East End Schools Ahead Of State In Introducing Fresh Produce To Students

The moment a student pulls his or her first homegrown—or, in some cases, school-grown—vegetable from the dirt is eye-opening. And when they taste the difference between it and the heavily processed sustenance they are accustomed to …Teacher Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz has seen it firsthand.

“It is quite amazing,” she said last week during a telephone interview. “It is life changing.”

A former educator at the Ross School, Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz helped design their kitchen garden, well aware of the correlation between diet and its effects on not only weight, but also on skin, hair and nail health. When she took a job in the Bridgehampton School District, she could immediately see the differences between her new students and those at the private school.

Inspired, she set out to bring healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables to children across the East End on a daily basis, starting with her botany, nutrition, culinary arts and technology students in Bridgehampton.

“I realized that the differences in food that were being served to the students was clear in the differences in the students’ bodies,” explained Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz, who is the chair of Slow Food East End and president of Edible School Gardens. “The amount of processed foods from typical menu items, like chicken nuggets and curly fries and pizza, was having a big impact on the health of these children, and I just felt it should not be a privilege to be eating good food. It should be a right.”

She is not alone in her quest to bring healthier food options to students, and now her goals are aligning with those of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Last week, his office announced a U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot program to procure locally grown produce for schools statewide.

Although the Pilot For Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables will not be rolled out on Long Island for at least another year, with no specific date set, according to Heather Groll, director of communications for the New York State Office of General Services, it is a step in the right direction for those who want to see all students living a healthier lifestyle.

“New York is a nationally recognized leader in the promotion and support of locally grown food, and with this selection we will ensure that students have access to fresh and nutritious locally grown produce,” Gov. Cuomo said last week in a statement. “I thank the USDA for partnering with us to showcase the very best of New York’s thriving agricultural industry.”

Early next year, approximately 20 schools in New York will benefit from the new pilot program, including those in Cayuga, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Steuben, and Wayne counties, Ms. Groll said.

“The goal of the Pilot Project is to develop additional opportunities for schools to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables with entitlement funding, while using pre-existing commercial distribution channels and school relationships with growers, produce wholesalers, and distributors,” Ms. Groll said in an email this week. “The pilot supports the use of locally grown foods in school meal programs using entitlement funds.”

Although not participating in the program immediately, East End proponents of healthy food initiatives say it is a good next step for local children. Regan Kiembock, the director of food services for the Southampton School District, said she is a firm believer in farm-to-school relationships, and works with local farmers whenever possible to bring local produce into district cafeterias. It is important, she said, not only for the health of the students, but to educate them about where their food is coming from, forging a connection between them and what’s on their plates.

The school district, Ms. Kiembock said, builds the relationship early by bringing elementary-level students on field trips to local farms, where they can see where their food is coming from.

“The kids get to pick the apples and the pumpkins, they get to see the pears and the peach trees,” Ms. Kiembock said last week during a telephone interview. “Then when they see it in school, they always say that it tastes better, and they get to make the connection with a healthy diet.

“The federal government and the state are trying to increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables these kids need because the vitamins and minerals are crucial,” she continued, “and if we can make the effort and get it locally, that is fantastic. And when we post the names of the farms and the kids can relate to the farm, either their friend’s father owns it or they remember that is the farm they visited in second grade, it is just a wonderful thing. It is a win-win.”

Southampton School District also has a vegetable garden, located near the administration building, between the intermediate and high schools, that is used to supplement the salad bars and vegetables for all three of the district schools. Currently, Ms. Kiembock said the district is looking to expand the program to grow as much of the district vegetables in its own garden as possible, and they are making strides.

Whenever possible, Ms. Kiembock also utilizes local Long Island farms by purchasing apples from The Milk Pail in Water Mill, potatoes from the Remi Wesnofske Farm in Bridgehampton, and fresh corn from Halsey Farm, owned by Adam Halsey.

“Anything that is locally grown is definitely much fresher when it is harvested and sent right over to the school kitchen,” Mr. Halsey said last week during a telephone interview from his farm in Water Mill. “It allows them to use things that are in season and teach the children that things like corn are available only at a certain time of year regionally, and it helps to reinforce the lessons they are learning in the school garden on a regular basis.”

Southampton is not the only district ahead of the New York State curve. According to Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz, there are currently 27 East End schools that have gardens or greenhouses, including Quogue, Bridgehampton, Orient Point, Wading River and Eastport South Manor.

The schools, she said, are doing more than just growing the fruits and vegetables. The teachers are using the gardens as an opportunity to teach math, cooking, nutrition and science classes on a more interactive level.

Now, she said, Slow Food East End is working to extend that education past the classroom and into kitchens at home. This year, the organization released the “Delicious Nutritious FoodBook,” a guide to healthy eating that was sent home to parents through several of the school districts to make them aware of the nutrition lessons being taught at school.

Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz said the biggest change she has seen is in the attitude students have toward healthy food. In the past five years, she said, the perception of eating healthy has evolved so that students realize not all healthy eaters are vegans—people who do not eat any product that comes from an animal, including meat and dairy.

“They are embracing it more, and I think that is great because they now know more about food and they are not fighting good food as much. They are embracing it,” she said. “We have already gone to the next step of getting these foods into school cafeterias, so it seems like the natural evolution. We are lucky to have all of these farms near us and the schools can’t really produce enough that is needed, but the farms can. It is a natural fit, and I would love to see us go in that direction.”