Summer Salad Bars at the Farmers’ Market in New Denver BC
Salad bars…in the summer?! Yes please!
Inspired by the Farm to School (F2S) salad bar, the Healthy Community Society of the North Slocan Valley (HCS) created a healthy and innovative pilot project this summer. Read about how one BC Farm to School program spurred a community partnership to become integrated into their local Farmer’s Market.
In partnership with F2S: Canada Digs In! grantee, Lucerne Elementary-Secondary School (kindergarten to grade 12), and in collaboration with New Denver and Area Youth Network, the HCS made it possible to install eight pop-up salad bars at the weekly Farmers’ Market in New Denver.
What an innovative way to raise the profile of the good work happening in schools and keep the salad bar momentum going all summer! – Tara Stark, Public Health Dietitian with Interior Health
For $5, the visitors of the market could purchase a healthy and fresh salad grown by local farmers. Eight students of Lucerne School, aged 12 to 16, rotated through the food preparation and serving shifts before and during the markets. These youth are also part of the group of students who regularly prepare lunch at Lucerne throughout the school year, so the project provided an opportunity to continue their salad bar involvement all summer long. Funds for the students wages were provided by the Youth Network, in alignment with its mandate of supporting work experience and skill building activities for youth.
In her dual coordination position with the Lucerne School Lunch Program and New Denver Youth Network, Paula Shandro saw this pilot project as a way to showcase the School Lunch Program to the broader community, while providing work experience to youth for the summer. “The community loves it [salad bars], and the youth really love creating beautiful salads and receiving the delight of the customers”, said Shandro.
Other key ingredients for the perfect summer market pop-up salad bar?
- A portable, stainless steel salad cart on wheels to be set up anywhere
- A board to list all the farmers providing produce for the salad bar
- Picnic tables provided by New Denver Community Market Society
