Seed-to-Table Gardens

Slow Food Denver Seed-to-Table Coalition
Slow Food Denver’s Seed To Table Coalition supports school gardens and cooking classes in the metro Denver area. We empower children to become enthusiastic supporters of Good, Clean and Fair food.

Andrew Nowak, Slow Food Seed-To-Table School Garden Program

Volunteers Needed for Seed To Table School Food Program

Students enjoying food from the Steele gardens.

This year marks Mr. Andy’s 11th year as Leader of Steele’s School Gardens, part of Slow Food Denver’s Seed To Table School Food Program.  The Steele gardens have been a model for school gardens in DPS and are often cited around the country. Mr. Andy is being pulled into some other CO school districts to support school gardens as well as in some national programs concerning school food reform.  To continue the programs at Steele, we need parent volunteers to help out.  Mr. Andy will work with each of the following committees to continue the high-level of programming for students.  Please consider sharing your talents with one or more of these committees.  All committees will start work in August, but there may be some planning meetings over the summer.

Basil harvest with Mr. Andy.

Garden To Cafeteria Committee
In the first year of the Garden To Cafeteria program (2010), Steele gardens contributed 251 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the Steele cafeteria.  Our goal is to double that output this fall.  Members of the GTC Committee will work with Mr. Andy and students to harvest ready-to-eat produce from the gardens and then will work with Dixie and the kitchen staff to receive the fresh produce.  Approximate commitment is once a week for 2 hours from the start of school to mid-October (weather dependent). ajnowak@mindspring.com

Youth Farmers Markets (YFM) Committee
The Steele YFM will be 6 years old this fall!  Last year’s 8 YFMs sold almost $2,000 of local produce, netting a total of $1,000 in profit back to the school garden program.  Members of the YFM Committee will work with Mr. Andy and one class of students to design, market and work the YFMs.  Markets can be either Thursday or Friday after school, starting in late August and running through mid-October.   Approximate commitment is once a week for 3-4 hours on Market days and one or two classroom activities prior to the start of the Markets. ajnowak@mindspring.com

Seed To Table Taste Education Classes
Slow Food Denver’s Taste Education classes exposes students to the wonders of fresh produce from the school gardens through cooking classes and garden-based explorations.  Last year 315 students participated in 14 Harvest Cooking classes using fresh produce from the school garden in cooking classes from around the world.  Members of the Taste Education Committee will work with Mr. Andy to deliver Harvest classes to all Steele students.  Professional cooking experience not necessary but a positive attitude towards cooking with kids is a must.  Approximate commitment is one or two days a week helping to teach 2-3 classes a day.  Harvest classes start after Labor Day and go through September. ajnowak@mindspring.com

Summer Garden Watering Help
For the fifth year, Mr. Andy is recruiting Steele families to support the school gardens by helping with watering and weeding this summer.  Families can sign up for a 2-week commitment that consists of helping out 3-days a week and one weekend day.  Mr. Andy will train the family to water and weed.  Each watering session lasts no more than 1 hour and can be completed either before 10 am or after 6 pm (Denver water rules).  Students receive a $25 stipend (one per family) upon completion of the 2 weeks.  All families are eligible with a priority given to families with older kids or to families that participated previously.  If interested, please contact Mr. Andy (ajnowak@mindspring.com) and share which dates works best for your family:

  • May 29-June 11
  • June 12- June 25
  • June 26- July 9
  • July 10- July 23
  • July 24- Aug 6
  • Aug 7- Aug 20

Steele School Gardens Summer Headlines 2010:

  • DPS Pursues Local Fruits, Vegetables, and Meat for Meals
  • DPS Names Steele One of 30 New Scratch Kitchens
  • Steele Students Get a Salad Bar This Year
  • Steele Gardens Contribute Produce for the Salad Bar
  • Mr. Andy and Mr. Boyer Go to the White House

DPS is sourcing CO-grown produce, meat and dairy products for meals
For the past two years, DPS Food Services has participated in a Kellogg Foundation grant called School Food Learning Lab whose goal is to transform the procurement process that districts use to purchase their food.  Through this project, DPS is targeting 5 areas of their food purchases to get as much CO grown and produced food as possible.  These areas include: Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Dairy and Whole Grains.  Slow Food Denver has been the community partner in the Learning Lab and has assisted in identifying new sources for locally grown fruits and vegetables and locally–raised meats for the school meals.  Each month this year, DPS will feature a “CO Proud Meal” that will feature all CO products on the menu.  Although the project just started last year, DPS was able to purchase 27% of all its fruits and vegetables from CO farms.  This school year the purchases from CO farms will be much greater as the program is in full swing.

DPS commits to scratch kitchens; Steele is one of first 30 sites
Leo Lesh, director of DPS Food and Nutrition Services continues the transformation of school meals by announcing the commitment to converting all school kitchens to scratch cooking within three years.  The goal of this program is to train DPS cooks so that they can handle all the whole, fresh and raw ingredients that are coming into the District.  This past summer 120 DPS cooks went through a 3-week training session called “Back To The Future With Scratch Cooking”.  The cooks received training in 3 main areas: Cold Prep (salad bars, prepared salads and sandwiches), Hot Prep (casseroles, sauces and raw meat handling) and Bread Baking (quick and yeast breads).  Slow Food Denver assisted in the scratch cooking training by bringing 8 local chefs to work with the DPS cooks.  Both Mr. Andy and Chef Krista from Slow Food Denver served as instructors for the training.  Steele’s own Matt Salis (Great Harvest Breads) also participated in the Bread Baking classes as an instructor.  Steele’s kitchen staff of Dixie and Regina and new hire Ashley all were trained, received their chefs coats and will help open the Steele cafeteria as a scratch kitchen this fall.

85 New Salad bars in DPS cafeterias; Steele to get one also
Leo Lesh has ordered 85 new salad bars for DPS cafeterias.  Training for the new salad bars started this summer during the Scratch Cooking training.  The goal for each salad bar is to have a green salad, several choices for fresh vegetables and even more choices of fresh fruit.  The salad bars replace the individually portioned fruit that the students have seen before.  Students will get to go through the salad bar as part of the hot lunch service.  Kitchen Manager Dixie and Mr. Andy worked together to find the proper placement for the salad bar in the cafeteria.

School Garden produce to be used in new salad bars; Peaches to be on menu
DPS Food and Nutrition Services and Slow Food Denver will launch the Garden to Cafeteria program, the first of its kind in Denver, this fall.  School gardens can contribute salad ready vegetables to the school cafeteria to be used in the salad bars.  Mr. Andy helped to write the food safety protocols with DPS and Denver County Health Dept to assure the safe handling of the food from the school garden to the school kitchen.  Approximately 15 schools have signed on to allow students and garden leaders to safely harvest produce once a week and to hand it over to the kitchen manager.  At Steele, the school peach tree is ready to harvest so fresh peaches will be on the salad bar when school opens on Thursday.  Students will help keep track of the weight of the produce from the school gardens.  Leo Lesh will pay students for the produce with the proceeds going back into the garden program.

Mr. Andy and Mr. Boyer go to the White House in June
What a way to kick off the summer!  Mr. Andy received an invitation to go to the White House in early June to help kick off the “Chefs Move To Schools” campaign.  Earlier in March, Mr. Andy was one of 6 chefs invited to meet with White House chef Sam Kass to help work on the details for CHTS.  When the launch was announced in June, Mr. Andy was asked to bring a principal to DC so that they could show case how schools and chefs can work together.  So of course, Mr. Andy chose Mr. Boyer to go with him.  The morning of the BIG day, Mr. Andy and Mr. Boyer spoke to a crowd of 500 chefs about how they work together to bring healthy messages to the students.  Mr. Boyer had the chance to meet Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education at breakfast while Mr. Andy spoke to many chefs.  Then they marched together to the White House on a VERY hot DC day.  About 700 chefs participated.  At the White House we saw the vegetable garden on the South Lawn and were in the second row when Michelle Obama spoke to the crowd.  She delivered a very inspired speech on how students can benefit from lessons delivered by chefs.  That evening, Mr. Andy and Mr. Boyer joined 6 other chefs for a fabulous seafood dinner to celebrate the BIG day.  Can you believe that the trip was the first time Mr. Boyer had been to our nation’s capital?

Seed-to-Table Program in the News

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