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THE DAYS OF SODA POP AND MYSTERY MEAT ARE SLOWLY COMING TO AN END AT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL. Students at 20 local elementary and middle schools are learning about healthful consumption by planting, tending, harvesting and selling crops from their school gardens. Youth Farmers Markets are planned for September and October.

For the past seven years, Nowak – a trained chef and educator with a doctorate in psychology – has been working with elementary school students and their families, attempting to “educate them and train their palates to appreciate what good, local produce is all about.”

In partnership with DUG and Slow Food, and beginning at Steele Elementary (320 S. Marion Pkwy.) when his own children were students there, Nowak has helped establish 20 gardens at elementary schools (and one middle school) across the Denver area. The small but productive plots are maintained primarily by children in grades ECE-5th, with the assistance of parents and community volunteers. “Teachers are certainly involved,” Nowak explains, “but we generally need four to six adults per school. Teachers just don’t have the time to lead the program outside their normal duties.

“We start off in February, planting seeds in the classroom, and then transplant the seedlings into the school gardens in the spring. The kids help care for (the gardens) over the summer, and bring in the harvest when they return in the fall.”

The yearly crop is divided between classroom activities and Youth Farmers Markets held at the schools. Nowak and others bring their cooking skills into the classroom to “cook with the kids to teach them about good nutrition, where food comes from and how it’s grown, and to introduce them to different flavors of the world.”

While students do get to sample what they’ve grown in a classroom setting, the school garden produce has not yet made it to the school cafeteria. “We can’t possibly grow enough in the gardens to support the lunchroom,” said Nowak. “One day’s salad bar would wipe out our harvest. Hopefully through what we’re doing, when we do see (fresh, local produce) in the school cafeteria, kids will be ready for it and will appreciate it.”

Nowak is hopeful that the day will come when Colorado schoolchildren partake more freely of Colorado products in the lunchroom. “(Denver Public Schools)  Food and Nutrition Services came to Slow Food earlier this year and the two wrote a grant together under the name, “School Food FOCUS (Food for Our Children in Urban Schools).” It would be a farm-to-cafeteria program,” said Nowak.

“We won a $50,000 grant. The money brings in two teams of researchers – one from New York City – there’s a farm-to-cafeteria program in New York – and a team from Michigan State that studies food systems. The idea is to use the buying power of a large school district to effect changes in local food systems. We’re having a lot of conversations with farmers, ranchers, distributors and other producers. In the past, they haven’t spoken to the schools, but these discussions are bringing everyone together. We’re seeing changes.”

One program that gives hope for future changes is Colorado Proud School Meal Day. On Wed., Sept. 9, schools across the state will offer meals incorporating Colorado-grown produce. At least a dozen Denver schools will participate. “Denver is using Rocky Ford melons, Palisade peaches, and tomatoes and cucumbers from local farms,” said Nowak. “Slow Food Denver is hosting chefs at about a dozen schools who will work with kids, making salads from produce right out of the school gardens like the ones they will later see in the cafeteria.”

As the Profile went to press, the Denver schools slated to participate in Colorado Proud School Meal Day include: Bradley, Bromwell, Brown, Cory, Eagleton, Fairmont, Lowry, Munroe and Steele elementary schools, as well as Kepner Middle School. Several more have expressed interest in participating but were not yet confirmed.

With increasing sustainability in mind, Nowak is talking with DPS about tying the school garden program even more tightly into the academic curriculum. “We want the gardens to be seen as classrooms, so lesson plans for science, math, reading and writing all involve garden activities. My long-term goal is to put garden programs at the same level as music, art and drama. Paid teachers, once a week.”

To complete the food production cycle, and to assist with financing the school garden program, Youth Farmers Markets are held at the schools each week in September and early October. “DUG and Slow Food have put together a distribution system. We pick up produce from several farms in the area and distribute to the school markets. A couple of school sites are just getting off the ground, and they don’t have much to sell. For others, it just adds to what they have to sell from the school’s garden. It’s a good way to support Colorado farmers and support some neighborhoods that don’t have fresh produce stands – or even groceries that stock Colorado produce.”

Youth Farmers Markets are scheduled at the following south Denver schools:

•        Asbury, 1320 E. Asbury Ave., Sept. 17, time to be determined
•        Bradley, 3051 S. Elm St., Sept. 10 & 24, Oct. 8 & 22, 3:45-4:30p.m.
•        Bromwell, 2500 E. 4th Ave., Thursdays, 2:30-4:30p.m., ongoing
•        Fairmont, 520 W. 3rd Ave., Fridays, 4-5:30p.m. ongoing
•        Lowry, 8011 E. Cedar Ave., Sept. 11 & 25, Oct. 9 & 23, 3-4:30p.m.
•        Slavens, 3000 S. Clayton St., Sept. 29, Oct. 1, 3-5p.m.
•        Steele, 320 S. Marion Pkwy., Fridays, 2:30-4:30p.m., ongoing
•        University Park, 2300 S. St. Paul St., Sept. 11 & 25, 3-4:30p.m.

For information, visit www.slowfooddenver.org or call 303-321-3322; or www.dug.org or 303-292-9900.