A POINT OF BADGER PRIDE

Prescott Unified School District’s (PUSD) Farm-toSchool Program provides garden-based experiences to ignite students’ love of learning, build skills to sustainably grow food, improve environmental literacy, develop lifelong healthy habits, and cultivate community partnerships with farm-based organizations. PUSD fulfills this mission primarily through school garden education. The first garden was constructed in 2012 and, with over a decade of grassroots organizing, PUSD now has a garden at every school.

One point of pride for the district is that students from every grade level, preschool through high school, have the opportunity to grow their own food. In addition, produce not used during educational lessons is brought into the cafeteria to be incorporated into school meals. Students receive a great sense of pride and accomplishment when they get to eat the vegetables they planted, cared for, and harvested and share them with their peers.

Farm-to-School programming in PUSD has dramatically improved students’ willingness to try and develop an affinity toward new fruits and vegetables. During the 2022-23 school year, all three elementary schools participated in the Arizona Department of Education’s Farm Fresh Challenge, in which students taste-tested produce from local farmers. PUSD was one of only four other school districts in the state to receive the highest award of Platinum. The overwhelming response from students was, “Delicious!”

In addition to strengthening the connection students have with fresh, healthy food, the Farm-to-School Program also enriches core academic subjects by providing real-world examples of concepts learned in the classroom. PUSD’s school gardens serve as living libraries that are used as tools to teach virtually every subject area. Whether it be the plant life cycle in science, taking precise measurements in math, reading planting guides and garden stories, writing in a garden journal, learning the history of agriculture, engineering rainwater catchment systems, or painting garden murals and signs, school gardens have so much to offer!

PUSD’s Farm-to-School Program is made possible thanks to the generous support of community partners, local businesses, volunteers, teachers, and students. This generosity and enthusiasm have led to the creation of a fulltime Farm-to-School Coordinator position to run the program. PUSD’s Farm-to-School team is steadily growing in response to increased interest among teachers and students. PUSD offers AmeriCorps Garden Specialist opportunities year-round to those looking to gain experience in gardening and teaching. Thanks to this team, teachers can spend more time providing educational lessons in the garden and less time performing regular maintenance.