TUSD FARM

BY ANGELINA MARTIN

When Turlock Unified School District first drafted plans for its school farm seven years ago, the ultimate goal was to provide not only an agricultural learning hub for students, but to also grow healthy foods which would one day make their way from the school farm to the cafeteria table. Now, thanks to plenty of collaboration, teamwork and hours on the farm, that dream has become a reality — even during the coronavirus pandemic.

TUSD Coordinator of Environmental Studies and Applied Horticulture Hali Bream has used her knowledge to create a system that has allowed students to eat and utilize fresh ingredients at lunch and in the classroom, from the 15 varieties of fruits grown in the farm’s orchards to herbs and edible flowers that will soon flourish in the greenhouse.

This has been made possible through Bream’s teamwork with TUSD Director of Child Nutrition Jennifer LewVang and Pitman High School Culinary Arts instructor Mohini Singh, who have made it a point to include products grown on the District Farm in the classroom and on the cafeteria table — like the pluots that made it into take-home meal boxes for students, which Singh used to create a tart live on Zoom for her pupils at home.

The products grown on the farm are also used in school lunches, which students and families have been picking up from campuses as they learn at home. Some elementary sites were able to enjoy the pluots as well, in addition to 14 other varieties of fruits grown on the District Farm. While these products aren’t the main course of meals yet, they do add a sense of fun to school meals, like the excitement on students’ faces when they realize the salsa for their burrito was made from tomatoes on the District Farm.

It is Lew-Vang’s hope that one day, Singh’s Culinary Arts students will be creating all of the school lunch menu items by using food grown on the farm. While the fruit harvest is over for now, Bream said she is hard at work changing out the greenhouse so that herbs and edible flowers can be grown for Singh’s students to use.

In addition, almonds and walnuts are grown on the farm, and it also serves as home for several pig projects — four of which are currently pregnant with litters due in just a couple of months. Bream is also collaborating with local businesses to provide internships for students as well as complete improvements on the farm. For example, Jay De Graff of The Greenery Nursery is lending his expertise to help change out the greenhouse.

In between checking in on all of the life either being grown or cared for on the farm, Bream hosts Zoom sessions for students where she teaches them about various subjects, like how a pluot is grown or how to transplant a beanstalk.

“We talk a lot about how the food gets from the farm to their school lunch, and then they’re excited to go pick up their school lunches because they know it’s a full circle,” Bream said.

Along with Lew-Vang and Bream, Singh hopes to see both the farm and the Culinary Arts program continue to play a large role in shaping students’ diets. So far, their efforts have earned recognition from some of the state’s top officials.

Earlier this month, Singh was invited by California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom to serve as co-chair and advisor of the newly-formed California Farm to School Advisory Group. The invitation came just one year after Ross and Newsom visited TUSD to see its farm-totable efforts firsthand.

As co-chair and advisor, Singh will help create a unified vision for the future of farm to school in California with a $10 million allocation from the state to do so. In an email from the state, Singh was told she and the Culinary Arts program were immediately brought up when CDFA began brainstorming advisors.

“I can’t wait,” Singh said. “I’m excited to see where the state wants to go with farm to school, and we are just thrilled because there is money out there and more opportunities for our district.” OCTOBER 2020

ANGELINA MARTIN /The Journal

While four piglet litters are expected on the TUSD District Farm this winter, some of the piglets from last year have stuck around.

ANGELINA MARTIN /The Journal

TUSD Coordinator of Environmental Studies and Applied Horticulture Hali Bream picks a pluot on the District Farm.

ANGELINA MARTIN/ The Journal

A variety of flowers and herbs will soon flourish in the District Farm’s greenhouse.

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