Archives for 2016

Last week, the Sacramento City Unified School District unanimously approved local nonprofit Food Literacy Center to serve as program manager of the Leataata Floyd Farms Project, a 2.5-acre urban farm on the Leataata Floyd Elementary School campus in the Northwest Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento. The landmark plan includes establishing a “Broccoli Headquarters” for Food Literacy Center, an organization dedicated to educating the youth of Sacramento on the importance of healthy cooking and eating.
The SacFoodies have had the pleasure of working on behalf of Food Literacy Center and recently had a chance to check out the open space that will house the Leataata Floyd Farms Project. As you can see from the initial rendering of the space, the foodie future is looking bright! Here’s more on the exciting news:
The new location will allow Food Literacy Center to expand upon its mission to inspire kids to eat their vegetables and improve the health of the community. For the first time ever Food Literacy Center will serve high school students in addition to elementary school students and daytime education will be added to the curriculum.
Food Literacy Center will continue to operate—and expand—its current successful programming. The approval enables Food Literacy Center to serve an additional 800 students per year in the Sacramento City Unified School District, doubling their reach from the 800 students in the eight schools they now serve to 1,600 students in 16 schools in the first year. They anticipate continued school growth year to year.
In addition to the students of the Sacramento Unified School District, the greater Sacramento community and region will also have access to the new facility and its resources through food literacy programming such as cooking classes and garden education.
The new site will include indoor teaching kitchens and a production agriculture parcel with the goal of providing food for the elementary school cafeteria. Students will receive food literacy curriculum including hands-on, inquiry-based classes that are tied to academic standards, including cooking and nutrition classes such as the chemistry of cooking, history/culture through cuisine and food science. Additionally, the students will receive garden/farm curriculum including hands-on classes to learn the parts of a plant, the science of growing food, composting and insect biology. The garden and farm will include drought-tolerant and native edible plants and will be organic.
The organization is actively seeking additional donations from the community to help pay for necessary programming and equipment. To donate, visit www.foodliteracy.org.