FRESH Presents Farm to School Week

With+the+new+FCPS1+initiative+through+FRESH%2C+students+had+the+option+to+pick+up+fresh+fruits+in+the+cafeteria.

Drew Kolb

With the new FCPS1 initiative through FRESH, students had the option to pick up fresh fruits in the cafeteria.

Celebrating Farm to School Week, FHS welcomed the FRESH program and Jesse Straight, local farmer of Whiffle Tree farm. Straight brought in fresh chicken from his farm to bring more local foods to FHS. “It’s good for the famers, it’s good for the land, it’s good for the animals, it’s good for the eaters, and I also think it’s good for our community because with us doing this farming we are preserving this beautiful farm land that we all get to enjoy,” said Straight.
Straight believes that it is important for high school students to be informed about where their food is coming from. He says “to be ignorant of how food is produced” is unfortunate and should be rectified. It is important and useful to know where your food is coming from.  “For someone who is in a very formative stage in life, it’s really beneficial to begin to think about these things as early as possible…because I think it has large implications on your health and for the health of the world you are going to inherit and for what type of society we become,” said Straight.
According to the Food Literacy and Engagement poll experiment performed by Alliance for Science, a program affiliated with the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University, “Much of the U.S. public remains disengaged or misinformed about food.”
Straight’s goal is to provide students with both sustainable and clean food. “How we treat our animals and how we treat our land will have a direct relationship to what kind of society we live in. If we’re willing to be cruel to animals, if we’re willing to poison our land, then we’re going to do that kind of exploitation and destruction in all areas of our society,” said Straight.