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Pictured (from left): Judy Shubert—Long Branch Elementary Cafe Manager, Andi Foster—Blackburn Elementary Cafe Manager, Julie Knight-Brown—Lumpkin Schools Nutrition Director, Kathy Fleming—Lumpkin High School Cafe Manager, Vicki Carpenter—Lumpkin Middle School Cafe Manager and Brenda Christy—Lumpkin Elementary Cafe Manager show off the recent harvest.
A collaboration between the University of North Georgia biology department, 4-H and Lumpkin County Schools is resulting in fresh, locally grown vegetables for local school lunches.
UNG biology professor David Patterson was helping deliver summer meals to local students along with his wife, which sparked a conversation with School Nutrition Director Julie Knight-Brown.
"Rosann [Kent—UNG Appalachian Studies Center Director], Chesley [Davis with the 4-H] and I had been working on ways to get veggies into the school system and this seemed like a great collaboration. Julie was really excited and so were we to have found a great avenue."
Patterson said the program, called Hometown Harvest, has increased awareness of the potential of local produce throughout the community.
The produce is grown at UNG's Vickery House Gardens.
Another goal of the program is to "better integrate UNG into the Lumpkin County community. Since we started, we’ve been slowly building important community connections," he added. "This project naturally opens doors into the community due to shared interest in heirloom seeds, gardening and student health."
Knight-Brown said students, parents and families and school staff appreciates the fresh produce—especially locally grown/farm to school items.
"We've had parents express to elementary managers how delighted they are that their child now eats things like radishes and other vegetables such as bell pepper strips and cherry tomatoes that they didn't eat much of or at all before," she said.
Knight-Brown said the lunchroom meals offer more than the required quantities and choices of these items "because we feel the opportunity to eat them is not always present outside of school for our students."
Last year, Knight-Brown said, they had an increase in meals served, plus a better perception of school meals thanks to the increase in fresh produce, especially in the high school.
Community networking is another important benefit that comes along with this collaboration, Knight-Brown said.
"One of our goals in school nutrition and for our school system overall is to support and get involved in our community to help students, families and everybody in the area," Knight-Brown said. "Working together on projects such as Hometown Harvest opens the door and leads to more good ideas on ways to help kids and others."
Kent said that in 2016 the Appalachian Studies Center opened a campus food pantry serving students, faculty, and staff.
"Hometown Harvest, a community collaboration, was formed in 2017," Kent added. "For the past three years, 4-H students from middle grades visit the campus twice a month for garden-based learning programming. In between visits, university students and faculty maintain the gardens."
Patterson added that UNG students have significantly contributed to designing and implementing the project.
"Amelia Arthur (UNG Biology) and Zach Pilgrim (UNG Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis) have been instrumental in the day-to-day operations of the garden (e.g., watering, harvesting, etc) as well as designing the infrastructure associated with the gardens," he added.
Lumpkin 4-H, Patterson said, have contributed lots of time, effort and financial resources.
"The 4-H students have been great in terms of developing the gardens as well as learning food production skills that we hope they will take with them throughout their lives," he added.
Anyone in the community who is interested in contributing to this program can contact Julie Knight-Brown (julie.knightbrown@lumpkinschools.com) or Dr. David Patterson (David.Patterson@ung.edu)