Served Digizine™- Farm to School

Food & Health Inspiration

moist. Part of the fun will be having to decide as a group when everyone thinks it is time to pull them up! P E A S Growing peas are a great visual for students, if you have room for them. Train them up on twine that is strung between the planter box and the window frame. Have students guess how far they think the plant will climb up the string as it grows. C I T R U S Indoor citrus trees bring life and a fresh scent to the classroom. They don’t need a lot of water, but they might need some manual pollination, if you don’t select a self pollinator variety. Turn the experience into a lesson about bees! Then make some lemonade.

they have matured, have a mini harvest with students and showcase menu items that feature (a taste of) the windowsill produce. Not only will kids have a greater appreciation for the work farmers do on a larger scale, but also the work you do to break down and serve fruits and vegetables each day. S C A L L I O N S

WINDOWSILL GARDEN How to Start a

Scallions often make it on a school menu on nacho day or are a staple on the salad bar. Show students how scallions can be sprouted from bulbs already in your kitchen. Slice off the bottoms of the bulbs to

Here’s a quick list of food you can grow in a small windowsill area all year round! “

remove the current roots. Stand them up, cut side down, in a jar with water. Keep in a sunlit window until new shoots and roots appear. Then, they can be planted in pots with dirt or simply left to thrive in a larger jar with water. C A R R O T S

Grab a deep pot for this veg and let students plant carrot seeds that can later be featured in a soup. This root vegetable needs regular watering, so be sure to keep the soil

Happy Planting!

Ready Foods Annelise McAuliffe Soares

Not every campus has room in the schoolyard for an educational garden, let alone big enough to pump out fruits and veggies for the lunchroom to serve.There’s still a way to introduce students to how produce is grown. Here’s a quick list of

food you can grow in a small windowsill area all year round in a south-facing window. Herbs and lettuces are always a great place to start! Assign classes or students to a care schedule to attend to and water the growing plants. Once

Annelise McAuliffe Soares

Marketing Manager at Ready Foods in Denver, Colorado

Graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Annelise has spent her career making sure food sounds appetizing on paper, looks good in pictures and tastes amazing when you order it. Her day-to-day consists of working at Ready Foods to connect food service operators with ready-to-use kitchen solutions (Yes, we make some delicious beans!) that are easy to incorporate into a kitchen flow and bring great flavor to menu items. Her favorite hot lunch in elementary school was always nacho day.