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Virginia Farm to School Program

     Food and Nutrition Services, the Energy Zone, Fairfax County Public Schools supports the Farm to School Program. It works. closely with Keany Produce, its vendor, to purchase seasonal fruits and vegetables from farmers in the area. They provide a seasonal calendar of the available produce and a listing of the farms. The Energy Zone promotes Healthy Virginians and Healthy Students Week in September; Virginia Farm to School Week in November and highlights Virginia grown produce on the school and senior citizen menus.

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• Virginia Farm to School
• Local Produce Flyer  (180 KB)
• Our Local Grower (148 KB)

This spring, the Energy Zone unveiled its office garden. We had a variety of vegetables for staff lunch throughout the season. Meadows Farm, a local nursery provided the plants and staff  and planted, watered, and weeded the garden.

Five elementary schools (Annandale Terrace, Hybla Valley, Lynbrook, Mt. Vernon Woods and Weyanoke) have been selected to participate in the federally funded Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. This program delivers fresh fruit and vegetables as a snack to students' classroom. In addition, food and nutrition services provided each teacher with a weekly nutrition education binder which highlights the specific fruit and vegetable being served. The fact sheets are also used for morning announcements by the students who introduce their classmates to the fruit and vegetable. Teachers incorporate the snack into their curriculum such as math, geography, and science and parents receive a special newsletter describing the program. Students are served unique produce such as pluots, Asian Pears, and avocados.

The Energy Zone is reaching out to schools which have school gardens to provide their spring and fall produce for incorporation into the school lunchmenu. A recent visit with elementary school principals has shown that several schools have gardens. The school gardens are excellent learning experiences for students who live in our large metropolitan area. Naturally they have a challenge maintaining the gardens during the summer months when schools are not in session.

Last fall, First Lady Micelle Obama held a round table at Hollin Meadows Elementary School. She visited their school garden and with Secretary Vilsack, United States Department of Agriculture served the students fresh fruit for their school lunch.