school it's our major fundraiser for the year we source food for the cafeteria so the more money we make today the more local food we can buy to serve to kids at the elementary school and what are some of the local specialties that are on the menu so what do we and then we have lots of local farmers selling their produce here too and how many years has this gone on before is just the first one this is our third so we had last year at monitor barns and then the year before was up at the elementary school and how important of a fundraiser is this it's huge for us we are solely funded by fundraising efforts so all volunteer and everything that we get into the school in terms of nutrition and farm education lessons in the classroom and field trips and  food in the cafeterias all funded by vents like this so it's very important and he tell us a little bit we're going to go around and see all the rest of things and what are some of the fine events and you have set up today sure so we have a combination we have a bunch of farmers and local producers and then we also have seed art and make your own tea satch it since we have make your own popcorn mixes and grinding corn and grinding wheat and sifting we making corn cakes right behind us johnny cakes so lots of things for kids to do and lots of things for grownups to buy and just curious what are some of the needs of a school that people may not know about what are some of the big projects that you have coming out great question so we're always in need of  volunteers we have a lot of activities that we want to do we do monthly taste tests in the cafeteria so we can always use volunteers for that field trips we're trying more and more to integrate into the curriculum so being involved in barn we've got a great event space here and so big open space in this late in the year it's really nice to have somewhat of a warm space and big space for all the vendors to be in and percentage of all the vendor all the vendor take goes towards the richmond elementary farmer school program so it's a great benefit for them have my name is beth whiting and i'm from maple wind farm in one vermont now we also have a farm in richmond from right down the road from where i'm standing at the monitor barn we have been in business for oh fourteen years raising beef lamb poor culturally and i met this wonderful harvest festival celebrating local food and getting food into the into the school systems we have sold to the richmond elementary school we sell currently also to the huntington public and we just love the connection that the kids know where their food coming from so it looks like a great festival to me so far so good and we also have some live turkeys outside for people to see getting ready for the thanksgiving season perry and i'm here to represent the four winds program it's a nature education program at richmond elementary school and the tell there around the state we go in the classroom once a month with a different curriculum to teach children about the natural world and it brings the children outside so they can play and learn about nature and oftentimes the children bring all the information home in our corn meal today we have from but it works or westfield's and the kids are taking the corn kernels and they're using the steps that we borrowed from the shelbourne farms and pounding it and they're coming back here and we're adding it to corn meal mix kinds of g m that is also being sold by a g m vendor across the way here from a wheat field marsh hollow g m say can you tell us a little bit about the food you have here today oh our food is all local and a lot of it is made by our and our chili is made from jericho cellars beef and there another one of our farm partners all of the veggies we had a whole kitchen full of volunteers come in and help cook our cornbread is even using nitty gritty grains grains on the rise bread and we have also gardeners pie and chicken pot pie and those are two recipes that i'm part of a group of school exactly sure this whole year where we just started the process and will be testing through spring of next year so can you explain a little bit about what exactly farm to table is because people may not know what it means farm to table farm to  cafeteria and farm school they're all terms for getting the local food from local farms into local institutions whether it be hospitals or schools or any of those those things elderly homes even it's a means of getting the munity involved and just it's kind of to me it's going back to our roots and eating locally and eating seasonally and making the most of what we have in our own communities and teaching our children about how food is grown and how food affects our economy as well as their bodies making healthy choices and making the best choices for their tables at home that they can and how many years this is gone on enrichment will i started this when i started cooking at the school five years ago so right off the bat we had a couple of moms who came to me and said here's a farm school grant can we apply for this grant for you and i said sure didn't know a lot about pharma school then but that started the ball rolling and it's where just a really booming cutting edge  i think we've got one of the most active ones in the state how many are there in this state oh my gosh i couldn't even tell you it's really hermanas on the leading edge nationally a farm to school and schools all over the sta are starting programs there's a lot of start up and there's a lot of really excellent programs in the northeast kingdom in burlington all over is just blossoming in five years can you tell the difference like in terms of the kids health you know maybe behavior i mean can you really just is it something so obvious the benefits of it we can tell in the cafeteria by the choices they make we have an all you can a farmer's market salad bar featuring lots of local veggies and seasonal veggies and to watch children recognize the veggies oftentimes they ask me what farm did this come from because they know things are local we can tell certain children have hot lunch when they've read parents have read the menu and they see that it's jericho sellers me or it's misty you know me and they know where things come from so that increases our participation in let me ask you a little bit about kids in the kitchen can you say a few words about what the kids like to do what their involvement is kids just love being in the kitchen they love cooking they love using tools so apple peelers apple  they love mixing they love making pesto and being able to use a food processor with supervision seeing things were all around when they get in the kitchen and they are part of making the food the schools course that summer type thing but when you have abundance available and you get the kids in the kitchen making pesto and then you sample taste test it on pizza they're sold and they just look forward to every friday having pesto pizza same thing with salsa and other tomato things it's all a matter of getting them in the kitchen so they know where it came from they know of the farmers they know how it's processed and they know  how it's made they can taste test it in a safe environment no they don't have to eat a whole plate full of it they can just take a little bite and we do a lot of taste testing and that's kind of the basis of getting farm to school farm to cafeteria anywhere going it's just starting with one or two items and taste testing with the kids and getting them involved in cooking ok somebody tell me what's going on here with the sign home not many people like the gardener po and by a lot of people like chicken so we're doing this is what we do in the cafeteria at school and the kids when we try a new sample of something to see whether they want it on the menu we run a taste test so they vote whether they liked it whether they weren't sure or whether they didn't like it so today we're doing that with grownups the parents to show them what we do in the cafeteria and more taste testing chicken pot pie and gardeners high a vegetarian popeye and so just like m said this is where they're voting that they like the chicken pot pie and they like the gardeners pot pie and some ones that sure and that's ok because sometimes it takes more than once to try try a new meal before you know if you like it or not my do like right my name is tony naples and i'm a commercial fisherman from vermont and i spend part of the year in alaska commercial fishing for salmon and cod and i bring it back here and sell it and yeah it's all it's all fresh rosen and i started at the matter food hub over in waitsfield and they've asked me to come here and sell some fish here today at the monitor barn so i'm working on selling some of the fish and getting fish for the richmond elementary school so hopefully we'll have that going on this winter and getting kids some some good seafood so looking forward to that