Reflections from FoodCorps Member Kat

Written by Kat Rains, our 2024 FoodCorps Service Member

As the FoodCorps service member at TEC, I have spent this past school year building on the past service member, Adrienne’s work at Lynch Elementary in Redmond. My days were mostly filled with prepping and teaching food lessons in classrooms, and (as the weather permitted), tending to the school’s garden and planting and growing with students. When I wasn’t teaching or in the garden I was in the cafeteria chopping and prepping fruits and vegetables. Through the school district’s FFVP (Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program) Lynch students tried almost 130 different produce items this school year. This meant we tried everything from asparagus, radicchio and local carrots, to edible flowers and dragon fruit this year.

My favorite parts were the bits of school that weren’t necessarily in the classroom though, like holding a garden club afterschool in the fall and spring and getting to welcome students into our garden and grow together. Facilitating moments like the ‘Spring Fling’, the family engagement garden event that welcomed families and community to the garden after school to share a meal and walk through garden-based stations together. Leading farm field trips for 4th, 5th and 2nd graders to Seed to Table farm in Sisters, and most meaningfully, connecting and learning with The Environmental Center staff, school staff, and students.

Returning in a month for another year of service is so exciting for me to think about the garden growth I’ll return to, the relationships I get to build upon, and the teaching and learning to be done.