Meals From the Farm program
Meals From the Farm returned to Saskatchewan on June 1 this year. This joint initiative between Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan and Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan worked with six Saskatchewan schools to help students and teachers learn about how local farmers grow many of the foods that they eat in their lunch.
Schools in Prince Albert, Regina, Yorkton, Lloydminster and Saskatoon all received a hot egg and bacon sandwich on a wheat English muffin, along with a carton of milk, an oat bar, beef jerky, and a lentil snack. As well, Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan provided each student and teacher with a Meals From the Farm bag that included snacks, activities, pencils, recipes and seeds for the garden.
“We love this program for so many reasons,” said Clinton Monchuk, Executive Director of Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan, which spearheaded the initiative. “First of all, it helps feed kids. It also provides a day for students and teachers to think about how the foods we eat are produced by farmers. We also work with our partners at Ag in the Classroom, several schools and so many farmer groups from across the province.”
In addition to lunch, several other activities took place at the Meals From the Farm partner schools. In the morning, Farm & Food Care hosted an online tour of a chicken barn and live Q&A with a chicken farmer. The afternoon featured a gameshow event at Mayfair Community School in Saskatoon. Farm & Food Care also prepared an online agriculture trivia contest to engage students and offered a chance to win prizes for their classroom. Many teachers focused on agriculture related activities in their classrooms, such as scavenger hunts, planting seeds, and going on tours from FarmFood360.
“We continually seek unique learning opportunities for our students,” said Danielle Tooley, Principal of Mayfair Community School in Saskatoon. “Meals From the Farm is a fantastic day to help our students make connections between the foods that they eat and how it is grown.”
“We want to inspire students to care about food and the people involved in producing it,” said Sara Shymko, Executive Director of Agriculture in the Classroom. “This program provides an engaging learning experience for students to discover their personal connection to agriculture through food.”
Led by Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan and presented by the Saskatchewan Egg Producers and Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan, Meals From the Farm is a collaboration with Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, Cargill, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, SaskOats, Grain Millers, SaskMilk, SaskPork, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Canola Eat Well and Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan.
For more information, see our Meals From the Farm page.