Schools, farms form beautiful partnership

According to the School Nutrition Association (SNA), “today’s school lunches meet strict nutrition standards, including limits on calories, sodium, and unhealthy fats.” They report that 30 million students enjoy healthy lunches every school day, which include: at least three quarters of a cup of vegetables; a half cup of fruit; and entrées including whole grains and lean protein.

With rigidly enforced high standards, especially combined with the challenges presented by not only the circumstances of the pandemic, but also the ongoing uncertainties with ever-changing numbers due to quarantines, no praise is high enough for our Food Services folks.

This October, the week of the 11th through the 15th will be National School Lunch week, and our Food Services department, headed up by Deborah Westbrook, wanted to feature our local farmers this year.

In fact, we have a solid partnership with several of our local farms via the “Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program” and the “New Mexico Grown” program, the latter, a grant we’ve participated in for the last three years. Westbrook, accompanied by right hands Sharon Garcia (coordinator of student nutrition) and Dora Rivero (admin assistant and bookkeeper for student nutrition) arranged a field trip to share with district leaders information about our local partnerships.

This food service field trip traveled to EW Farms of Marcus Petroski to view the process firsthand as part of the recognition of the upcoming National School Lunch week. Other events will be rolled out across the district, so, according to Westbrook, “Our students know where our food comes from and learns about the importance of partnering with our local farmers.”

The farm they visited is federally certified, a formidable achievement in itself, and not only supplies our district with produce, but many regional stores, as well as large grocery chains.

EW Farms, along with our other partners, the Nelson and Armendariz farms, provide cantaloupe, watermelon, mushrooms, onions, lettuces, squash, and cucumbers to our school kitchens, and these foods are included in students’ breakfasts, lunches, and/or snacks. The foods are regularly delivered to our warehouse and then distributed to our school kitchens.

The district team that went on the field trip included representatives from various departments, and their comments were varied and enthusiastic. “The mushrooms were beautiful!” was a common comment.

Garcia described the wide variety of mushrooms grown indoors, abundant clusters emerging from what looked like bags of soil; Lion’s Mane, chestnut, blue, and others flourished in indoor climate-controlled buildings.

Westbrook summed up the experience: “It’s true farm-to-table! Yesterday, we served cantaloupe, today we picked cantaloupe in the fields!”

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at

[email protected]