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Participating Schools
Tulsa Public Schools
Tulsa public schools have many activities that tie in with Farm to School. |
Contact: Hossein Akhtarkhavari,
Child Nutrition
Director
Sodexho food service, 918-746-6204, akhtaho@tulsaschools.org or
Lisa Griffin, Child Nutrition Coordinator
Tulsa Public Schools
3027 N. New Haven
Tulsa, OK, 74114
918-746-6207, griffli2@tulsaschools.org
Tulsa has gotten quite aggressive with the activities for children that tie-in with farm to school. Farm to School is incorporated in with their Salad Bar A to Z program and a fun hands-on Farm to Student event was created in 2007 that will be replicated at many elementary schools across the city over the next several years.
The first event was in April 2007. A large area of the parking lot and grounds at Bryant Elementary was closed off and tables were set up where many children could rotate from station to station. Stations included taste testing locally grown grilled asparagus and seeing how to cook it, making planting pots from newspaper, choosing a locally grown tomato or pepper plant to put in their planting pots to take home for the summer, taste testing fresh salsa made with locally grown hydroponic tomatoes and seeing how to make it, learning about composting with worms (Seeing, touching and tasting (well the tasting part was gummy worms but the rest was real), seeing, touching and learning about goats, and the local produce company provided fruit that were tropical so the children could see and taste fruit that would not grow in Oklahoma.
Giant farm to school posters were setup at the asparagus station, the planting station and the salsa station so the children could see who grew the food or plants, what their farm looks like and where the farm was located in Oklahoma. A longer presentation was given by SW Dairy where the children got to see a real dairy cow being milked and learn about dairy farming.
Partners for the day included Tulsa Public Schools, Sodexho Food Service, Farm to School, Ag in the Classroom, OSU – Tulsa County Cooperative Extension, Oklahoma State Department of Education Child Nutrition, Thomas Brothers Produce, SW Dairy, Whitmore Farms, Crow Farms, Creekside Plant & Produce, Loretta’s goats and many great volunteers. The concept was repeated in Sept & October with seasonal changes made with farm to school and ag in the classroom.
See past events for more information and pictures.
