Now, in the third year of receiving the grant, the program has turned into much more than locally provided lunches for students.

Forestville was able to receive the funding during that 2017 year thanks to a partnership with Pine Valley Central School, as the two schools together made themselves more desirable for the reception of the grant. The program initially started as a way to connect the produce farmers provide with the local students in the school district, though the first year of spending was spent renovating equipment.

“The cafeteria equipment at Forestville was failing, and we had to be able to provide sustainability,” said Forestville Superintendent Renee Garrett. “We were spending three to six thousand dollars fixing equipment so that first year was all about the equipment. We started the second year focusing on produce, and now in the third year, we’re focused on animal products.”

As Forestville has grown in the grant program, they have been able to do more with it; the grant itself was a logical connection for the school and community to make in the first place, according to Garrett.

“It seemed like a real, natural connection,” Garrett said. “Being in the rural area like we are and having all these farmers in our reach.”

But the program took an additional step when Nick Weith joined the Forestville staff in November 2019. Weith, the cafeteria manager at Forestville Central School, and the Farm to School manager for Forestville with a background in both business and culinary arts. Weith has been instrumental in the success of the program at Forestville, expanding it to be more than just the food.

“We’ve been doing taste testing with different foods and the kids are asking for more,” Garrett said. “He even tries things like tofu and some of the things requested are by student demand, we actually had students ask for and request food.”

What Weith does is bring food and dishes into the classroom to also use as educational material for the students, who are generally very receptive to it, further emphasizing the student connection to the food and where it comes from.

“There’s a real connection between the food students are eating and where it’s coming from,” Garrett said. “That’s really something we’re emphasizing. Instead of just serving roasted squash, Nick will take real squash and show the kids what it looked like before.”

The educational aspect was partially derailed due to the pandemic, which also prevented the teachers at Forestville from seeing its full benefit, though now that in person instruction is returning to Forestville, so is the educational aspect of the Farm to School initiative.

“When the pandemic happened it became hard to do Farm to School lessons because everyone was already learning an entirely new style of teaching,” Weith said. “But two weeks ago I went into a third grade classroom and they had just done a seed lesson. I came in and we tried all these foods they learned about and made homemade salsa and muffins. So really they’re getting a full comprehensive education while also trying all of these foods.”

Across all grade levels, school lunches have changed at Forestville, and the changes have been a net positive all around, as the school has continued to build on each previous year’s work within the Farm to School program. And the feedback has reflected how good the program has become, and not just from the students.

“It’s been great, most of the time,” Weight said. “We’re having kids try new foods, which is a challenge for any age, but every time we serve something we get feedback. Students have noticed higher quality ingredients, the community has noticed, and teachers have noticed as we’re starting to move into classroom education. Teachers are buying lunches more and cafeteria staff said this is the most teachers ever bought meals here.”

As for where the program can head, Weith said there is still more to do as education returns to the conventional classroom, with the focus on the “Three Cs” of Farm to School.

“The way the New York and national model work, it’s based around cafeteria, community, and classroom,” Weith said. “Based on my background and the way we’ve taken the grants, I wouldn’t say we’ve mastered it yet, but we’re getting close to solid with the cafeteria aspect. With what we’ve built with our community partnerships, our teachers can now see the source of education that the cafeteria and food is.”

As Forestville continues to move forward with the Farm to School program, this year they’ve looked to bring in more animal products, like cheese, beef, and pork, and serve this food both in the cafeteria and as part of the meals the school sends home.