Fulton County Honored For Farm To School Excellence

FULTON COUNTY, GA — The Fulton County School System won Platinum level recognition at the 2018 Golden Radish Awards held at the Georgia Freight Depot.

The Awards recognize 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. Platinum is the highest recognition awarded to Georgia school nutrition programs for farm-to-school programs.

Fulton County Schools received kudos for:

• Using Georgia Grown test kitchen recipes 610 times. All 95 schools offered the Cowboy Caviar recipe in October and Georgia Grown Sautéed Collard Greens throughout the school year.
• Thirty-six schools across the district collectively hosting 69 hands-on cooking
  and food activities throughout the school year. Activities included baking classes, kitchen tours, various food preparation lessons, taste tests, garden club activities, and cooking club activities.
• All 95 School Nutrition Managers attending training sessions that included farm to school initiatives.

The school system was one of 84 Georgia school districts that were recognized at last month's ceremony. Collectively, these districts served more than 1.3 million students a whopping 109 million school meals with locally grown food items during the 2017-18 school year, Georgia Organics said.

“Farm to school teaches our children the importance of food that helps bodies grow healthy and strong and food that promotes learning,” said J. Patrick O’Neal, M.D., commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. “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.”

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Image via Georgia Organics/Fulton County Schools