Highlights from our December 5, 2006 Dialogue
(Updated February 12, 2007)

Earlier this fall, Global Source planted the seed for a new learning community by bringing together educators and interested community members to talk about our schools and local-global issues of food and farming.  A group of about 25 Bainbridge and North Kitsap educators and stakeholders from the local community gathered at the Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery to tour the Day Road farms, eat delicious locally grown and prepared food, and share ideas for teaching and learning about food and farming. During this program, we discussed ways to raise awareness, build knowledge, and foster engagement in these important local and global issues. The responses to the guiding questions can be found below.

How can we raise awareness?
Issues of importance concerning food, farming, culture and education

How can we build knowledge?
Relevant curricular themes and learning objectives

How can we foster engagement?
Local prorgams, projects and activities

Program Partners & Participants
Global Source Education
Trust for Working Landscapes
Laughing Crow Farm
Foodmuse Inspired Catering
Bainbridge Island School District
Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery

Host: Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery,
8989 East Day Road, Bainbridge Island, WA

Other participants (by organization, school or vocation):
Antioch University Seattle
Attorney & Consultant
Breidablik Elementary
Bremerton Urban Garden Club
Cedars Unitarian Church
Coyote Woodshop
Habitat for Wildlife
Healthier Kids Bainbridge
Hyla Middle School
Islandwood
Master Gardener
Spectrum Community School
Sustainable Bainbridge
West Sound Academy
Wilkes Elementary
Woodward Middle School
Woodworker
YES! Magazine

HOW CAN WE RAISE AWARENESS?

What are compelling local-global issues concerning food and farming that can be integrated into the culture of curriculum and school communities?

• Battling obesity
  
• Economics
  
• Economics: how do we sustain?
  
• Education on processed food vs organic and fresh
  
• Food and class: expense of food and lack of access in inner cities
  
• Food distribution
  
• Food engineering
  
• Food for rich vs poor countries, i.e. USA
  
• Food is life: food services all life
  
• Food safety and rules--district or state policies, re packaged vs fresh, orfreshly prepared  Food allergies and contamination, crossover food
  
• Food/health
  
• Full cost accounting
  
• GMO’s
  
• History: honoring what was on the land before
  
• Importance of land value, holding onto land
  
• Industrialization of food production areas
  
• Treatment of animals
  
• What’s good for folks: students preparing food vs. union workers (US) How to get around this?
  
• Wisdom of the old days

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HOW CAN WE BUILD KNOWLEDGE?

What are relevant curricular themes, areas of study, and learning objectives? (in addition to the list from the October 26 Dialogue)

• Bring skills to life
• Connections and complexities
  
• Curriculum ideas for science, cultural studies, intergenerational learning, etc
  
• Dynamic content
  
• Ethics
  
• Food and culture: why do you eat, how, when?
  
• Food as a product
  
• Food as product vs food as a natural system
  
• Food industry/advertising/marketing
  
• Food presentation
  
• Food science
  
• Gardening: skills related to the art of living
  
• Geography and biology being changed by globalization
  
• Home gardens
  
• Integration with state standards is essential for public schooling: EALRs,WASLs
  
• Learn about source and path of different products, cradle to grave.
  
• Linking food and culture
  
• Marketing connections
  
• Morality: how we treat the earth and animals
  
• Need creativity to meet testing and WASL standards
  
• Putting school lunches in warm/worm bin
  
• Senior projects, science fairs, etc, extracurricular but academic
  
• Waste: how do we handle this?

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HOW CAN WE FOSTER ENGAGEMENT?

What are the most engaged, meaningful, and authentic ways for educators and schools to bring the study of food and farming to life for young people?

• Bridging home and school culture
  
• Connected to a social cause
  
• Connecting with the environment
  
• Digging in the dirt
  
• Edible schoolyard
  
• Examining cause and effect
  
• Examine exposure to health risks
  
• Farm-to-table
  
• Hands and feet wet
  
• Hands on
  
• Introduce purposeful chores so that children have a reason to learn
  
• Learners become the experts
  
• Meaningful work
  
• Motivation
  
• New experiences
  
• Participation
  
• Purposeful work
  
• Role playing
  
• Shop Classes: to gain a feel for working with materials and their characteristics
  
• Step out of the comfort zone
  
• Students become teachers
  
• Wear the hat of people you are studying

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What are the projects, programs and activities that (do or can) model this kind of teaching and learning, locally and globally?

• Ideas for Day Road Farms
  - Possibilities: Summer Camp, 4-H, Parks & Rec. Link, other school & community partnerships
  - Activities: Student plant crop and harvest, grain threshing, pioneer practices, experiential history & literature
  - Farmhouse center during school, garden skills are essential.
  - Host a Family Day
  - What is legacy for Farms as Open Space site?
• Develop educational opportunities with Crawford 2.5 acre woodplot
  
• Make connection with WA State K-12 Education Standard (somewhat flexible standard curriculum, many places to easily fit) 
  
• Inter-school partnerships
  
• Integrate into the Social Studies Adoption Process
  
• Invite featured speakers on these issues
  
• Have a year of activities hosted across the community focusing on issue of food and farming
  
• Establish mailing list for local network of people engaged in this work
  
• Deepen the work of Trust for Working Landscapes’ Farm Education Committee

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FOSTERING ENGAGEMENT

What are the local projects, programs and activities that are modeling this kind of teaching and learning? ( Descriptions are from notes taken during the program. They are not in any particular order.)

Woodward Middle School
Food and Culture: describing flavors and tastes from around the world.
World hunger: Darfur, US, Poland, Russia,
Issue of fairness, simulation game

Wilkes School, 1st grade
Science unit: grow plants
Math unit: faming simulation game

Cedars Unitarian Church
What can churches do to promote local produce?
Potluck salad
Coupons $5, book of 20, some use to buy local food, some give to food bank

Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery
Barriers for farmers on BI: cost of living, cost of water
Workers need to live on the farm to work on the farm
Winery farm as habitat, sand hill cranes and other birds

Hyla Middle School, 8th Grade
Mini-term on sustainability, global warming, looked at local foods

Healthier Kids Bainbridge
Working to improve school lunch nutrition
Need to integrate into curriculum and initiate at K-5
Psychology of eating, especially children, needs to taste good
Artificial economics of processed goods
Equal cost if buy raw ingredients and prepare

West Sound Academy
Food and community as political activity
Issues of commercial food preparation economics vs ethics
“Travel” around the world discussing indigenous foods of each area and effect of trade on changing diet and health

Bremerton Urban Garden Society (B.U.G.S.)
Our goal is to encourage people to grow their own food organically and eat locally, as a way to connect with the community and the world at large. We have a raised bed garden at the Bremerton Foodline which is the sole recipient of all the produce grown there; we have a cooperative plot at the Bremerton Community Garden which we use to introduce new gardeners to organic growing practices and we offer classes thru the Kitsap Regional Library - Sylvan Branch - in sustainable and organic gardening.  We have a number of other projects in development as well.

Suggested Resources
Grades K-4, 5-8, 9-12

General

Food and Farming Home Page

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