School staff attend Florida Farm to School conference in Orlando
By LINDA ANN McDONALD
Correspondent
Wakulla County School staff attended the 2025 Florida Farm to School Conference in Orlando. The event, organized by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and was attended by Food Services staff Marina Mudryy, Kathleen Newton, Robin Ryder and Wakulla County School educators Kimberly Bartnick and Shelly Parks.
Bartnick and Parks are both teachers at Crawfordville Elementary who currently have a garden at the school which was planted 12 years ago.
“This year, we wanted to involve the teachers – we had a blast!” said Marina Mudryy, General Manager for Sodexo who works with Wakulla County School Food Program.
Classroom Education was delivered to conference attendees in a wide variety of interesting breakout sessions covering topics such as meal planning, strategic approaches to school gardens, understanding Florida food forests, reducing student food waste, agroecology, grant writing, procurement and maximizing farm profits.
Engaging Hands on Activities for K-12, Food Safety on the Farm, Boosting Flavors-Transforming School Meals and Community Partners Can Strengthen School Garden Programs classroom breakout sessions were offered as well.
The Conference also offered the opportunities to physically visit working farms in Central Florida such as 4Roots and Southern Hill Farms.
4ROOTS Farm offers state-of-the-art greenhouse, equipped with nine different innovative growing systems, including an aquaponics system designed to mimic nature. Attendees wandered through a food forest, comprised of over 100 diverse edible plant varieties, where the 4Roots team demonstrated permaculture principles that maximize soil and ecosystem health.
Southern Hill Farms is a 120-acre family-owned and operated agritourism farm growing u-pick blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, peaches, seasonal vegetables, sunflowers and zinnias.
What is Farm to School?
Florida’s Farm to School initiative works to increase Florida commodities served in schools, offer healthier meal options for Florida’s children, and get students involved with nutrition and agriculture education through school garden activities.
- F2S strengthens local food systems in Florida by expanding access between schools, farms, and communities. Through local procurement efforts, capacity building, resource development, technical assistance, and training, Florida Farm to School fosters positive economic relationships between food producers and schools.
- F2S provides all kids access to nutritious, high-quality, local food so they are ready to learn and grow. Farm to School activities enhance classroom education through hands-on learning related to food, health, agriculture, and nutrition.
- F2S can serve as a significant financial opportunity for farmers, fishers, ranchers, food processors, and food manufacturers by opening the doors to an institutional market worth billions of dollars.
- F2S benefits everyone from students, teachers and administrators to parents and farmers, providing opportunities to build family and community engagement. Buying from local producers and processors creates new jobs and strengthens the local economy.
The event ended with a Cooking Demo hosted by Chef Jorge Sanchez of DACS who prepared Elote Street Bowls and Strawberry Parfaits. Sanchez was a guest judge at the Sodexo Culinary Cookoff at Wakulla High School last month.
The food program staff and educators are on fire after attending the conference. Future plans for the team are to get involved with both the Wakulla High School’s agriculture and culinary classes to partner with the elementary school children to work a garden and prepare food. “We want to start from seed, grow, harvest and try it in the classroom. Then later, see it in the cafeteria- we want it to make a full circle.”, said Mudryy. “We want them to see it, touch it, taste it , grow it and eat healthy.”
To promote gardening for both education and food product, the food program staff are interested in purchasing a hydroponic tower. The tower is high tech with wifi and apps and you can grow up to 30 pounds of lettuce in one month. The tower is also used for seedlings for tomato plants, and others. The staff is seeking sponsorship from local partners.
Mudryy explained, “Hydroponics is cleaner, it grows faster and has the same nutrients, it is just not grown in the dirt.”
The staff also purchased locally grown lettuce from Traders Hill Farm in Hilliard for all students in all schools. Traders Hill Farm is one of the best aquaponics farms in Florida.
Mudryy added, “If we have no farmers, we have no food. We want to start a garden club, Farm to School Club about events, seasonal gardening, forecast plants and climate, and food waste.”
To promote less food waste, Shadeville Elementary School acquired a little refrigerator for the “Share Table” where students who do not eat anything in their lunch can put it in the reimbursable “share table” for another student to enjoy.
Marina Mudryy said, “My team rocks every day, taking care of the students and their nutrition. They are my backbone and feet on the ground. Everything they do is for the kids; they are passionate about their work and I want to say thank you for their hard work.”
“We want to see a new generation get farming!”
