Habersham County Schools won Bronze recognition at the 2018 Golden Radish Awards. The Golden Radish Award publicly recognizes Georgia school districts for best practices in farm to school programs, such as local food procurement, exposing students to new foods through taste tests and incorporating gardening and cooking activities in curriculum.
According to Georgia Organics, a nonprofit dedicated to improving public knowledge of and access to organically grown food, Habersham County Schools received kudos for the following:
- Hazel Grove 5th grade teacher Holly Skinner’s students made butter in a jar, cooked soup and prepared a pilgrim feast.
- As part of School Nutrition In-Service Training, all 70 employees planted tomato seeds in a milk carton to grow at their school and made butter in a glass jar. The nutrition staff shared this activity with each of their schools.
- Students in Habersham County traveled to Jaemor Farm, in Alto, Georgia to learn about fruits and vegetables.
Habersham County was among 84 Georgia School Districts recognized at the awards Oct. 22 at the Georgia Freight Depot in Atlanta. Collectively, these districts served more than 1.3 million students 109 million school meals with locally grown food items during the 2017-18 school year.
Other area school systems recognized include Dawson (Bronze), Elbert (Platinum), Fannin (Platinum), Hall (Bronze), Hart (Gold), Lumpkin (Silver) and Stephens (Bronze).
“Farm to school teaches our children the importance of food that helps bodies grow healthy and strong and food that promotes learning,” says Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, Dr. J. Patrick O’Neal. “When children learn as early as possible where their food comes from, they are more likely to eat fresh, nutritious foods that will sustain healthy choices that spread to families and communities.”
