16 Hudson Valley Parent
■
April 2015
better food in her daughter's school.
Before she knew it, the Hudson Valley
Farm to School initiative was born,
and her mission reached schools
throughout the region.
"By 2010, we started a small
program with chefs coming to the
school to do demos of healthy food,"
she says. "Initially, we had a very
small grant, but when teachers saw
how much the kids loved the demos,
everyone wanted them. And because
the program was small to begin with,
we learned very quickly. Now the
program is in every classroom, the
children learn about featured veg-
etables on an academic level — its
nutritional profile, the country it orig-
inates from — in addition to creating
dishes with it."
Students from the Culinary Institute
of America in Hyde Park visit Hal-
dane to help children make recipes
from locally grown vegetables, using
as many items pulled from the school
garden as possible.
The school cafeteria then recreates
the dish the chefs and students make
together and serve it in their school
lunch. McKelvey recruited Hudson
+ITT.WZ)
