National Farm to School Month

Published: 2019
By Jennifer Fosjord

To coincide with some of my outreach efforts throughout Musselshell-Golden Valley Counties, I took advantage of the month of October to promote National Farm to School. Prior to visiting each school in my counties, I requested ground beef to be included on the lunch menu for the specific day of the visit. This was used to expand on My Plate and the protein portion of the lunch that day. The beef supply chain was discussed, as well, to have students thinking about how the ground beef ended up on their lunch tray. I recreated a ruminant digestion activity which I had done during my extension internship in Park County. This activity goes over the purpose and function of the ruminant digestive system. In addition to the interactive poster, students were to imagine what each compartment of the ruminant stomach would feel like as we discussed the “job” of each one. Certain items were placed in aluminum cake pans for each part of the stomach and students were to feel & guess each one. For example, the reticulum pan contained frozen waffles with oatmeal and a bit of water. To evaluate the learning outcomes, students were asked to take Benny the Blade of Grass through the digestive system in the correct order & answer various questions about the ruminant digestive system.