay about the importance of utilizing fresh food for improving health and nutrition. She will continue to teach these lifelong habits for the next year at both Suttons Bay and Northport schools as she fulfills her FoodCorps duties. Gerbatsch has led the Deep Roots Farm Club and Good Grubs Cooking Club at Suttons Bay High School and has taught lesser-known cooking methods such as dehydration, canning, and pickling, as well as healthy alternatives to popular snack foods such as potato chips and chocolate cake.

“Finding out where your food comes from, how you prepare it, and how it’s grown is taking it further,” Gerbatsch continued. “You think you know the basics, like ‘yes, I need to eat more fruits and vegetables’ or ‘dairy has calcium,’ but it doesn’t really stick with these students until they start realizing ‘oh my gosh, look at that tomato plant growing out of the ground’ and then ‘whoa, I just made the best spaghetti sauce out of that tomato plant.’ I really enjoy showing them the step-by-step process.”

Daniel Marbury, Gerbatsch’s counterpart, has been working with Suttons Bay and Northport schools, as well as five other schools in northwest Michigan. His main project is connecting classroom learning to cafeteria eating.

“At each school, I partner with a teacher and the food service coordinator,” he said. “We work together to do classroom presentations and then translate that into what happens at lunchtime.”

His most recent project was teaching the scientific method to a fourth grade classroom by making salsa.

“We did research and testing of ingredients and hypotheses of which salsa would be the most popular in the school,” he explained.

“Then, at lunchtime, we took all the different salsas out and let the whole school try them and vote on which one they liked the best. It was really empowering for the fourth graders to be presenting to their peers. The whole school got to engage in it so they were really proud.

“Marketing to their peers was much more effective than me — this old guy with a beard — standing in front of them saying ‘eat this food.’”

After the salsas were voted on, the school food service staff made the winning salsa to serve at lunch.

“That’s what I’m striving for, making those connections,” Marbury said. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of planning and prep, but it was definitely worth it and I’m going to repeat a similar type of process, integrating it into each school’s curriculum.

“I already feel like I’ve developed a relationship with all of the schools. The kids recognize me. Even if it’s as ‘Mr. Zucchini Man,’ they know who I am. When kids pull on your sleeve and ask you for peaches in the hallway, that’s when you know you’re starting to make an impact. A little first grader came up to me the other day and said, ‘I like the things you make,’ and I just said, ‘I’m so glad.’ They’re starting to know what’s going on.”

Gerbatsch and Marbury’s efforts have only just begun, but they have been welcomed into the northwest Michigan community with open arms.

“I had never been to northern Michigan before,” said Gerbatsch, who is a New Jersey native and recent graduate of Reed College in Portland, Ore. “When I applied for FoodCorps, Michigan was one of my top states because I wanted to go to Detroit to work on urban farming. When they told me I was going to Traverse City, I called and asked them if they had made a mistake.

“I’m really glad to be here because it’s an incredibly beautiful part of the world that I didn’t even know existed. I’ve been really grateful for the opportunity to live in a community and region that is so agriculturally-based. The people are really friendly. It seems like a lot of young people leave but come back within five to 10 years to put down roots. I love that local pride without a cold shoulder to outsiders that you might expect. Everyone is just very welcoming to me, someone new in the community.”

Marbury, a University of Alabama alum, and Gerbatsch have been here for two months. They still have 10 months to complete their service year but, in terms of connecting local farms to local schools, they’ve already made a big impact.

“The kids are definitely talking,” Marbury said. “As long as we can get through to the kids, we’re golden. Then they’ll give good feedback to their parents.”

Gerbatsch agreed.

“That’s the most important part,” she said. “You can connect with teachers and administration and they’ll be in the background because you want them to be on your side. But it’s about immediately connecting with the students. They know who you are, they trust you, they like you.

“I introduced myself with half-bushels of fruit and now the kids are upset when I show up without fruit.”

By Erin Bernhard
Enterprise intern
erin@leelanaunews.com