Wellness Committee needs students!

Attention 4^th & 5^th Graders!

Do you want to work with teachers and parents to help our school become a healthier place?

Are you interested in being a student representative on the Fernbank

WELLNESS COMMITTEE?

Are you able to attend monthly meetings on Wednesday after school until 3:30 (first meeting will be in late January)?

Then you will want to submit an ESSAY for consideration by the staff and parents on the Wellness Committee!

Fernbank has joined the ranks of schools across the nation that are using the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy Schools Program framework to create a school culture that encourages physical activity and healthy eating.

The Fernbank Elementary Wellness Committee (Healthier Generation's Healthier Schools Program) will be selecting 8 students from 4th and 5th grade based on submitted essays.

Essay rules:

--4^th and 5^th graders only

--Write no more than one page on ONE of the following topics
1st choice: What does wellness mean to you? Give three (3) examples.
2nd choice: Describe your vision of a healthier school. Use three (3) examples.

--Handwritten OR typed double-spaced

-- Include your name, teacher's name, and the words "Student Wellness Essay" at the top of the page

--turn in by putting in Ms.Beckwith's teacher box Monday, December 17

Selected students will be notified by Jan. 10!

Questions? Please contact the parent coordinators of the Wellness Committee,
Lee Ann Else ( leeann.else@healthiergeneration.org) and Delilah Wynn-Brown ( delilah@wynnbrown.com )

Happy Harvest!

Just before Thanksgiving break, it was harvest and tasting day at Fernbank Elementary!  700 students tasted greens harvested from their own school garden.   

As usual, thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers, PE coaches, cafeteria staff and sponsors, we were able to pull off another successful school-wide tasting.  Parent volunteers joined forces with the school cafeteria staff to wash, dry and cut the greens in preparation for the tasting.  Whole Foods, Briarcliff donated lettuce, shredded carrot, cranberries and ingredients to make our fabulous salad dressing.  Mix it all together and what do you get? Kids eating salad!

Science In the Garden

Wondering what goes on in the garden while our fall crops grow?  Second grade science class visited the garden to draw what they saw – and what they learned about that was going on behind the scenes.  Students drew their own plant diagrams of what they observed which included leaf drawings, and how the sun, water, pollen, bees, butterflies, roots, stems, flowers, seeds all worked together in the garden.  Some students noticed decaying plant parts like “dead leaves” or “old turnips.”  The old plants were weeded and mulched during our fall planting earlier this month and now we get to watch our garden grow! 

We look forward to our fall harvest and school-wide tasting November 15^th.

DeKalb County School Garden Tour

Fernbank Elementary School participated in a DeKalb County school garden tour earlier this month along with Henderson Mill Elementary and Chestnut Elementary.  Hosted by Georgia Organics, the garden tour showcased three flourishing organic school gardens in DeKalb county.  The tour was followed by a presentation and lunch at Henderson Mill Elementary School organic garden.  Invited participants heard about how DeKalb County School District is bringing fresh, local food to school meals, and how teachers and parents are connecting these foods with curriculum and edible gardens.  We heard stories from leaders across the district about how farm to school is taking root and changing the lives of DeKalb students.

The DeKalb Board of Health, school board members, area superintendants, state level politicians, Atlanta Magazine, the DeKalb County School Nutrition director as well as parents, teachers and students were among the participants.

Thank you Georgia Organics!

Dr. Joyce Wimberly presenting DeKalb Farm to School program.

Student-lead garden tour

Engineer-designed water collection system.

Fernbank has a new Wellness Council!

Fernbank has taken the challenge!  We are pursuing bronze level recognition from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.  The Healthy Schools Program provides a framework for schools to assess and improve the wellness of their school culture.  It helps schools create an environment where physical activity and healthy eating are accessible and encouraged.  The program is an obesity prevention program that was started by the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.

With a childhood obesity rate of 37.3%, our state ranks of 49th in the nation for overweight or obese children.  Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has challenged all schools to use the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy School Program to improve in the areas of nutrition, physical activity and staff wellness.  By transforming our schools, we will shape the lifelong health and well-being of children and adolescents.

In order to begin the Healthy Schools Program, Fernbank Farm To School approached our faculty about creating a School Wellness Council.  We were surprised by a very positive response from our teachers. Nine teachers signed up to serve on our School Wellness Council, as well as Ms. Satterfield, our Assistant Principal.  In addition to our faculty, four parents will be on the Wellness Council.  The Wellness Council will be lead by parents Delilah Wynn Brown and Lee Ann Else.  We are thrilled to have two Fernbank parents, Anne Dunlop and Jean Welsh that specialize in obesity prevention on our Wellness Council.

Wellness Council

Faculty

Elisabeth Beckwith

JJ Carroll

Alicia Jacobs

Laura Mantrone

Meredith Mourdock

April Poindexter

Debbie Satterfield

kathy Shaw

Peggy Sutton

Lara Thompson

Parents

Delilah Wynn Brown

Anne Dunlop MD, MPH

Lee Ann Else

Jean Welsh PhD, MPH, RN 

Our first meeting will be November 14th, at 2:30 in Ms. Beckwith's classroom.  We will discuss the nomination process for Student Wellness Council members and review the process the Healthy Schools Program will follow.

Celebrate Apples!

Look at the delicious apples served in the cafeteria today as part of DeKalb county’s local produce of the month farm to school program. 

Planting in the Garden!

Our fall crop of lettuce, carrots, and radish has been expertly planted by Fernbank students this week and last.  But before we could plant our new plugs and seeds, there was much work to be done to prepare our garden beds.  Fernbank students also expertly pulled up dead plants and fed them to our composters.  The students added nutrient-rich soil from last season’s composter to the garden beds as well as organic fertilizer.  The lesson in the garden was What Goes In Your Compost Pile…

WHAT’S IN!!!!! J

Greens (high in nitrogen):

Grass clippings, prunings, fruits and vegetables, houseplants, manure (e.g., cow, horse, pig, chicken or rabbit), kitchen scraps (e.g., stale bread, egg shells, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, citrus rinds, fruit and vegetable peels)

Browns (high in carbon):

Leaves, bark, straw, woodchips, sawdust, newspaper (shredded), brush (chopped), corn stalks

WHAT’S OUT!!!! L

Do not use:

Dog or cat feces, oil, grease, fat, wood ash, meat or fish scraps, dairy products, weed seeds, diseased plants

Thank you to our teachers and parent volunteers!

CSA - What's cooking?

The first CSA boxes have arrived! This week you will find in your box:  apples, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, okra, green beans, and potatoes.  Thank you Riverview Farms for the delicious organic produce!

How do you like to cook okra?  Here’s CSA okra, tomatoes and garlic, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted.

Check out Riverview Farms recipe box!

  Okra Recipe

Farm To Street

Healthy food rolls into the Fernbank Back-To School Picnic!  

Hundreds of people enjoyed everything from grass fed burgers to locally grown kale salad. The natural BGE beef hotdogs were a hit with the kids! Thank you to the hospitality committee for making this back to school picnic a health community event.

Fernbank/Riverview Farms CSA, sign up now!

Fernbank Elementary is partnering with Riverview Farms once again to bring you our third CSA season.  Now you can bring fresh organic produce into your home for your family to enjoy AND support Fernbank Farm to School!  Riverview Farms will donate $1 per CSA box to Fernbank Elementary.  Fernbank Farm to School PTA uses this money to fund Farm to School activities such as planting in the school garden and organizing school-wide produce tastings. 

 Session 1:  7 weeks @ $175

September 5^th to October 17

 Session 2:  8 weeks @$200

October 24 to December 12

 To sign up, and for pick-up location address, email Rosalie@eparchitects.com

 Checks for session 1 are due by Friday, August 17.

 

About Riverview Farms:

Riverview Farms is a certified organic family farm on 200 acres in the beautiful foothills of the Appalachians in Northwest Georgia. In the fertile bottomlands of the Coosawattee River west of Carter’s Lake, we gently cultivate certified organic vegetables. We also raise Berkshire pork, and grass-fed beef on certified organic pastures.
One of the oldest, and largest, certified organic farms in the state, our goal is to work with the environment to enliven the farm through the mutually supported functions of soil, grasses, and animals. With detailed attention to soil quality, animal husbandry, grass production, and crop diversity, our methods are good for the land, good for the animals, and good for people too.
www.grassfedcow.com

Fernbank Wins DeKalb County Farm to School Mini-Grant

Fernbank Elementary won a grant from DeKalb County and Georgia Organics this winter.  Here is how the funds were used:

MATH CLASS IN THE GARDEN

Third graders learned about square foot gardening and measured out the school garden beds in 12”x12” squares.

LETTUCE PLANTING

Classes of all grades planted 200 lettuce plugs in the school garden.  Students also tended to our composter and learned about organic fertilizer.

SCHOOL-WIDE GARDEN TASTING

Lettuce and strawberries were harvested from the school garden.  With some supplements from Whole Foods, parents prepared a school-wide lettuce and strawberry tasting.  700 students at Fernbank Elementary ate organic salad that they grew! 

Try this salad at home!  The kids loved it.

 Scrumptious Strawberry Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
-9 cups mixed greens
-1 cup fresh strawberries

Dressing
-4 TBS Canola Oil
-2 TBS Sugar
-3 TBS cider vinegar
-1 TBS Orange juice
-1/2 tsp ground mustard
-1/4 tsp salt

Fernbank Farm to School Spring CSA

This Spring we are going to once again offer a Fernbank CSA.  This time we have partnered with Oakleaf Mennonite Farm, who is excited to grow great veggies for us!  People had commented that they would like to see more diversity in the CSA box from week to week.  Oakleaf met with us, listened to our feedback, and is planting a nice diversity for Spring!

Cost: $25 per week (One dollar goes back to Fernbank Farm To School.) for 10 weeks = $250  (This also represents a discount from their $300 subscription fee.)

Session: May 4 - July 6 

New: Each week the boxes will include a loaf of Holeman & Finch bread! The farm is partnering with other local farms to bring us fruit in addition to the vegetables they are growing.  This CSA subscription should include strawberries, apples, blueberries, watermelon and peaches.

Planting: Fennel, Chard, Speckled Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Arugula, Butter Crunch Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Endive, Broccoli, Napa Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Turnips, Radishes, Kohlrabi, Garlic, Starwberries, Cilantro, Spinach    June - Carrots, Squash, Cucumbers 

Can you split a subscription? Yes, we will take two checks from you and a friend. However, we expect these boxes to have more variety and includes a loaf of amazing bread, which could be a little more challenging to split. 

E-mail your RSVP to beckyrhall@comcast.net

What is a CSA?

In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

What is Oakleaf Mennonite Farm?

An urban farm in East Atlanta, that is a ministry of the Berrea Mennonite Church.  They sell at East Atlanta Village Farmers Market, East Lake Farmers Market, and Peidmont Park Farmers Market.  The church is lead by a Fernbank dad, and the farmers used to be at Farmer D.  They installed our garden boxes and gave us a training session last year.  This year they are growing lettuce plugs for our late winter planting.  We hope this partnership is beneficial to both Oakleaf and Fernbank!

http://oakleafmennonitefarm.wordpress.com/

Science Fair Project: The Hygiene Hypothesis

The Hygiene Hypothesis suggests that kids that are not exposed to microbes during early childhood are more likely to get diseases because these kids have suppressed the natural development of their immune systems.  Do Organic food have more microbes on them than non-organic food?