Dorothy Long, director of communications with Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan, helped deliver tote bags for the organization’s Meals from the Farm program on Thursday at Jack Kemp Community School. All students and staff will enjoy free Tim Hortons breakfast sandwiches for lunch to learn where food comes from. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Free Tim Hortons breakfast sandwiches and snacks will help students and staff at Jack Kemp Community School understand where their food comes from.
That’s the goal of the Meals from the Farm program running Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. by Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan (FFC SK).
Jack Kemp is one of six schools in the province selected to participate this year to the delight of Lloydminster Public School Division nutrition and wellness coordinator, Elizabeth Denvir.
“This is a great opportunity for the students to investigate the farms and nutrition around our area and community so they can learn where our food and nutrition come from,” said Denvir.
“When they get their meals, they will be told where each product came from.”
FFC-SK represents all grower groups in Saskatchewan that are partners in funding the farm meals.
“So there’s lots of things represented in each meal like milk and eggs and bacon, cheese and wheat and all these great products that we grow in Saskatchewan,” said FFC-SK director of communication Dorothy Long from Lloydminster.
Long says their mandate is to connect consumers to the food they are eating and help them understand where it comes from.
They have also partnered with Ag Saskatchewan in the Classroom with a similar mandate.
The partners will offer a series of online webinars with farmers and chefs about farming and cooking with Saskatchewan-grown foods on June 2.
It will culminate in the delivery of a free lunch to about 1,000 school kids in the province.
“We are reaching out to schools because we feel kids are a great place to share that message and start understanding where their food comes from,” explained Long.
Some students like Emelia, who is in Grade 3, seemed to know where their food is sourced when put to the test earlier in the week.
“We’ve been learning about what is local and what is transported,” said Emelia.
“Lots of local foods we grow are very delicious like granola bars which are oats, flour which is made from wheat, bacon which is pork from pigs and beef jerky is from cows and milk is also from cows.”
She was also looking forward to the sandwich specifying, “the local food that we are getting for meals from the farm because I love bacon, I love eggs and I love sandwiches and breakfast.”
Her classmate Grace couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into a granola bar and explained why.
“I really like them and it’s not very often that my mom buys them and I think they are very delicious,” she said.
She too also knew what granola bar ingredient comes from the farm when quizzed beforehand.
“Oats,” she said like a TV game show contestant.
Students will also get a virtual tour of an egg-laying facility operated by farmer Clint Monchuk.
“The kids will be able to tune in and watch that and ask him questions virtually,” said Long.
FFC-SK will also provide students with a bag full of resources about agriculture as well as some other online classes they can go through and a game they can play.
“We put the bag together and hopefully it all culminates in a great day for the kids to learn and to feed their minds and their bodies,” said Long.
Included is a copy of the magazine The Real Dirt on Farming that goes through all different agriculture practices and gives information about each of the commodity groups.
“Hopefully, it gets kids to realize there is a step before the grocery store where their food is produced,” said FFC-SK digital media and communications rep Angela Larson, also from Lloydminster.
