Last week ASPI set up a table at the Farm to School event at Jackson County High School. The event brought in students from surrounding elementary and middle schools. Various organizations had tables set up at the event such as the extension office, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, local farmers, and more. The high school agriculture students had livestock and a table set up with jam that they had made.

The students visited all of the tables where they learned something about local agriculture. At ASPI’s table, I told them a little about what ASPI does and more specifically the Grow Appalachia program. As a fun activity, I held up different vegetables and a couple of plants from our garden for the kids to identify. Some of them were easy, like tomatoes and green beans, but there were more difficult ones such as okra and Brussels sprouts. No one correctly identified Swiss chard. One of the goals for the activity was for the students to have a better sense of where their food comes from. Some of them didn’t know that carrots were roots and grew underground. The kids had fun with it and then at the end they each got to take home a packet of lettuce seeds so that they could try to grow their own food.