Copperas Cove students learn about locally sourced produce for school lunches
By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press
J.L. Williams/Lovett Ledger Elementary School students learned some interesting facts about some of the food served in their school lunches, particularly facts about food grown right here in Texas.
The Taste of Texas Traveling Tour stopped by the elementary school last week to spotlight local Texas agriculture. They did two presentations, one for kindergarten-2nd grade and the other for 3rd-5th grade.
Melissa Bryan, Director of Child Nutrition and Warehouse Services, works with the principals of each of the schools to help tailor their lesson to each specific audience. For Friday’s lessons, she chose to spotlight lettuce, wheat, baby carrots, and milk.
“We wanted to find something that grabbed their attention,” said Bryan.
Bryan was assisted in her presentation by Lorrie Hornaday, Amy Santage, and Elsie the Cow.
“Texas leads the United States in the number of farms and ranches with nearly 250,000 farms and ranches covering 125 million acres. Of those 93% of the farms and ranches are family owned and operated,” said Hornaday at the start of the presentation.
Hornaday emphasized that by using food grown in our home state of Texas, the food arrives faster and fresher which allows them to be served at their peak freshness.
One of the closest sources of the school’s food is in Belton where they grow food hydroponically.
Friday’s presentation specifically showed students how they grow their lettuce. Thanks to the Copperas Cove Education Foundation, some CCISD classes are also working on their own hydroponic farms.
Students were particularly fascinated to learn that one cow can produce ten gallons of milk per day. The milk in the school is served in pints and there are 16 pints in a gallon. That means one cow can provide 160 pints of milk in one day!
“Our commissioner is very supportive of farm fresh initiatives,” said Lena Wilson, Assistant Commissioner for Food and Nutrition with TDA, who came out to watch the program. “This is very supportive of those initiatives, and I think it’s great…I think it’s important that they know where their food comes from.”
“I love it. I think it’s very informative,” said Eugene Ybarra, District Sales Manager for Highland Foods. “I think it was explained very well.”
At the end of the presentation, each student received their own Taste of Texas goodie bag. Students were encouraged to look for the Taste of Texas logo hanging above items in their cafeteria line that were made in Texas.
“I think that it’s cool that the food I’m eating comes from Texas,” said 5th grader Aubrie Chen (10).
“I thought that the presentation was fun and very learnable,” said 3rd grader Nevaha Voisin (9) who was particularly excited by the baby carrots. “I wanna eat the carrots!”
“I learned that there’s a lot of different farms in Texas,” said 4th grader Isabella Kidd-Overby (10).
“If I had a farm, I’d grow carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and broccoli,” said 4th grader Angela Mateo (9). “I never knew how they made baby carrots. I just thought they put a seed in the ground.”
Melissa Bryan was glad that the students received the presentation so well, with many of them shouting out answers to questions and listening attentively throughout the presentation.
“I know that when they go to the grocery store with their parents, they’re going to be able to speak with them about it,” said Bryan. “They’re going to be spouting facts about gallons of milk and lettuce. They’re going to be looking at baby carrots and have those conversations. It’s going to be a good conversation starter with these kids and their parents.”