On Wednesday August 26th Owensboro Health announced the grant recipients for their 2015-16 Community Benefit grant cycle. A total of $702,924 was awarded to 38 regional organizations in the form of mini-grants to address specific community health needs. Union County Public Schools was awarded the third largest grant, $29,362.00 for the “School Garden’s vs. Student BMI” grant proposal.
Obesity, now considered a national epidemic, was also listed as a top concern for Union County residents according to a Community Health Assessment conducted by GRADD and the Union County Health Coalition. With this fact in mind the Union County Public School’s Food Service Department partnered with the local Health Coalition, the UK Extension Office and the Union County Garden Coalition to develop a long range plan to address obesity.
Everyone agreed that focusing on the youth of Union County would have the desired long range effects needed to combat obesity. The team also felt that by focusing on education, insuring students have an active role in project and providing access to fresh local produce in the cafeteria each day, the project could reach the greatest number of people and have the greatest impact.
The project’s goal as listed on the grant application is to reduce overall student sample BMI through implementation of USDA Science Based “My Plate”, “Great Garden Detective”, and “Dig In!” curriculums, accompanied with development of school gardens and use of school garden produce in the school's food service program. Projected number of students served = 1,155.
In an effort to create a sustainable project, Union County Food Service will purchase food grown in the school gardens and serve the food in the cafeterias. This will put money back into the garden program to sustain it. We will supplement with produce from area farmers within a 50 - 100 mile radius. We will use organic practices in our school gardens.
The vast majority of the grant funding will go toward the salary of a school garden coordinator who will not only take care of the gardens in the summer but will coordinate the many gardening resources already available to the school through UK Extension, the Garden Coalition, the school’s FFA department, the USDA, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, local government and local businesses.
The ideal candidate would possess a chef or culinary background or training in dietetics to help insure produce is utilized appropriately in taste testing and school kitchen settings. The coordinator would also assume all administrative responsibilities for the program including creating purchase orders for all materials procured, tracking of the grant data, creating USDA compliant recipes and menus for produced grown in the school gardens and will attend Good Agricultural Practices, GAP training, ServeSafe training and other produce and or local procurement training through the Kentucky School Nutrition Association.
In the near future the school will post a complete overview of the program and a posting of the School Garden Coordinator position on their website. Please visit http://www.union.kyschools.us/ for more details.
For additional information please contact: Union County Schools, Attention: Shane Bosaw, Director of Food Services, 510 South Mart Street, Morganfield KY 42437 (270) 389-1694 or [email protected]
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.”