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Participating Schools
Stillwater Public Schools
Contact: Vici Grimes, Child Nutrition Director
P.O. Box 879, Stillwater, OK 74076, 405-533-6445, vgrimes@stillwater.k12.ok.us
Stillwater public schools has participated in the official statewide program since 2006 but Vici Grimes is really one of the pioneers of farm to school in Oklahoma. She was a nutrition director committed to improving child nutrition, like many other directors across the state. She had heard about the concept of farm to school and start looking for farms to purchase from. She met Wayne and Connie Whitmore from Coyle, OK that were very experienced fruit and vegetable growers and built a relationship with them. She has purchased asparagus, strawberries, squash, cucumbers and cantaloupe and her most recent purchase was fresh sweet corn and okra.
Stillwater Public Schools has also partnered with the Oklahoma State University Food and Agricultural Products Center and the Great Plains RC&D to be a test site for a no-till whole wheat flour used for baking. Vici says it is the best and freshest flour they have ever baked with. They are also testing whole wheat breakfast pizzas and breadsticks. There is one elementary school with a garden and there is hope that all elementary schools will have a garden.
Farm to School has recently partnered with Stillwater Schools and a student working on his Master’s Thesis in Nutrition. The project will be introducing the very hands-on interactive VEGGIE U learning lab at Richmond Elementary School, in Dee Dee Liebenau 4th grade science classroom. Data will be recorded to see if incorporating the indoor lab into curriculum increases the students knowledge of fruits and vegetables and also if it increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Results should be published sometime in late 2008.
