Students Connect with Neighboring Farmers

Rhode Island’s Farm to School Project shared the benefits of buying RI grown with S.K. elementary students. Kimberly Sporkmann, project coordinator, first explained why children might care about keeping local agriculture going, citing history, economics, environment, and nutrition. Different farmers took the stage next at each school: Chris Faella, Faella Farm, Peace Dale; Sarah Partyka, Farmer’s Daughter, South Kingstown; Pete Rundlett, Moonstone Farms, Charlestown; or Jeff McGuire, South County Apiaries, Wakefield. To conclude: a locally grown apple for each child.

When the climate warmed 5,000 years ago, RI’s first people changed from nomadic hunter-gathering to village-based agriculture. By the mid-18th century, RI had developed an agricultural tradition, with livestock, flax, apples, and onions widely grown and traded. Today, RI’s 700 farms cover 10% of the state.

Agriculture plays an important role in RI’s economy, especially greenhouse and nursery products as well as milk, potatoes and fish. The fertility of land on Narragansett Bay means Washington County has the state’s largest agricultural sales. With a climate mild enough for farming almost year round, residents take advantage of buying locally grown foods, supporting RI farmers—their neighbors—in the process. Farms preserve the environment—and can make communities better places to live. Buying local preempts the need for shipping and packaging, and thus helps reduce pollution. And the health benefits of fresh nutritious foods, especially on school lunch trays, are invaluable, and those responsible, commendable.

Without bees, there would be no plants and no food. Beekeeper Jeff McGuire introduced bees as the only animal that makes food for humans. A student volunteer donned a white bee suit, with vest and jacket while Jeff shared tips for avoiding.

Honeybees, non-natives to the U.S., were brought by pilgrims to pollinate crops and other plants. Beekeepers still pollinate—without bees, grocery shelves would have many fewer fruits and vegetables, and many flowers would not set seed. But bees are disappearing. Jeff suggested students ask their parents to use less insecticide and fertilizer. And to leave dandelions—one of the first spring flowers, full of pollen and nectar—at the edges of their lawns, or to plant wildflowers. One bee creates only 1/8 of a teaspoon of honey; it takes many bees and 50,000 flowers to make one pound of honey.

A teeming hive stacked with honeycombs enlivened Jeff‘s presentation. Excitement rippled when one escaped, and noses sniffed the circulating honeycombs.

When asked to consider, “What can we do as a community to help bees thrive? And to help farmers continue to farm?” students responded:

• Do not step on a bee! — M. Robinson, Gr. 2 (Tyrrell)
  



• We can stop people from stepping and poisoning bee hives, because they do not know about it. We can not step on fruit and vegetables if you see them. — S. Hutchins, Gr. 2 (Tyrrell)
  



• Did you know that if you don’t like tomatoes and you like pizza, you’re eating tomatoes? We can help farmers by not throwing away food if we don’t want it. We are lucky that bees pollinate so we can have food. — A. Wilkinson, Gr. 3 (Heid)
  
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  What we can do as a community is to not pick dandelions. — C. DelMastro, Gr. 3 (Heid)




• If I saw a bee, I would not swing my hands all over the place. I would not even try to get some honey from its hive. — C. Farias, Gr. 3 (Fogarty)




• Don’t squish/step on bees — don’t pick too many wild flowers — don’t disturb a beehive — BE NICE TO BEES! — J. Lindstrom, Gr. 3 (Fogarty)
  
  
  
• Bees produce honey for us to eat and wax to make candles if the power goes out. Don’t kill bees! Bees feed us. — J. Wilson, Gr. 3 (Desmarais)

• We need bees. Without them, we would die. — L. Hogan, Gr. 3 (Desmarais)




• No stepping on bees!! Let the bees fly! I learned that without plants, we would starve and wouldn’t have clothes. — P. Boucher, Gr. 3 (Masson)




• To help bees we can’t step on them the next time we see them. Or by leaving dandelions alone or other wildflowers like purple ones or blue flowers you didn’t plant. — R. Doyle, Gr. 3 (Fogarty)




• Bees help farmers. They help plants grow and since they produce food, they help keep people alive. — S. Glickman, Gr. 3 (Desmarais)




• Help bees produce honey by not killing dandelions. — T. Burnap, Gr. 3 (Masson)




• To help the bees we could not wave your hands around. So they will not get mad because then they will sting you and die! — C. Fredette, Gr. 4 (Behr)




• To help bees I would stop spraying the grass and bees’ homes. We need bees to help farms. Without bees we would not have clothes. Bees should be our friends. — K. Foster, Gr. 4 (Tuoni)
  



• We can stop stepping on bees, we can not use cell phones a lot, and we can stop using pesticide! — J. Hannafin, Gr. 5 (Pacheco)
  



• What should we do to help bees? We could not go into their habitat and maybe take their honey. We could also not use bad pesticides, and leave them to their lives. — J. Hagopian, Gr. 5 (DeFeo)
  
  
  
• We can save dandelions for the bees. Not use bad things. Farming: we can eat foods that come from our state. — E. McCool-Guglielmo, Gr. 5 (Pacheco)

The Rhode Island Farm to School Project encourages all RI school districts to buy locally grown foods to serve in school meals. It results from a collaboration between RI’s departments of Environmental Management, Health, and Education; and Farm Fresh RI, RI Farm Bureau, Southside Community Land Trust, RI public and independent schools, and RI’s farmers. Visit www.kidsfirstri.org to learn more.

Developing environmental literacy and awareness is a primary objective of South Kingstown elementary schools’ Community Learning Project. Community leaders have developed students’ “sense of place” so far this year through interactive presentations on local natural resources—parks and open spaces, watersheds, marine and wildlife, aquaculture, and agriculture. Sustainability has been featured throughout, emphasizing what the students themselves can do to help.