A group of eight people from Whidbey Island piled into their cars at the crack of dawn to catch the 7:35 a.m. ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island on Oct. 28 to meet with Kyle Freeman, Madie Murray, Mandy Randolph, Kathy Page and Barbara Kline to learn about our Farm to Cafeteria Program.

The Whidbey group was lead by Cary Peterson who coordinates the Good Cheer Food Bank Garden and is helping the South Whidbey School District launch a School Garden to Cafeteria program.

They arrived at the school at 9 a.m., took a tour of the expanded school garden, then convened in the Home Ec room (which will be the new cafeteria kitchen area when rebuilt) to talk with our group about all of the facets of the Orcas Island F2C Program, including the implementation of all scratch-cooked meals, the integration of our Farm to Classroom classes for grades K-8 and the positive effect all of that has had on our students and the community.

We all then adjourned to enjoy a delicious lunch consisting of salmon burgers with home-made dill sauce, coleslaw, fresh salad, fresh baked potato fries and Orcas apple sauce in the school cafeteria.

“Everything we learned was really inspiring for all of us, especially how important the garden and food curriculum is,” Cary said in her thank you email. “We were also impressed by the kitchen staff and lunch. You are a model that we will be using to help us launch our program.”

The Orcas Island Farm to Cafeteria Program has been visited several times by people interested in either developing or expanding their farm to school programs – the most recent being a group from Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, Calif. in August of this year.

Our program would not exist without the support and funding from our community!

Help us reach our “Edible Eats and Education” goal at http://igg.me/at/edible-eats-and-education/x/4414053