Feb. 24 Ag F2S Meeting Notes.

Present: Abby Porter, Leigh Jenkins, Paul Mock, Betsy Heath, Dawn Childs

1. We congratulated Leigh on the grant award for the BSHS Greenhouse.

Also acknowledged Paul, Colin, and Mike for their help.

2. We noted the upcoming conferences:

Small Farm Conference, Morgantown March 1-4

Forum for Rural Innovation, Winchester, March 19

National Farm to School Conference, Detroit, May 17-19

WV Ag. in Classroom Conf. Morgantown, June 17-18

(no info-website not up yet)

2010 National Ag. in Classroom Conf. Baltimore, June 24-26

3. Abby passed out info on WV Ag Bills

4. Abby had sent out info on 2010 Ag Conf.(AITC) to school staff and admin.

After conversation with Laura Hovermale at the awards ceremony,

Abby resent info letting everyone know that funding is available through

PH RC&D and LEN.

Betsy suggested going to School Board to let them know of conf. and

funding.

5.. We discussed the possibility of sponsoring a "Local Foods Week" in Sept and

what other organizations could be involved and what events could be

included. Betsy will be meeting with WVBFBL and see if they are planning

anything that we could co-ordinate with.

6. We determined that in order to start making small inroads with farm to school that we need to identify schools that are already cooking from scratch that

would be more open to using local, unprocessed produce.

We would also like to find out what the whole food school budget is and also how much is budgeted for fresh fruit and veg and "tastings".

Perhaps local foods could be used in some of the tastings.

7. Denis Scot is interested in starting a garden at the Boys and Girls Club and may be looking for volunteers.Could be pilot project for gardening in schools.

8. Paul offered to donate plants and soil for any school garden.

9. Abby gave brief report on the Bio-Dynamic Ag Conference she attended in Southern Virginia at JPI.

10. Dawn Childs , AmeriCorps VISTA Sustainable Agriculture Advocate,has offered to help us develop a Strategic Plan and clearly define our Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals. This is a process which she is currently working with the Ag. Task Force.

AG. FARM TO SCHOOL UPDATE - Dec. 1 2009

1. Paul Mock and Abby Porter attended the "Growing Local Foods" Conference at Stonewall Jackson Resort on Nov.4

The conference was an information gathering and sharing event with diverse participants from organizations, institutions, government as well as farmers.

Highlights-

"National Trends in Local Food Systems" by Brian Snyder, exec. dir. of PASA. Suggested we look at food sheds rather than state boundaries.

He also noted Cuba's food system. Havana, which has a larger population than WV, produces 90% of their own fruits and vegetables in organic urban gardens and in fields surrounding the city. The farther the food comes from, the high the tax on it, encouraging local production.

http://www.pasafarming.org/

Pam Curry from Center for Economic Options (http://www.economicoptions.org/) addressed opportunities and needs, including need for collaboration and networking. They are in the beginning stages of developing a Green Business Accelerator and a Local Foods Network.

2. Nov 5. Abby listened to USDA Dep Sec. Kathleen Merrigan's facebook chat "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food"

Farm to School was the topic of Nov. chat. Many of the topics she covered were brought up at the Local Foods conference. It is very encouraging, unfortunately many of the USDA regs. are at odds with what this branch of the USDA wants to do.

3. Leigh Jenkins reported that the school received the $1500 grant from Two Rivers Giving Circle for recycling and plans to use part of it for worm farm.

4. Potomac Headwaters RC&D has applied for SARE(Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) grant for School to Farm to promote agriculture as a job/career option, with educational and job training for students and adults and student internships.

5. Book and Film Discussion Group- Mary reported that a few people have signed up. She will have the first meeting in Jan. and is still taking suggestions for books and films.