Celebrating Agricultural Literacy Week 2012-

Spoons brings programs to over 2000 NYC public school students!

"My seed grew right out of the cotton! Look how long it is now!" Regina, a 2nd grader from PS 1 on the Lower East Side exclaims! She took part in this year's Agricultural Literacy Week, a food and nutrition literacy program run by Spoons Across America for Cornell Cooperative Extension. During the week of March 19th, Regina, along with 2300 other New York City Public School students in 79 classrooms across the boroughs, participated in a seed germinating and observation activity after listening to a Spoons volunteer read the book, "Seed Soil Sun" by Cris Peterson. This year, over 30 Spoons trained volunteers read to students and implemented the activity as part of this week long national program. 

Teachers and school program leaders were, as always, excited to have Spoons in their classrooms, providing "engaging learning activities" for their students. Maria Willis, a second grade teacher also from PS 1 was "happy that the Spoons lesson coincided with the introduction to science's third unit on plants." Some classrooms continued the learning beyond the one-day program and transplanted their seedlings into small pots, to later be planted into school gardens. This work supports our mission to influence the eating habits of children through hands-on education, helping students to understand how food weaves its way through daily life, from the farm to the table.

We want to especially thank our dedicated volunteers who took time out of their busy lives to attend our trainings and lead children through classroom activities. We couldn't do it without them! Want to volunteer with Spoons? Sign up for our upcoming program, Food Miles Relay, below.

We are looking forward to launching Spoons Food Miles Relay, our final program of 2012! During the week of May 21-25, Spoons volunteers will work with 4th graders city wide on this exciting, fun, hands-on, physically active program. A relay race format is used to demonstrate the amount of energy and time that is required to transport food from far away, versus what is required to transport food from more local sources. Among other goals, this program offers students the opportunity to learn: 

• What "Food Miles" are and how far food items travel from their origin;
• That it often takes more energy for food to travel from far away than it does to travel from more local sources;
• To pay more attention to where their food comes from;
• That locally grown foods are freshest - That the quality and taste of food can be affected by the distance it traveled, how it is handled and how it is stored.

Volunteers are now to implement the FMR program in one 60-minute class period during the week of May 21st. Download a volunteer form here  if you're interested in this opportunity.

The East Village and Washington Heights celebrates The Dinner Party Project!

We are thrilled that this year we have 7 classrooms at two different schools taking part in The Dinner Party Project®.  Fourth and fifth grade students at the PS 364 Earth School in the East Village and PS 132 Juan Pablo Duarte School in Washington Heights are experiencing the fun and excitement of planning, preparing, serving and enjoying a meal with their family and friends. By the end of the project they will have learned about nutrition, food safety, meal planning, table setting, etiquette, and cooking. This powerful experience of planning a dinner party also deepens their understanding of the value of community, family, teamwork, and sharing, while building self-esteem and having fun. These parties will be held in early May and early June. Stay tuned for TDPP stories and pictures!