Teaching Farm is Bridging the Education Gap

A city school district in South Carolina has taken ag education to a new level.  Over the last several years, Florence 1 Schools has introduced Farm-to-School concepts to students through gardens at many of the district's elementary schools and middle schools, but the Farm at Florence 1 expands that curriculum and provides more opportunities for students across the district.  South Carolina Ag Commissioner Hugh Weathers recently toured the farm and says he was impressed.

“With education, with hands-on experiences for children, actual production going on. Plans for more and very busy since the opening day they said.”

The working farm also has a teaching kitchen on campus.

“We actually observed two different sessions with the children," Weathers said.  "It was a great question and answer, and they would sample some of the things that they were talking about, cooking.”

Weathers said the project takes its Farm-to-School mandate seriously.

“Got two great new greenhouses and doing some hanging baskets with flowers, but also doing some food," he noted.  "I think they probably have eight to 10 raised bed gardens producing. Got an aviary, I saw a couple of hives there. Got a chicken tractor, as we call it, you know, a little chicken coop on wheels, they can move around.”

The farm hosts student groups from across the district every day of the school year, and Weathers said it's yielding results.

“Children, who might come into it, saying, I only like French fries and hamburgers, I don't know, pick something, hot dogs. And they get a chance to see how the fruits and the vegetables are produced with strawberries," Weathers said.  "And then they get an education piece. And we got several stories related to us from parents who said, you know, when my child came home, they said, ‘No, I want to eat this instead of that.’”

Educators from across the country have visited the Farm at Florence 1 in order to emulate it in their own districts.

Click Here to learn more about the school's farm.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com