| Summertime means being in the garden, and that’s exactly what is happening at Gaston County Schools’ Dora Humphrey School Nutrition Center in Lowell. An area that once served as a ball field and playground is now an expansive vegetable and herb garden that yields hundreds of pounds of produce. Best of all, the locally-grown food is making its way to Gaston County school cafeterias. The farm-to-school program started two years ago with the help of the Gaston County Cooperative Extension Service’s master gardeners. It has grown since then; veggies such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and a variety of herbs are harvested each week by the bucket loads. The food is prepped, bagged, and frozen for use in dishes that students will enjoy when they return to school. Some of the food has been used over the past two months in the school district’s summer meals program. |
