Farm to School & Healthy Meals Incentives Grant 

This summer, Genesee Valley Central School (GVCS) served up plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and scratch-made snacks for the Fun in the Jungle Summer Camp kids. The six-week program allowed kids in the community in grades K-6 to attend. 

Initially, the Fun in the Jungle Summer Program was lacking funding for an afternoon snack. As the program ran Monday through Friday from 8:00-3:00 pm, an afternoon snack was a major component for filling in the hunger gap after lunch. With GVCS being a recipient of a Healthy Meals Incentives (HMI) Grant, Alyssa Dean, HMI Program Coordinator and Cornell Cooperative Extension Allegany County Farm to School Coordinator/Ag in the Classroom Educator, saw an opportunity to fuel kids with fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as expose them to various kinds of nutritious snacks throughout the summer. 

After reaching out to Fun in the Jungle Program Director, Donna Slawson, they were able to coordinate a snack program that aligned with the goals and objectives of the HMI Grant and Farm to School values by serving healthy snacks made from scratch and procuring a variety of local food.

A variety of fruits and vegetables were used each week. Some of the items that were served include veggie stick cups using cucumber, carrots and broccoli with hummus made from scratch, blueberry frozen yogurt using all local ingredients, fresh peaches and homemade whipped cream, as well as summer fruit cups, parfaits, fresh garden vegetables with ranch dip, and more.

They were also able foster positive food connections by offering hands-on learning culinary activities for the kids as they helped make applesauce, build their own rainbow fruit kabobs, create “Ants on a Log”, as well as make their own vanilla ice cream with fresh fruit toppings! The kids helped distribute the snacks to their peers and were very willing to get involved if they weren’t trying to get seconds!

Other successes of the snack program were that there was very little food waste although they were serving fresh produce and they were able to support various local farms (NY farms) having procured apples from Niagara, blueberries from Child’s Blueberries, cucumbers from a farm in Angelica, NY, yogurt and heavy cream from Upstate Farms, and peaches from a farm in Burt, NY. 

GVCS is a Healthy Meals Incentives Grantee funded by Action for Healthy Kids and the United States Department of Agriculture in partnership with RMC Health and Chef Ann Foundation.