Salamanca Gets Growing

In spring 2023, Salamanca City CSD launched an ambitious farm-to-school program. A dedicated committee, comprised of teachers, administrators, school board members, community partners, and CHSC school coordinators, spearheaded this initiative. The committee kicked off their efforts by attending the Northeast Farm to School Institute’s summer event in June, where they participated in professional development and coaching sessions, culminating in the writing of an action plan for the 2023-2024 school year.

A key component of the program is the "Harvest of the Month" calendar. This introduces a different locally-sourced item each month to students. The item is featured in school lunches and on social media. As new menu items are introduced, the cafeteria team conducts taste tests and gets student feedback.

A second component is community engagement. This is achieved through cooking demonstrations hosted at the school. This year dishes prepared included chicken pasta, venison meatballs, and bison chili. Participants then received items to recreate the meal at home. This year there have been a total of three demonstrations and six food box giveaways through NY Food 4 NY Families.

Salamanca CSD is also striving to incorporate indigenous foods and culture into the farm-to-school programming. Partnerships have been established with Gakwi:yo Farms, the Seneca Nation farm, and the Native American Curriculum Team (NACT). Through these, indigenous foods, such as Bison Chili, Three Sister’s Salad, and Corn Mush with Maple Syrup, are now part of the regular lunch menu. The bison and produce are sourced from Gakwi:yo Farms, and the maple syrup is tapped and boiled on-site in collaboration with NACT during the spring. The cafeteria has been rebranded with signage in the Seneca language.

Salamanca continues to add to and innovate their farm-to-school programming. They have installed hydroponics for growing strawberries and tomatoes and each school in the district has outdoor gardens growing edible plants.

In the fall, they will be partnering with Trout in the School Program to integrate aquaponics. The inclusion of this program will help to expand their current Fish and Wildlife curriculum tract for students.

The work and progress that the Salamanca farm to school team has accomplished this year has been amazing!