Farm to Cafeteria Thanks You for Another Great Year

By Madie Murray

It has been an exciting and gratifying year for our Farm to Cafeteria Program.  Here’s a brief rundown of all the momentous F2C events that occurred since the 2011-12 school year began:

Grants Received:

• Orcas Island Education Foundation for the Farm to Classroom Project
• Orcas Island Community Foundation for product
• LTAC for 2013 CiderFest
• Lowe’s Charitable and Education Foundation for new Cafeteria Equipment
• Orcas Island Garden Club for Weather Station and garden tools
• Orcas Island Master Gardeners for School Garden
• Fidelis Womens’ Circle for Weather Station and Garden needs
• Abrams Family for Rainwater Catchment Tank

Events:

• Celebrity Chef Lunches:  Anne Garfield of Roses, Christina Orchid Red Rabbit Farm, Bill Patterson of Chimayo/Sazio’s, Charles Dalton of The Kitchen (who served a record 325 lunches!)
• Huxley Smart’s All Local School Lunch Senior Project, September 23
• Expanded Garden Post Party, March 3
• Student Chef Competition, March 31
• Student Chef winner, Arla Sutton, wins trip to DC to dine with Mrs. Obama, August 20
• Second Annual Cider & Mead Festival, May 12
• Mark Turtletaub Movie Night, April 13
• A Summer of Thursdays in The School Garden
• 621 lbs. of produce processed and frozen for “Fifth Season,” August 27-28
• Rainwater Catchment Tank Installed for School Garden, September 2
• FoodMasters and FEAST students build a cob oven in the school garden, Sept 9
• A Meal on the Village Green, October 7
• Lowe’s deliveries of new home ec room and cafeteria kitchen equipment, October/November
• A Celebration of Farm to Cafeteria, October 13
• Expanded garden is tiered and readied for spring planting, November 14
• Reconstruction Bond passes and an up-to-date cafeteria is in our future!

AND we now have a FaceBook page!   By “liking” us on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/orcasislandf2c, you can hear about and comment on all the little bits and pieces of our program as they come up.  And tell your “friends” to like us!  There are already some great things materializing in 2013 and you’ll be one of the first to know.  We currently have 68 “likes” from all over the country and it’s only been up a month!

Thanks so much to this wonderful community for embracing this program with gusto and generosity.  All of us involved in the program…our volunteers, the cafeteria staff, Chelsea our Garden Keeper, Mandy and the Classroom kids, parents, farmers, and everyone alike…so appreciate you for supporting our program.  We could not do it without you!