Arvada-Clearmont School Farm to Table Community Lunch

Nearly 30 Clearmont community members and other interested people attended the recent Farm to Table community lunch at the Arvada-Clearmont K-12 School on Wednesday.

This month’s community lunch day appropriately fell on Wyoming Farm to School Day, Oct. 2. This is a day set aside for Wyoming citizens to celebrate agricultural products that Wyoming has to offer by serving them to the schools across Wyoming. It is a way to bring agriculture into the school cafeteria.

Many of the vegetables served with the meal at Clearmont School, including the potatoes used in the cheesy potato soup; the cucumbers in the cucumber salad, and some of the tomatoes, were grown by the students at the school.

Abigail Mueller SCSD#3 7-12 Vocational Agriculture Teacher, was excited about the program.

She said they still have a lot of potatoes left, and they plan to harvest them the end of the week.

Looking farther down the road, vegetables aren’t the only crop that they plan to grow at Arvada-Clearmont School.

She also thanked the kitchen staff for putting up with her students washing and preparing the vegetables.

The first step was planting the vegetables. Last April, the elementary students joined with Rooted in Wyoming to begin the garden. David Johnson, executive director for Rooted in Wyoming, attended the lunch.

Students became involved, not only in the growing and preparing the vegetables, but presenting a program about the benefits of locally grown foods. Samantha Grubb, first and second grade teacher, helped her students show their posters they created to the audience.

The third and fourth grade students also drew colorful posters explaining why local produce is important and taped them to the walls outside of the lunchroom.

Next community lunch will be held on November 6 from 11:30 to noon. Call the school for more information.