Sutton District High School, Sutton, ON
2017-2018 (Year 2)
Our School is Sutton District High School. We can be found in a small rural town called Sutton which is located near the southern shore of Lake Simcoe in Georgina. We have 455 students enrolled at the school, of which 375 are enrolled in day school classes in grades 9-12. Many of our students are from smaller outlying communities. Some are raised in agricultural settings. 80% of our students are bussed to school. Many of our students choose pathways that lead to the workplace, apprenticeships and colleges. A small percentage of our students move on to studies at the University level. We offer a full range of extracurricular teams competing in the York Region Athletic Association as well as clubs and activities.
Through our involvement with the farm to school initiative and grant, we have maximized our ability to offer fresh ingredients on a daily basis to students wishing a salad based alternative for lunch. Our salad bar is busy every day, now serving 30+ salads per day. It serves to provide natural nutritious food to our students and staff and is a major profit center for our school programs as well.
Our hospitality teacher, Mr. Christoforou is a champion of the farm to school initiative. His goal of providing fresh natural produce that is locally grown and sourced balances with his goal of providing revenue for our school based programs. He constantly searches for local sources of produce that give the best value while satisfying the demand for ingredients at our salad bar.
Our grant has helped us to preserve fresh produce so that we can keep a supply on hand and use that produce when required at the Salad Bar. We are able to offer a steady menu of ingredients even when produce is off season, through preservation and management of our supplies. The biggest challenge that we face when considering locally grown produce is finding or maintaining a consistent supply of ingredients. Our grant has helped us to establish a level of security in our supply and helped us provide regular fresh, nutritious lunch choices for our students.
2016-2017 (Year 1)
Sutton District High School – Farm to School Report
Sutton District High School is a rural school located on the southern shores of Lake Simcoe in Central Ontario. We have a student population of approx. 500 students who largely travel to school each day by bus. The community is surrounded by large agricultural plots but we are within an hour of Toronto, so some families commute.
Our cafeteria is one of only two cafeteria’s in our school board run by school staff and students. We prepare all of the meals served in the cafe each day under the direction of our Food Services teacher. The café serves 250 students and staff each day, while students may choose from other options including bringing their own lunch, or buying lunch from a restaurant in town.
Among the offerings for students and staff each day is a fresh sub and salad bar. We serve 40 salads per day in small and large sizes. Clients can choose the type of lettuce they which to eat and then add toppings including protein, onions, feta, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, green pepper. Clients can then dress their salad with an assortment of dressings. Through this program, we serve 8000 salads per school year.
Sutton DHS has made great strides to increase the amount of local produce served in our salad bar by utilizing better practices and space allocation in our Greenhouse. Many students are involved with this production with an overall goal of providing a significant percentage of the produce requirements in our popular Salad Bar. The Greenhouse provides the Salad Bar with tomatoes, lettuce, radishes and carrots. Although we are not producing enough produce at this time to 100% replace store bought ingredients, we are making progress towards that goal. Funding from our F2S grant will help us to achieve our goals for food production, and stability in our supply so that we have local produce on hand throughout the school year to make the menu items offered at our school. Tomato production and preservation are key elements to our plan, and will be positively impacted by an increase in available funds.
We look forward to seeing an increase in production of our school grown produce. Growing produce yourself is the ultimate expression of locally grown food, and will be an added feature to our school’s foods program.
