Taste-Test Proposal Project for Students in High School

Lesson 1 Title: Food systems over time – Feeding people throughout history

Objective: Students will begin to explore the method of interdisciplinary thinking through the

concept map activity and have an initial baseline idea of how different topic areas are related to

their hydroponics system. Students will be able to explain what a food system is and what factors

and people are involved. They will also be able to map out changes in agriculture and food

systems over the course of history and pick various human health and environmental impacts that

were present if different food systems over time.

Topics: History, Agriculture

Grade Level: 9th-12th Grade

Time: 84 minutes

External Materials Needed: chalkboard/wipe board, projector, computer, writing utensils, large

sheets of paper

Teaching Tips:

Apart from meeting the lesson objectives, this lesson aims to introduce students to the

complexity of food systems and how as the world changes and develops, so do our food systems.

It is important for the students to begin with this background knowledge of food systems because

it sets up a platform for their project – as technology continues to advances and our population

continues to grow, new methods of agriculture may need to be explored to feed over 7 billion

people while protecting the integrity of our environment.

The introduction should be brief as it is simply introducing the overall project to the students.

The concept mapping activity is necessary for teachers interested in tracking students’ abilities to

think in an interdisciplinary manner. This activity is correlated with the final presentation at the

end of the series. Teachers who are only interested in teaching about food systems, and are not

interested in doing the project proposal portion, will not need to include this activity. If short on

time, the discussion questions included in this activity can be cut down to #1, #2, and #4. The

following lecture/discussion on food systems can be shortened by omitting the discussion about

relationships between culture and food. Additionally, the “Think, Pair, Share” activity can be

taken out and integrated into the lecture portion to save time – this would involve the teacher

prompting the students to think about trends in today’s food system and how they fit into the

categories of production, processing, etc. The group activity on food systems is very important to

the lesson. Cutting out the portions of the lecture mentioned above to allow more time for this

activity is acceptable. If time is still an issue, you can skip the Greece example and go straight to

handing out the different time-periods for students to investigate. Give them at least 10 minutes,

leaving at roughly 5-7 minutes to discuss what they found. The reflection exercise can be

reduced to 5 minutes if needed, or turned into a homework component. If a teacher is not

interested in gauging student learning outcomes, this section may be omitted.

Lesson Plan and Activities:

Introduction 4 min

Introduce to the class that we will be starting a short lesson series that will focus on innovative

agriculture, like hydroponics, and food procurement into their school cafeteria. First, ask the

students if they know what food procurement means.

- Procure v. meaning to obtain something, or gather things with care and effort. Synonyms

include: acquire, get, find, secure, and pick up1

- Food procurement – how and from whom food is purchased by an organization or

institution2

o Example: a local restaurant wants to buy local foods to use when cooking their

dishes

o For this lesson series, we will be investigating how to procure food grown on

the hydroponics system into the school cafeteria

Ask the students why they think it might be important to think about where our food comes

from? Ask the students what they think could be benefits of procuring their grown produce

into the cafeteria. Any challenges associated with this? Start making a list of student answers

on the board. Broadly introduce to the students that we are going to be working on a class project

to develop a proposal that will be presented to their principal about how and why we should

procure the food. We will do an exercise today that will get them thinking about the project, but

we are primarily going to take the first two lessons to gain some background knowledge on

agricultural advancement overtime and its environmental and health impacts.

Concept Mapping Activity 30 min

To start this activity, ask the students to brainstorm a list of topics that they think they will

need to investigate to make this project possible. Once the list is completed, you may choose to

add in the following topics if they were not already mentioned: history, health, environmental

science, politics/policy, biology, math, economics/business, marketing, psychology, English and

public speaking. Tell the students that we are now going to begin an activity called concept

mapping. The goal of concept mapping is to determine how different pieces of information, in

this case our topics, are related to one another. This exercise will help us think about what is

important to know as we start our project. It will also help us develop the best proposal possible

as it shows we thought about it from many angles.

Have the students pair up with someone next to them and begin drawing out a concept map. Each

topic should be accompanied with a brief statement justifying how it is connected to another

topic and the project. With the students, but on the board, draw a circle and inside write “food

procurement”. This is where the students should start their map. Give them 10 minutes with

their partner, to draw a concept map on a large sheet of paper. If students are having a hard time

1 Dictionary.com. (2016). Procure. Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/procure 2 Policy Link. (2015). Equitable development toolkit; Local food procurement. Retrieved form

http://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/edtk_local-food-procurement.pdf

grasping the concept, provide an example on the board linking two of the topics together (ex.

math – calculate yields to know how much the system can produce). Once the maps are drawn,

ask the following discussions.

Discussion Questions:

1. Were any of the topics hard to connect with our project? Which topic was the hardest to

connect?

2. Which topics were the easiest to connect to the project?

3. Which topic are each of you most excited about working on or learning more about?

4. Which topic is the most important? Is there one?

a. We want students to realize the importance of including these topics into the

project to get the most cohesive proposal

5. Is there a topic you think we should start with first?

Though question five may raise some answers that do not align with the topics covered in this

lesson, it is important to hear what students believe is the right path for starting this project. If

their answer is something other than history, tell them that we are going to initially start with

history as it will provide a good foundation and background for the project, but will move into

those other topics over the course of the 9 weeks.

History of Food Systems Lecture 10 min

Start by asking the students if they know what a food system is. After you hear their answers,

tell them that a food system encompasses all the activities that go into producing, processing,

transporting, and eating foods3. Write the follow words on the board: Production, processing,

transportation, consumption. Ask the students to start shouting out people, things, and actions

that are involved under each category. They should be thinking about the various

people/industries/business/activities/processes that are part of making each step possible.

Students can copy down answers in their notebooks. Here are some examples to share if needed:

Production: Farmers, farm workers/farm hands, planting seeds, watering, fertilizers, using

pesticides, picking/harvesting, washing, selling, etc.

Processing: Factories, factory workers, chemicals, machinery, additives, food safety measures

(FDA, USDA), etc.

Transportation: truck drivers, trucks, gasoline; food taking to wholesale distribution centers

then to processing plants or straight to the grocery store.

Consumption: Grocery stores, workers, farmer’s markets, food trucks, bake sales, selecting

foods based on appearance, buying, preparing, cooking, freezing, storing, eating, etc.

3 University of Oxford. (2016). What is the food system? Retrieved from http://www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/what-

food-system

***The food system also includes governance, economics of food production, food production

sustainability, and how food production affects environmental and human health. Food is linked

with our well-being concerning nutrition, obesity, and food safety.

Culture and food: A food system can also have cultural roots. Ask the students if any of them

can think of how culture and food could be related. If they are struggling to come up with

answers, you could explain how countries in Asia eat rice with almost every meal, or in India

they typically sit on the floor and eat with their hands, sometimes off a banana leaf! In European

countries, portions are a lot smaller than in the US, but you are expected to order multiple

courses. Each of these dining styles differs because of the people who live in these countries and

the history and cultures they’ve grown up in.

Think, Pair, Share Activity 5 min

In groups of 2-3, have students discuss the following questions: How would you describe our

food system today? What things stand out? What does farming look like? (This should dig

deeper than the parts listed on the board) What is the culture of our food system in the United

States? Give students 5 minutes to discuss in their small groups and then have them share their

thoughts to the entire class. If they get stuck, here are some things unique to today’s food system

to provoke their thinking:

- Fast food restaurants, drive thru

- Frozen meals you can make in a microwave in under five minutes

- Shift from sitting around a dining room table to eating in front of the TV

- We eat with silverware

- A typical meal may include a meat, potato, and vegetable

- Big farms growing tons of food and raising thousands of animals

- Farms use lots of fertilizers to make the food grow quick

- Import a lot of food from other states and countries – lots of variety to try new things

- Foods have lots of additives – lots of processed foods, pre-made

- Many different brands of foods sold in many different grocery stores

- "Melting pot" of international cuisines and traditions available

The point is to get a sense of how “fast” our food system is. We want everything fast, made fast,

ordered fast, consumed fast. But, that is not how it has always been. Our grandparents and great

grandparents ate less processed foods, sat around the dinner table and talked about their day, and

farms where a lot smaller and typically fed your family. After the industrial revolution, there

were huge changes in food systems: innovations in farm machinery, building of railroads to

transport foods, improving refrigeration systems, and inventing packaging materials to keep

foods fresh longer. This is when we began to see the indirection of processed foods4. Again, our

food systems met change in the 1950s during the Green Revolution where use of fertilizers and

4 AAS Online Exhibition. (2008). Big business: Food production, processing & distribution in the North 1850-1900.

Retrieved from http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Food/

pesticides that dramatically increased crop yields all over the world. Tell the students you’d like

to do an activity where we investigate food systems over time.

Food Systems Activity 30 min

As previously said, our food systems have evolved and are going to keep evolving and changing

as new technology and fads pop up. A food system during the time of the pilgrims is going to

look a lot different than a food system in ancient Greece, or a food system of the future. Tell the

students we are going to first start the activity together, and then they can try it out on their

own. The goal is to try and define a food system for different periods in time. On the board, pull

up the photo of the Ancient Greece marketplace and write our four parts of the food system back

on the board (production, processing, transportation, and consumption). With the students, start

trying to fill in the different parts of the system and talk about why the parts are the way they are.

One example is people are shopping in an open market where meat is hanging from stands –

there were no brick and mortar stores in Ancient Greece nor were there refrigerators. Ask the

students if this poses any health concerns. (Adding in questions that tie their answers into issues

of the environmental, health, farming techniques, etc. are important for them to understand why

the food system looks the way it does and how it has certain affects).

After going over Greece, break the students into groups and have them try and do the same thing

for three other time periods. They will each be given a picture or two to look at, the location of

the region they are exploring, and a list of foods commonly eaten during that period so they can

think about how they were grown, processed, transported, and eaten. Answer keys are provided

for each time-period, but the answers provided are not the only answers they could come up

with. Students are not expected to already be experts on these different time periods and regions;

however, they should be able to think critically on their own, and the teacher may use the answer

key to help provide some clue or pieces of information that will get them over any knowledge

barriers. There is no answer key for the “future food systems” since the future is unknown and

the images chosen are just some of the ideas out there. Students in this group should be very

creative and thoughtful when thinking about where food systems could end up in the years to

come. (The teacher may need to facilitate questions related to each time-period so having a basic

understanding is important before teaching).

Once the students finish, ask each group to present what they came up with.

Reflection Exercise 5 min

To wrap up the lesson, there is a brief reflection exercise to gauge student comprehension of

today’s learning objectives. Have the students turn to the last page in their notebooks and answer

the following questions to be turned in at the end of class (potential answers have been provided

for the teacher’s eyes only):

1. What are the biggest changes you have seen in today’s food system versus food systems

of the past? What been some of the factors that have helped facilitate these changes over

time?

a. Technology, machinery, “fast” food movement, transportation abilities, options

from all over the world, development of mankind, fertilizers and other advances

in agriculture, etc.

2. Would you take anything from previous food systems and reintroduce it into our current

food system? Are there aspects, whether from an efficiency, environmental or human

health aspect that you would take from other systems and incorporate into our food

system today or in the future?

3. How would you explain the concept of a food system to someone who knows nothing

about the topic? What key things would you point out as examples or important parts?

4. Why is it important to think about the food system that produces the food we eat at our

school?

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b6/45/0c/b6450cb1f311a67a42603f9f644bb77b.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/40/2f/c0/402fc096c46f61938a1994af59dd64a6.gif

http://geology.com/world/map/map-of-greece.gif

Ancient Greece – 500

BC

Common Foods:

Grains – Wheat, Barley

Fruits – olives, grapes, figs

Vegetables

Breads

Cake

Goat cheese and goat milk

Beans

Fish

Wine

https://exploringycity.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/crnkovich-adena-

http://geology.com/world/map/map-of-the-united-states-of-america.gifculture.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d7/62/16/d76216c153d59bb16e8bd97939a2b5b6.jpg

Native Americans 1600s

Common Foods:

Indian corn known as maize

Beans

Vegetables – Squash, Pumpkins, Peppers,

Fruits – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries

Tomatoes

Peanuts, Pine nuts, cashews, acrons

Sunflowers

Wild Rice

Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes

Meat – buffalo, elk, deer, rabbit, fish, duck,

turkey, turtle

India – Present Day

http://travel.rickray.com/wp-content/gallery/rajasthan-india-2011/Market%20 scene%20in%20Udaipur.jpg

http://www.cookiesound.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mechua-market-scene-streets-kolkata-west-bengal-india-1.jpg

http://geology.com/world/map/map-of-india.gif

http://questgarden.com/134/00/0/111025173450/images/south%20indian%20food2.jpg

Common Foods:

Wheat, Barley

Rice

Tamarind (like a fruit/bean)

Spices – cumin, coriander, turmeric root, ginger

Vegetables – eggplant, cucumber, onion, tomato

Potatoes

Beans, lentils, chickpeas

Chili peppers

Coconut

Fruit – banana, mango, papaya, apple

Curry leaves

Flat breads – chapatti

Paneer (cheese)

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/detroit-hanz-farm.jpg

http://www.irishexaminer.com/remote/media.central.ie/media/images/z/zzzFutureofFarming4_large.jpg?width=648&s=ie-363583

https://www.technocracy.news/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/robot-farming.jpg

http://foodal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/farming-on-the-red-planet.jpg

The Future of Food Systems

? Common Foods:

Food Systems Worksheet

Name: Date:

Time-Period:

Directions: Use this worksheet alongside the provided handout to fill in the different parts of the

food system unique to your region and time-period.

Production:

Processing:

Transportation:

Consumption:

Environmental Costs/Benefits:

Human Health Costs/Benefits:

Food Systems Worksheet - ANSWER KEY Time-Period: Ancient Greece

Background: visit http://historylink101.com/2/greece3/food.htm and

http://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient_greece/food.php to gain a background on Ancient

Greece’s food system and culture.

Production: Food was grown on the rocky terrain of Greece and fish was the main meat. Small

farms would grow their foods, harvest them, and take them to the market. No fertilizers or

pesticides would have been used. Catching fish would have been through nets and spears. Beef

and pork was barely eaten because it was expensive, but you could find it at a market.

Processing: There were no processing facilities, so foods like bread, cheese, and wine had to be

made by hand or with basic tools within a family’s home. People were able to specialize so not

every family would be required to make their own goods. Meat had to be slaughtered and

butchered by the farmer – it was not done at any type of facility. Milk was only used for making

cheese, it was not drunk. Remember, there were no refrigerators so food could not last very long

without going bad.

Transportation: You could use livestock like a horse or donkey to transport food otherwise it

was done on foot carrying baskets. Remember, there were no cars.

Consumption: Shopped at the local market; cooked their foods at home (no restaurants), and ate

food with their hands. Wine was the primary drink and you would typically dip your bread into

it. Men and women typically ate food in separate rooms. Bread was sometimes used as a napkin.

Poor people in the cities mainly got their meat from festivals where animal sacrifices would be

made to the Gods and the meat would be handed out after.

Environmental Costs/Benefits: Agriculture did not heavily impact the environment

Human Health Costs/Benefits: The Greeks ate with their hands so there was a higher chance of

getting sick if you did not wash your food or your hands. Markets were open-air markets where

the meat would hang, unrefrigerated and flies and other insects could get on the meat. Open

markets could attract rodents carrying disease

Food Systems Worksheet – ANSWER KEY Time-Period: Native Americans 1600s

Background: visit http://www.native-languages.org/food.htm to gain a background on the Native

American’s food system and culture.

Production: Native Americans were mainly hunters and gatherers, with the addition of fishing

and farming. After the Europeans arrived, Native Americans did start to adapt practices of

raising domesticated animals. They grew their foods in their villages and lived near waterways to

have access to fish and other water animals like mussels. Women typically collected fruits like

berries while the men hunted animals. Hunting took lots of coordinating and working together,

making “production” of food a village wide endeavor.

Processing: The Native American’s ate the foods they hunted and gathered that day, especially

the meats. Some foods like grains could be stored for longer periods of time, but remember there

were no refrigerators so foods like meats could not last very long without going bad. Women did

most of the cooking and food would be cooked over open fire, on top of heated rocks. Foods

were grinded in bowls and water was added to make different pastes, soups, or other meals with

an oatmeal consistency.

Transportation: A horse could be used to carry foods, but since their farms where so close,

women could carry food in cloth bags or baskets while men would drag their day’s hunt back

from the forest. Baskets were woven by women and could be woven tight enough to transport

water.

Consumption: Native Americans were not wasteful and would turn animal bones into crud

spoons. They also carved out bowls and knives from bones and wood. Since the tribes lived so

close together and worked together to procure their foods, the food would typically be eaten

together.

Environmental Costs/Benefits: Native Americans lived off the land and in harmony with it,

with practically no threat to the environment.

Human Health Costs/Benefits: There was little knowledge of food borne illnesses so people

could have eaten foods that were very unsafe to eat; however, their diets were very natural and

well balanced. They were eating from almost every food group and staying physically fit.

Food Systems Worksheet – ANSWER KEY Time-Period: India Present Day

Background: visit http://www.culturewavesglobal.com/india-etiquette-,

http://aquaponicsinindia.com/farming-systems-in-india/, and http://www.livescience.com/28634-

indian-culture.html to gain a background on India’s food system and culture.

Production: Food is grown in rural parts of each state on various types of farms. Plantation

farms are common and are used to grow one type of crop over a large area (ex. coffee, tea,

bamboo, etc.). Other types of farms are dedicated to multiple crops and can be large, commercial

farms, or smaller family farms. Farmers will grow their foods and bring them into a city where

they can sell directly to consumers, or send their food to a large marketplace where a middle man

will do the bargaining and selling. Farmers in India do not always have access to proper

equipment and work very large pieces of land with only basic tools and simple plows pulled by

cows. Driving through rural India one would see people in fields for miles and miles, slowly

planting and harvesting their crops. Access to resistant seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides can only

be afforded by wealthy land owners or plantation owners.

Processing: For the average Indian, food is purchased from the market and used in making their

meals. Vegetables, fruits, and spices come in raw form and are transformed into meals by the

woman in the house (most commonly). Since Indian meals are somewhat complex in their

ingredient list, pre-processed foods are not as common, though they are available at grocery

stores, but these goods are influenced by western culture of food buying.

Transportation: Food can be transported via a wagon pulled by cows or horses, but trucks are

very popular methods of transportation as well. The roads in India get rougher as you head out

into rural areas, so if a truck breaks down, it could be a while before it is back on the road. In the

photos, you can see how much food is brought and sold at the markets, so you can only imagine

how much transportation was involved in getting it there.

Consumption: As previously stated, women in the family will go to the market and pick out the

fruit, vegetables, and spices they may need for their meals. Depending on the wealth of a family,

a refrigerator may or may not be available for use. Foods are very spicy, and many Indians are

vegetarian. Food is eaten with your hands and the flat breads are used as “spoons” to scoop up

the different foods.

Environmental Costs/Benefits: The markets cannot sell all the food you see in the pictures. As

food gets older in date, prices may be lowered for poorer individuals to afford, but much of the

food gets wasted. Food waste is a large contributor to global warming as decaying food can

produce greenhouse gases. Depending on which farming practices are used, India’s agriculture

sector can have mixed impacts on the environment. They do utilize various irrigation methods to

distribute water to crops, and without the use of large machinery, they have low CO2 emissions;

however, transportation by truck can increase CO2 emission since food is coming from rural

areas.

Human Health Costs/Benefits: Much like Ancient Greece, open market spaces can become

breeding grounds for rodents carrying diseases. Indians also allow cows and wild dogs to freely

roam around so you might find a cow munching on food in the market. Much of the food cooked

in India has health benefits, as it is very vegetable-based and spices have good digestion

properties. There are high levels of poverty in India, as well as poor water quality, leading to

many individuals dying due to malnutrition and water borne illnesses.

Reflection Questions Name: _________________________ Date:_______

Directions: In 2-3 sentences, answer the following questions on your own and turn them in

before you leave.

1. What are the biggest changes you have seen in today’s food system versus food systems

of the past? What been some of the factors that have helped facilitate these changes over

time?

2. Would you take anything from previous food systems and reintroduce it into our current

food system? Are their aspects, whether from an efficiency, environmental or human

health aspect that you would take from other systems and incorporate into our food

system today or in the future?

3. How would you explain the concept of a food system to someone who knows nothing

about the topic? What key things would you point out as examples or important parts?

4. Why is it important to think about the food system that produces the food we eat at our

school?

Examples of Concept Maps

http://thegreenslate.com/p/2016/09/concept-map-template-drhqftse.png

http://www.met.sjsu.edu/~cordero/ozone/Learn_Act1_files/image001.gif

Lesson 2 Title: The Shift to Urban Agriculture – Feeding our Cities

Objective: Students will understand what urbanization is and the affects it has had on our food

system, the environment, and rural communities. They will be able to see that populations are

residing heavily in urban and suburban areas in many countries, including the United States.

Student will understand what food miles are and how hydroponics, and other innovative methods

of agriculture, should be explored as new methods of urban agriculture that can help feed our

cities, suburbs, and even rural areas.

Topics: Environmental Science, Health, Math

Grade Level: 9th-12th Grade

Time: 84 minutes

External Materials Needed: chalkboard/white board, white board markers, projector, computer,

writing utensils, calculators

Teaching Tips:

All students, whether they live in a rural or urban setting, should understand the impacts of

urbanization on our food system and how food miles are high in both regions. With our food

coming from miles and miles away, students should begin to see the environmental and human

health impacts of transitioning to local foods. This lesson is structured to make students more

aware of where their food is coming from and how rural and urban settings both have unique

roles in our country’s food system.

This lesson is jammed packed with material that is important for students to understand, but for

classes with less time available, the following suggestions can be used to shorten the lesson. The

interactive map activity is composed of two parts where one is teacher-guided and the other is

student-guided-group-work. The student group work component can be removed to save time.

The food mile skit is the lengthiest section in the lesson and there are a few ways to shorten it: 1)

only have students act out one or two of the meals, 2) omit the information pertaining to CO2

and greenhouse gas emissions, and 3) do not do the skit portion at all and only have students

draw out the food miles on the white board. These suggestions can help to halve the amount of

time needed to teach the section while still helping to get the concepts across. For the

lecture/discussion on local food movements, you can have the students discuss what foods they

believe could be grown with each method (more time consuming) or you could strictly do a

lecture and provide all the information with little student input (less time consuming). You could

also combine hydroponics and aquaponics as they share similar characteristics. It is important to

leave enough time for students to complete the reflection exercise, even if you need to cut the

time down to 5-7 minutes. This exercise can also be turned in as homework, but the students will

not be able to work in groups if that is the case.

Lesson Plan and Activities:

Introduction 4 min

Begin class by doing a short recap of what was discussed during the last lesson…feel free to ask

the students directly to summarize what they learned. Go over again what a food system is and

what has been changing about them over time. Transition into today’s lesson by telling the

students we are going to explore urbanization and how it has affected our environment and

health.

Urbanization 10 min

First, ask the students if they know what urbanization is. Remind the students as they try to

answer that urbanization is a process and not a place. Provide them with the definition after a few

minutes of guessing:

Urbanization is “the mass movement of people from rural areas to more densely

populated [environments]…and the growth of cities is the response to this evolutionary change”5

When we think of an urban place, however, we do think of densely populated areas, apartment

style housing, an industrial core, and different ethnic neighborhoods throughout the setting.

Urbanization took place in the United States during the Gilded Age (1800s-1900s) and the

Progressive Era (1890s-1920s) when people started moving out of the country in hopes of higher

paying jobs in the cities. By 1900, 30% of the country’s population lived in the cities (approx. 30

million people).6 The middle class benefitted from this shift as more and more small businesses

needed to be started to support the influx of people, but for poor individuals, including mainly

European immigrants, it involved harsh and dangerous working conditions in factories, mills,

slaughterhouses, and working on the railroads. “Rural flight” took a negative tole on rural

communities because as more people left, the size of the labor force sharply decreased meaning

less businesses, schools, etc.7 By the 1950s, we had established our cities, but now people

wanted to live outside the cities and suburbia was formed. With the use of cars and the creation

of highways, people could now afford to live outside the city in housing plans and commute to

work. Let’s look at how many people are living in urban areas today, (remember, it was

approx. 30 million people in the 1900s, roughly 30%).

Interactive Data and Map Activity 10 min

Using the 2016 World Population Data Sheet8 page 11, find the data for the United States. In

2016, the population is roughly 323.9 million people, with 81% of the population (roughly 258

million people) living in an urban environment. Ask the students what cities they think these

5 College Board. (2008). AP U.S. History: Urbanization. Retrieved from

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/US_History_Urbanization_SF.pdf 6 Annenberg Learner. (2015). Immigration, urbanization, and identity: The progressive era city. Retrieved from

http://www.learner.org/courses/lens/collections/immigration-urbanization/ 7 Boundless. (2016). The process of urbanization. Retrieved from

https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/population-and-urbanization-

17/urbanization-and-the-development-of-cities-123/the-process-of-urbanization-695-3433/ 8 Population Reference Bureau. (2016). 2016 world population data sheet. Retrieved from

http://www.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf

people are living in – Have them also guess how many people live there. Write their answers on

the board. You can provide them with these names and numbers after – Data from 20159:

#1. New York City, NY – over 8 million

#2. Los Angeles, CA – almost 4 million

#3. Chicago, IL – 2.7 million

#4. Houston, TX – 2.2 million

#5. Philadelphia, PA – 1.5 million

How did they do? Point out the gap between #1 and #2, there is almost a 4-million-person gap!

That’s huge. To make the idea of urbanization stick even more, show the students the online

interactive map10 depicting how many fly over states it would take to equal the population of our

country’s biggest city, the LA county, Texas, New Jersey, the East and West Coast combined,

and then little old Wyoming with the smallest population of them all. When using the map, have

students come up one at a time and pick the combination they are most interested in seeing. This

will engage them in the learning process and keep them interested. Ask them what they find to

be the most shocking. Ask them if this map is a good depiction of urbanization.

Group exercise 10 min

Have the students go back to the World Population Data Sheet (pages 10-19). In groups, give

them a few minutes to pick 5 other countries and calculate the number of people in the

population living in urban areas. The countries should each be from different regions (i.e.

Western Asia vs. Northern Europe). Challenge them to find the smallest number possible and

the greatest number possible to determine which countries may still have a bulk of their

population living in rural areas. When the students finish, ask them to share what they found.

Are there characteristics of the countries they picked that support why their urban percentage

is so high or low? Are most urban areas more than 750,000 residents or less?

Transition to next topic: So, with most a country’s population living in urban settings, we need

to think about where they are getting their food and how rural communities are affected.

Urbanization and Food Miles 10 min

Let’s think about how urbanization may affect our food system, the environment, and human

health. If everyone is in the cities (urban areas), where are they buying their foods? List out

some of the students answers on the board (grocery store, restaurant, fast food restaurants, gas

station, etc.). In the students’ home town, where do their families typically go to buy food? Are

9 Nations Online Project. (2015). Top 50 of the most populated cities in the United States. Retrieved from

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_pop_cities_usa.htm 10 Slate. (2014). Manifest destiny: Equal population mapper. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2014/10/population_map_use_our_interactive_map_to_figure_out_ho

w_many_flyover_states.html

there any local farmer’s markets to buy local foods? If people are buying food in stores or at a

restaurant, the food is most likely be being grown outside of the local area and transferred into

their region. Point out to the students that urbanization affects rural areas as well. Most of the

food they buy, unless they only purchase foods from farmer’s markets, is not coming from local

farms, but from other states and countries. Urban and rural areas are both consuming food that is

grown hundreds or thousands of miles away; however, for the specific case of people living in

urban settings, they are relying on rural farmers to grow their foods. One big way that

urbanization has affected rural communities has been through the high demand for food in urban

areas. Nowadays, the number of small family farms is decreasing, and the number of large,

conventional farms out in the warmer states are dominating food production.

Ask students if they have ever seen food literally growing in a big city? Probably not. As stated

in our previous lesson, our food is typically coming from large farms out in rural areas (perhaps

even in the students’ hometown if it is rural) and being transported to different wholesale

retailers, distribution centers, processing facilities, and then to grocery stores. Just because

students may live by a farm, does not mean that the food grown is the food on the shelves at the

grocery store. There are many miles in between the location it was grown and location it is

bought. Ask the students if they can guess what the phrase “food miles” means. Once they

give their ideas, make sure to add in the fact that it is a unit that includes the fuel involved in

transporting the food product.

Food Mile – a mile over which a food item is transported from producer to consumer, as a unit of

measurement of the fuel used to do this

Ask the students why it matters to look at how much fuel is used in getting our corn from

the field onto our plate? How is that important? Well “food miles” is a concept used by

environmental scientists to determine the ecological footprint a food is having on our

environment. The further away a food is coming, the more fuel that must be burned to get it here.

If students are familiar with the environmental concept, explain that the gas we put in our car

burns and gives off different gases (NOx, SOx, and CO2) that contribute to climate change and

the build-up of greenhouse gases. Additionally, increased pollution from trucks, planes, and cars

can affect air quality which can lead to health problems in humans (respiratory conditions –

particularly dangerous to young children and the elderly).

Food Mile Skit 20 min

This skit will be used to help students explore the food miles of some of their favorite foods. We

will look at processed foods that include more than one ingredient so that multiple students are

involved (it is great to align at least one of the examples with the main meal in the cafeteria that

day). Start with products that include foods grown in the US, then act out other products that

may include food from overseas.

Set up: Project a map of the US (and then the world) onto a dry erase board and have some

markers ready for the students to use. On the map, draw a star to represent the location of your

school. Around the room place, place different signs with different mileage markers on them that

represent distances food have traveled. Students will start in the front of the classroom so make

sure the closest miles are near the front, with the furthest distance in the back. See diagram

below:

Directions: The students will act out different scenarios for food miles. Students in various

groups will be given a name tag of a certain food or ingredient and where it was grown. The

students that make up the processed food will initially stand together in the front of the class (this

represent the star on the map, or the location of your school/city where the food item was

purchased). Students will then individually be called out by their ingredient. The individual

student knows the location and distance of where their food was grown (written on the back of

their name tag), but the rest of the class must decide where they think each ingredient was

originally produced. After the students take some time to guess, the student who knows the right

answer will share where they were grown, and how many miles it is away from the school

(mileage will need to be calculated before the lesson starts). Once the student reveals the answer,

they are to put a dot on the map on the board, draw a line from their dot to the star, and then head

to the location in the classroom that represents where they were grown (they may be at a mileage

marker or in between two; if students want to go to different corners to represent directionality

they can do that as well). Once each student goes, the group should head to the mileage market

that represents the total miles for their meal. State capitals where used to determine mileage;

however, the foods may be grown elsewhere in the country. Here are some example scenarios to

use (Example generating using Union City HS, Union City, PA as reference point:

1. Tonight’s dinner: Chicken, potatoes, and green beans (4 students) – 3,568 miles

a. One student holds a picture of this meal

Front of Classroom

Location of whiteboard

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

Student

Desk/Tables

b. Chicken: In 2010, Georgia was the top state for raising broiler chickens, almost 7

billion pounds of live chicken11

i. 822 miles from Atlanta, GA to Union City High School

c. Potatoes: In 2011, Idaho planted over 320,000 acres of potatoes. Fun fact, the

average American consumes around 140 pounds of potatoes each year!12

i. 2,137 miles from Boise, ID to Union City High School

d. Green Beans: Wisconsin is one of the top states for green beans – the US was

ranked 15th in the world for green bean production, a whopping 43,570 tons, or

1% of the total world’s production13

i. 609 miles from Madison Wisconsin to Union City High School

2. Tomorrow’s Lunch Menu: Cheeseburger with ketchup and a side of onion rings (6

students) – 6,764 miles

a. One student holds a picture of a burger

b. Burger: Texas has the most cattle in the US, 11.8 million heads of cattle making

up 13% of all cattle in the US14

i. 1,491 miles from Austin, TX to Union City High School

c. Bun: Bread is made from yeast, and in Hattiesburg, Mississippi there is a

company called USA Yeast that sells baker’s yeast15

i. 1,050 miles from Hattiesburg, MI to Union City High School

d. Cheese: Wisconsin is the largest producer of cheese in the country, 2.8 billion

pounds with California not far behind at 2.3 billion pounds16. That’s a lot of

cheese!

i. 609 miles from Madison Wisconsin to Union City High School

e. Onions: Farmers plant over 6.2 billion pounds of onions each year, that is approx.

125,000 acres across the country. Our onions for this burger can from Oregon17

i. 2,609 miles from Salem, OR to Union City High School

f. Tomatoes for ketchup: California is the top producer of tomatoes, however,

California and Florida combined make up over 2/3 of the total produced tomatoes

in the country!18

11 National Chicken Council. (2010). Top broiler producing states. Retrieved from

http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about-the-industry/statistics/top-broiler-producing-states/ 12 Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. (2016). Idaho potatoes. Retrieved from

http://www.idahofb.org/index.php?action=commodities.potatoes 13 Ranking America. (2011). The U.S. ranks 15th in green bean production. Retrieved from

https://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/the-u-s-ranks-15th-in-green-bean-production/ 14 Cook, R. (2015). Cattle inventory: Ranking of all 50 states. Retrieved from http://www.cattlenetwork.com/advice-

and-tips/cowcalf-producer/cattle-inventory-ranking-all-50-states 15 USA Yeast. (2016). USA Yeast. Retrieved from http://usayeast.com/ 16 World Atlas. (2016). Cheese production in the US by state. Retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles

/us-cheese-production-top-10-states.html 17 National Onion Association. (2011). U.S. production and availability. Retrieved from https://www.onions-

usa.org/foodservice/us-production-and-availability 18 Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. (2015). Tomatoes. Retrieved from http://www.agmrc.org/commodities-

products/vegetables/tomatoes/

i. 1,005 miles from Tallahassee, FL to Union City High School

3. Snack time: Fruit Salad (5 students) – 19,257 miles

a. One student holds a picture of a fruit salad

b. Grapes: California produced 6.8 million tons of grapes in 201419

i. 2,488 miles from Sacramento, CA to Union City High School

c. Kiwi: Italy is the top producer of Kiwi in the world 365,000 metric tons20.

i. 4,489 miles from Union City, PA to Italy

d. Bananas: India produced 24,000,000 tons of bananas 201221

i. 7,906 miles from India to Union City, PA

e. Blueberries: The US is the top producers of blueberries, but the blueberries from

our fruit salad are coming from Poland who produces 13,000 tons a year22

i. 4,374 miles from North West, PA to Poland

After the activity, refer students to the page in their notebooks that addresses greenhouse gas

emissions in relation to food miles. Point out on the table how our fruit salad that traveled the

most miles also produced the most greenhouse gas emissions, even though the plane gave off

less CO2 per mile. Make sure students see that the three, simple meals were examined produced

over 74,000 pounds’ worth of CO2 (numbers to vary with school locations).

Table 1. Greenhouse gas emissions = Distance X Weight X Emissions Factor23

Meal Miles Emissions

Factor

Total Emissions Total Emissions

(Metric Tons)

Chicken Dinner 3,568 Truck- 1,700

grams of

CO2/mile

6,065,600 grams

of CO2

6.07 metric tons

of CO2

Cheeseburger

and Onion Rings

6,764 Truck- 1,700

grams of

CO2/mile

11,498,800

grams of CO2

11.5 metric tons

of CO2

Fruit Salad 19,257 Plane- 868.3

grams of

CO2/mile

16,720,853

grams of CO2

16.72 metric

tons of CO2

** For Metric Tons, you divide the total emissions by 1,000,000.

If you think about all the emissions that come from the vehicles that transport the various

ingredients in the foods we eat daily, you can imagine why it is important for us to think about

19 19 Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. (2015). Grapes. Retrieved from http://www.agmrc.org/commodities-

products/fruits/grapes/ 20 Top 5 Of Anything. (2016). The top 5 kiwi producing countries. Retrieved from https://top5ofanything.com/

list/008563c9/Kiwi-Producing-Countries 21 Country Ranker. (2014). Top 10 largest producers of bananas. Retrieved from http://www.countryranker.com/

world-top-10-largest-producers-countries-of-bananas/ 22 World Atlas. (2016). Where are blueberries grown? Retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-top-

blueberry-growers-in-the-world.html 23 Mather, J, Craft, E., Norsworthy, M., & Wolfe, C. (2016). The green freight handbook. Retrieved from

http://business.edf.org/files/2014/07/EDF-Green-Freight-Handbook.pdf

ways to decrease food miles traveled. Ask the students if they have any ideas. What about

switching to local food?

Transition to Local Food Movement and Urban Agriculture 10 min

Over the past year, there has been a push for local food movements where food from local

farmers is going straight into a nearby city/town’s food system; however, how do we get local

food into large urban centers and cities where there is no room for large farms? The concept

of farming in cities is called urban agriculture and it can take on many farms. Community

gardens have been popping up all over cities, but with zoning rules (these define where gardens

can be in a city) and the high cost of demolishing buildings, we need to explore how to use

existing infrastructure to support indoor forms of agriculture like hydroponics, especially in areas

where winters are too cold to grow foods.

Go over with the students some various methods of urban agriculture and start a discussion about

which ones they like the most. Pictures are provided to share with the students so they have

visual ideas of what each method looks like. Have the students brainstorm what types of foods

they think would grow best in each environment.

1. Community Gardens

a. Taking abandoned plots of land between buildings and converting them into

gardens

b. Different gardens will have different structures, but some give each member their

own bed to plant food for their household while others have communal beds

where food is grown and available for anyone to come and take/eat.

c. Foods grown here: plants that don’t need a lot of attention – various fruits,

vegetables, herbs, oats, wheat, etc. Tomatoes, squash, peas, beans, eggplant,

onions, asparagus, peppers, beets, carrots, garlic24

2. Roof top gardens

a. Converting a roof top of an apartment complex or other building into a

community garden to be used by the residents or workers that reside there

b. Foods grown here: Plants with compact forms and avoid anything with extensive

vining systems or oversized fruits. Plants should be tolerant to wind and hot

conditions. Use shallow-rooted edibles like lettuce, radishes, peppers, herbs,

cabbage. You can plant vegetables that need more room in larger pots/containers

like beets, carrots, onions, bush beans, eggplants. Fruit trees can also be grown in

deeper pots with smaller fruit plants in hanging baskets (strawberries)25.

3. Hydroponics

a. Taking agriculture indoors, you can grow food during the winter months

24 The Creative Vegetable Gardener. (2016). What to grow in your community garden plot. Retrieved from

http://www.creativevegetablegardener.com/grow-community-garden-plot/ 25 Andrews, J. (2017). Urban edibles for rooftop gardens. Retrieved from

https://www.gardendesign.com/vegetables/rooftops.html

b. Can be very energy intensive – solar or alternative energy sources should be

explored

c. Can grow horizontally or vertically

d. Ask students what they have learned about their system and the benefits of

growing food in this manner.

e. Foods grown here: herbs, vegetables, fruits. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green

beans, squash, melons, broccoli and cauliflower, lettuces, spinach, swiss chard,

peas, onions, carrots, etc.26

4. Aquaponics

a. Again, the same points mentioned as hydroponics, but you now can introduce fish

into your system with widens your market and foods produced

b. Could be more expensive because you need to not only maintain the crops, but the

fish as well

c. Foods grown here27:

i. Fish: tilapia, blue gill, sunfish, crappie, koi, goldfish, carp perch, catfish,

largemouth bass

ii. Plants: leafy lettuce, kale, swiss chard, arugula, basil, mint, watercress,

chives, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, peas, squash, bananas, sweet

corn, onions, etc.

5. Vertical farming

a. Growing inside buildings – each floor could represent different crops or stages of

the growing process (i.e. starter plants on top floor and you keep moving down)

b. Startup can be in the millions – lights, equipment, water, seed/seed starters,

electricity/energy bills all are expensive; though, there are innovative ways to cut

cost depending on the materials you choose to use and what scale you are growing

on

c. If you add in other products, you can use the byproducts of one to fuel another

d. Have the grocery store or restaurant downstairs - foods are produced on site

e. Foods grown here: Vegetables that “climb”: tomatoes, varieties of green beans,

pole beans and peas, cucumbers, compact pumpkins, melons, and squash. Also,

leafy vegetables28.

It might be hard for urban agriculture to replace traditional farming, but it could have strong

impacts on human health and the local food movement. Ask the students if they believe if any of

these methods could also be beneficial in rural areas and communities? How could these

methods be used in these settings? There is benefit to introduce these methods into rural areas

26 Modcularhydro.com. (2011). What can you grow hydroponically? Retrieved from

http://modularhydro.com/ArticleLibrary/WhatCanYouGrowHydroponically.html 27 Nelson and Pade (2017). Recommended pants and fish in aquaponics. Retrieved from

http://aquaponics.com/recommended-plants-and-fish-in-aquaponics/ 28 SF Gate. (n.d.). The best vegetables to grow for vertical planting. Retrieved from

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/vegetables-grow-vertical-planting-69893.html

because it encourages locally grown food without the reliance of large, rural farms. These

methods allow all types of people to be involved in growing their food without owning a large

farm.

Reflection Exercise 10 min

For the reflection exercise, students will get the chance to think about food miles and urban

agriculture and apply it to the real world. Have students refer to the Reflection Exercise

Worksheet. Tell students that they get the next ten minutes to design their own restaurant in

small groups that will be opening in New York City. The catch is that restaurant only offers one

meal each week and the great thing about the restaurant is that it also produces all the food on

site or within a 5-mile radius! Students must figure out what meal they want to cook and sell,

what the major ingredients they will use are, where the ingredients will come from and how they

will be grown or raised. They should aim to source all the food from the city so that they have

the lowest mileage, but they may realize they need to look outside of the city (encourage the

students to think of creative ways to grow certain foods in the city, especially meat). The meal

should cover the following food groups: one vegetable, one fruit, one meat, and one side dish of

their choosing. Have the students present and hand in their worksheet at the end of class.

Reflection Exercise

Directions: Congratulations! You are starting a new restaurant in New York City and as part of

your goal to be environmentally conscious, you have decided that each week you will feature a

meal where all the ingredients were sourced within a 5-mile radius of the restaurant! Your job is

to figure out what meal you will create and serve, what the major ingredients are, where the

ingredients will come from, and how they will be grown and raised. You should aim to source all

the food from within the city so that you have the lowest mileage, but you may realize they need

to look outside of the city (try to think of creative ways to grow certain foods in the city,

especially meat). The meal should cover the following food groups: one vegetable, one fruit, one

meat, and one side dish of your choosing.

Meal name: __________________

Vegetable: ________________ Source:

_________________________________________________

Fruit: ____________________ Source:

____________________________________________________

Meat: __________________ Source:

______________________________________________________

Side dish: ________________ Source:

_____________________________________________________

Food Mile Skit Map

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/contemporarymaps/usa/basemaps/usstates1.jpg

Food Mile Skit Map

https://s-m edia-cache-

ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6e/7b/86/6e7b86c29ca4818eaca4a57a7474751a.jpg

http://geology.com/world/map/map-of-poland.gif

Name Tags for Food Miles Activity – cut out and hand to students

Chicken

Raised in: Atlanta, Georgia

822 miles from Union City

High School

Potatoes

Grown in: Boise, Idaho

2,137 miles from Union City

High School

Green Beans

Grown in: Madison,

Wisconsin

609 miles from Union City

High School

Burger Meat

Raised in: Austin, Texas

1,491 miles from Union City

High School

Bun - Yeast

Grown in: Hattiesburg,

Mississippi

1,050 miles from Union City

High School

Cheese

Produced in: Madison,

Wisconsin

609 miles from Union City

High School

Onions

Grown in: Salem, Oregon

2,609 miles from Union City

High School

Tomato

Grown in: Tallahassee, Florida

1,005 miles from Union City

High School

Grapes

Grown in: Sacramento,

California

2,488 miles from Union City

High School

Bananas

Grown in: India

7,906 miles from Union City

High School

Blueberries

Grown in: Poland

4,374 miles from Union City

High School

Kiwi

Grown in: Italy

4,489 miles from Union City

High School

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5499/9486924617_8852083354_b.jpg

http://www.johnshelleysjournal.com/burger-onionrings.jpg

http://www.tasteforlife.com/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/Fruit%20Salad.jpg?itok=Suzknd95

Community Gardens

https://communitygarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jon-Petersons-peterson-garden-project.jpg

https://containergardening.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/cadillac-urban-gardens-3-512x320.png?w=825&h=510&crop=1

Roof Top Gardens

http://www.bevbeverly.com/images/www.caststone.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/rooftop-garden-2.jpg

http://popupcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Bus-rooftop-garden-1-1200x799.jpg

Urban Hydroponics

http://www.correntewire.com/files/1_hydroponics.jpg

http://www.hydromasta.com.au/images/balconey.jpg

Aquaponics

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7a/07/2a/7a072a290fc83a0fb3db1c45ca2a1666.jpg

http://fpstapleton-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Aqua-473B7605.jpg

Vertical Farming

http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/full/public/2015/10/21/1020verticalfarms01.jpg

https://garisonbenjaminsustains.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/farmedhere.jpeg

Lesson 3 Title: Food Procurement Project – Addressing Food Safety and School Policy

Objective: Students will learn about what policies may be a barrier to having their food procured

into the school cafeteria. They will start to understand how tricky and complicated it can be to

implement food related initiatives, even when they appear to be easy endeavors. They will be

able to identify six different types of food borne illness and propose food safety measures for

growing, handling, and preparing their foods. They will also learn the foundations of creating a

student opinion survey.

Topics: Political Science, Biology

Grade Level: 9th-12th Grade

Time: 84 minutes

External Materials Needed: chalkboard/wipe board, projector, computer (plus computers for

students), writing utensils

Teaching Tips:

The priority of this lesson is for students to understand why we need food safety policy, and then

be given the chance to write their own policy related to this project. Students need to understand

the importance of having a policy in place that ensures the production, serving, and consumption

of their foods to the student body.

This lesson is filled with very important information and is difficult to shorten, but the goal is to

ensure enough time for students to work on their food safety policy. For the foodborne illness

activity, a time saver would be to simply lecture the students using the teacher’s answer key

instead of dividing the students into groups. By doing this, you add more teacher-centered

methods to learning, but it would decrease the amount of time needed to be spent on the topic. If

there is not time for the activity, the teacher should at least plan to discuss the following section,

“Connecting foodborne illnesses to food safety lecture/discussion,” as it is very relevant to the

policy development portion. This portion is designed to be more of a lecture, but could easily be

adapted to a more discussion/Q&A style. To cut down time during the policy introduction and

policy design section, you can incorporate going over your school’s policy while students design

their own – provide students with copies of both your school’s specific guidelines they follow

along with the pages out of the Farm to School Food Safety Guidelines document. If you can

have your school’s food service manager present, it would greatly benefit the students as they

work through the activity. Much like the other lessons, if there is no time for the review exercise

it may be assigned as homework.

Lesson Plan and Activities:

Introduction 4 min

Ask the students why we have rules and laws in our society? What roles do they play in our

everyday life and why do we need them? (Answer: rules and laws are in place to protect us and

ensure that all our needs are met – they are in our best interest) Inform the students that we are

going to begin working on the proposal for getting food grown on the hydroponics system into

the cafeteria, but before we get into the nitty-gritty of how we will do this, we need to look at

how rules and laws related to food safety play a big part in our project. Understanding this will

prepare us for potential barriers we may face and help us come up with measures around food

safety and school policy on eating more fruits and vegetables.

Background on school procurement and local food movement (talked a little about this

last lesson) 5 min

Remind the students that in the last lesson we talked about the environmental benefits of

sourcing food locally. Ask the students if anyone can remind us how local food benefits our

environment and human health. Sourcing local food not only cuts down on greenhouse gas

emissions, but also allows for more fresh foods, like freshly grown fruits and vegetables, to enter

a community’s food system – benefiting the diets of community members. There is a national

movement called the Farm to School Movement that encourages schools to build school gardens,

educate students about nutrition, agriculture, and other garden related lessons, and promotes

procuring foods from local farmers and using them in the cafeteria29. Research has shown that

school gardens are increasing fruit and vegetable intake of students, which can have very

positive health effects on students30,31. Though this movement is gaining momentum, we need to

think about some of the reasons why momentum is still kind of slow.

Potential barriers to procurement 5 min

Food & Safety

Begin by asking the students why we need to think about food safety? Why types of policy have

been developed around this topic? From their answers, you should gain an idea of whether

students are familiar with foodborne illness. Ask someone to define what a foodborne illness is

(Answer: disease that is transmitted to humans by food32). More specifically, foodborne

illnesses are caused by microorganisms which are tiny single-celled organisms that we can only

see through a microscope. Ask the students if they can name any microorganisms (Answers:

bacteria, viruses, yeasts and molds, parasites).

Foodborne Illness Activity (adopted from Penn State Extension Food Safety

Lessons for Middle School Students33) 20 min

29 http://www.farmtoschool.org/learn 30 Parmer, S. M., Salisbury-Glennon, J., Shannon, D., & Struempler, B. (2009). School gardens: an experiential

learning approach for a nutrition education program to increase fruit and vegetable knowledge, preference, and

consumption among second-grade students. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 41(3), 212-217. 31 Heim, S., Stang, J., & Ireland, M. (2009). A garden pilot project enhances fruit and vegetable consumption among

children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109(7), 1220-1226. 32 Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. (2016). Lesson 1 – What’s bugging you? Retrieved from

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/L1.1 33 Penn State Extension. (2016). Food safety lessons for middle school students: Microbes and our food – Lesson 1.

Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/food/safety/educators/food-safety-lessons-for-middle-school-students

Divide students into small groups and have them use a computer to research different foodborne

illnesses. Each group will have at least one foodborne illness to lookup, but depending on the

class size a group may have more than one (students are to be given the disease name to look up,

however, for viral food poisoning students are given the scientific name to research instead).

Using the Foodborne Illness Activity Worksheet, students should gather information pertaining

to their illness and be prepared to present their findings back to the class. An answer worksheet is

provided for the teacher, as well as pictures of each disease to be pulled up when students

present. When students present their information, they may write their answers on the board so

other students can copy down the facts in their notebooks. Give students roughly 10-15 minutes

for the research portion and leave 10 for the presentation.

Connecting foodborne illnesses to food safety lecture/discussion 10 min

Ask the students to think about and name some conditions or environments that enable

foodborne illnesses to grow and thrive? (Throughout the lecture/discussion, write answers/ideas

on the board and have students record any notes) After students have developed some ideas, go

over the following practices that promote foodborne illnesses34.

1. Food acidity, temperature, and time

- Bacteria need nutrients to survive and get those nutrients from foods – they grow best

on food that is neutral to slightly acidic and grow best in temperatures between 41 ֯ F -

140 ֯ F (their growth is slowed before 41 ֯ F, so keeping foods refrigerated is important

as well as cooking at high temperatures).

2. Oxygen

- Some bacteria need oxygen, some do not.

3. Moisture

- When both food and water/moisture are present, bacteria will thrive. Salts and sugar

hold water and make it unavailable to bacteria. Molds like damp, dark environments

for optimal growth

4. Human to food contact/contact with unclean surfaces aka Cross contamination

- Individuals who are sick, or carry germs on their hands (everyone), can transmit

viruses or bacteria directly to food or threw use of contaminated kitchen utensils.

- If food touches a surface, like a cutting board, that is unclean or was previously used

to cut meat and not washed, it can house viruses and bacteria that will transfer on to

the food. Preparing vegetables on a surface that was just used to prepare meats is a

common way to promote bacteria/virus growth. Preventing cross contamination is

crucial, even inside a refrigerator and when you are thawing foods.

The students should come to the realization that we are concerned with food safety policy

because we do not want students to get sick from eating the food grown on the hydroponics

34 The University of Rhode Island. (2017). Causes and prevention of foodborne illness. Retrieved from

http://web.uri.edu/foodsafety/cause-and-prevention-of-foodborne-illness/

system. We want to minimize the chance of creating environments where bacteria, mold, and

viruses can grow. After this discussion, tell the students that we are going to shift gears and

take everything we have learned about food safety and translate it into policy. We will be

looking at food safety policy as well as school policy to inform our proposal.

Policy 10 min

Ask the students if they can give you a definition of what a policy is and how policies are used.

Ask them to name any examples they can think of. You may choose to write the examples on

the board. Use the definition and examples below after students have finished brainstorming or if

they get stuck.

Policy35: management or procedure based primarily on material interest; a high-level overall plan

embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governing body.

Policies are rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures that we use in all different aspect of

life that tell us what can and cannot be done in different situations. For example, your school has

a dress code policy that outlines what students may or may not wear. Another example would be

policies that do not allow people to smoke inside of restaurants or in the work place, but allow

you to smoke outside of the establishment in designated areas.

Present the students with the school’s policies on food safety and food procurement. (If the

school does not have these policies, draw from the included document titled Food Safety

Policies). Ask the students to pull out key pieces they think are most important to them and

the project. Why are these important? Ask the students if they see any potential policy

barriers or things they need to keep in mind? Do they see anything missing from the

policy?

Designing Food Safety Policy 25 min

After reading through the policies, direct the students to the Measures for Safely Handling Fresh

Produce – Our Food Safety Policy worksheet. The students will be working together to outline

their own food policy guidelines specific to their proposal and the hydroponics system. Students

can be divided into small groups and then collaborate at the end if the class is large, but small-

sized classes should work together to design the policy. This activity was informed by

information outlined in California’s Farm to Fork publication titled: Farm to School Food Safety

Guidelines36. It will be very helpful to utilize pages 10-18 as students brainstorm their policy

ideas (copies of these pages should be distributed to students, but they should not copy it

directly). Before starting, it may be useful to talk with the students about what the overall goal of

the policy is (Answer: making sure they are safely feeding their fellow students).

35 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/policy 36 http://cafarmtofork.com/files/FarmToSchoolFoodSafetyToolkit.pdf

After going through the activity, ask the students if they think their policy outline aligns with

what the school has set up. Did they reference the current policy at all during their outline

process? Why or why not?

Remind the students that it will be important to mention and discuss their food safety proposal

during their final presentation.

Reflection exercise 5 min

For the last five minutes of class, have the students take out a piece of paper and write a brief

answer to the following prompt. Collect the prompts on their way out.

Thinking back to last week’s lesson, how could we design policy to encourage urban

agriculture methods and school gardens in our town?

Foodborne Illness Activity Worksheet

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Disease name: _________________________

Scientific name: __________________________

Circle one: Bacteria Parasite Virus Mold

Source(s): _____________________________________________

Symptoms: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Foodborne Illness Activity Answers:

E. coli37 Hepatitis A38

Salmonella39 Mold 40

Botulism41

Cyrpto42

37 https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/images/ecoli-1184px.jpg 38 http://themedcentrepharmacy.com/hepatitis-a/ 39http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/articles/health_tools/salmonella_outbrea

k_tomatoes_slideshow/PRinc_rm_photo_of_salmonella1.jpg 40 https://s3.amazonaws.com/engrade-myfiles/4037028012018444/microscopic_bread_mold.jpg 41 http://pediatricinfectiousdisease.blogspot.com/2016/01/clostridium-botulinum-honey-and-home.html 42 http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_33/1677576/160820-cryptosporidium-mn-

1030_e09926c78ed1a15cefe22beb1c2cae3f.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg

Foodborne Illness Fact Sheet43

Disease name: Botulism

Scientific name: Clostridium botulinum, C. Botulinum

Circle one: Bacteria

Source(s): Can be found in improperly canned vegetables, meats, and seafood. Grows well in

environments that have low oxygen levels and low acidity and is very heat resistant.

Symptoms: nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, and eventually paralysis and death. Those

infected do not typically have a fever.

Disease name: Toxicosis or Mycotoxins

Scientific name: Aspergillus falvus and aspergillus parasiticus

Circle one: Mold

Source(s): Comes from food that is moldy like peanuts, corn, wheat, bread, and cheese. Can be

spread by exposure to dust and damp conditions

Symptoms44: Typically causes nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Can be carcinogenic

(cause cancer) or cause liver disease

Disease name: E.coli gastroenteritis hemorrhagic colitis

Scientific name: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Circle one: Bacteria

Source(s)45: Mainly in undercooked meats like ground beef, but can be found in unpasteurized

soft cheeses, raw milk, and raw fruits and vegetables like sprouts. Can also be found in

contaminated water.

Symptoms: Diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever, nausea, kidney failure

43 http://extension.psu.edu/food/safety/educators/food-safety-lessons-for-middle-school-students/introduction-

background-in-microbiology/FSLssn1-2-10-05.pdf 44 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/14/mold-food-health-risk/2788405/ 45 https://www.foodsafety.gov/poisoning/causes/bacteriaviruses/ecoli/

Disease name: Cryptosporidiosis or “Crypto”

Scientific name: Cryptosporidium parvum

Circle one: Parasite

Source(s)46: Lives in people’s intestines. Transmitted mainly by water and undercooked meats.

The parasite lives in a shell which makes it very resistant to disinfection methods like chlorine.

Crypto is the leading cause of waterborne disease in US

Symptoms: diarrhea, gastrointestinal discomfort

Disease name: Viral food poisoning

Scientific name: Hepatitis A Virus

Circle one: Virus

Source(s): Can be present in shellfish when they are exposed to raw sewage. Can be spread to

vegetables if contaminated fertilizers are used when growing and the virus is not always killed

when cooked.

Symptoms: General feelings of sickness, appetite loss, nausea, vomiting, fever. Can cause liver

damage and death if left untreated.

Disease name: Salmonella

Scientific name: Salmonella species S. typhimurium,

S. enteriditisdis, S. anatum

Circle one: Bacteria

Source(s)47: Mostly associated with food that was contaminated by animal feces. Foods like

eggs, meat, poultry, turkey, unpasteurized orange juice, vegetables, and beef or pork may

become contaminated. Using the same cutting board to prepare raw meats and then raw

vegetables is one way to promote cross contamination of salmonella. Salmonella can grow

outside and inside eggs that are unrefrigerated and can be found in potato and egg salads.

Salmonella is why people warn of eating rough cookie dough that contains eggs.

Symptoms: Flu-like symptoms accompanied by muscular weakness, moderate fever, and

diarrhea.

46 https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/ 47 http://www.foodborneillness.com/salmonella_food_poisoning/

Measures for Safely Handling Fresh Produce – Our Food Safety Policy

Growing and Harvesting Produce

Using Produce in Taste-Tests

Personal Hygiene Measures

Washing and Preparing Produce

Serving Produce

Storing and Handling Produce

Review Exercise

Directions: Answer the prompt and turn in on your way out of class.

Thinking back to last week’s lesson, how could we design policy to encourage urban

agriculture methods and school gardens in our town and the surrounding school districts?

Food Safety and Procurement Policies

If your school does not have specific policy on procuring garden food into the cafeteria, the

following sites are great resources for learning more about the farm to school movement and the

policies that support it and safe practices for handling produce in schools.

1. National Farm to School Network – Farm to School Act 2015

a. http://www.farmtoschool.org/cnr2015

2. Life Lab – Policy and Protocols for School Gardens and Garden to Cafeteria

a. http://www.lifelab.org/for-educators/schoolgardens/garden-to-cafeteria/#Policy

3. Change Lab Solutions – Serving School Garden Produce in the Cafeteria

a. http://www.changelabsolutions.org/publications/school-garden-produce

4. USDA – Memo: Farm to School and School Garden Expenses

a. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/SP06-2015os.pdf

5. USDA – Memo: School Garden Q&As

a. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/SP_32-2009_os.pdf

6. USDA – School Gardens: Using Gardens to Grow Healthy Habits in Cafeterias,

Classrooms, and Communities

a. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/f2s/FactSheet_School_Gardens.pdf

If your school is interested in procuring foods from local farmers these resources will also be

beneficial:

1. Developing a wellness policy at your school

a. http://www.cias.wisc.edu/foodservtools/8-Build-sustainability/model-wellness-

policy-language.pdf

2. Policy Link – Equitable Development Toolkit: Local Food Procurement

a. https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/edtk_local-food-procurement.pdf

Information on Microorganisms

Bacteria are found everywhere and they can be good or bad for us. You can treat a bacterial

infection with antibiotics, but overtime certain bacteria can form a

resistance to these medicines. The shape of bacteria can vary, with

the three common shapes being spherical, rod-shaped, or

spiral48,49,50.

Yeasts and molds typically make us think of

breads as yeasts help breads to rise and molds are fuzzy growths on breads

and cheese. Yeast grows as a single cell, typically spherical in shape, but mold

is formed by branches of cells that are tubular in shape51,52, 53.

Viruses are almost always harmful to humans. They have genes and

can evolve and reproduce; however, since they do not have a cell

structure they need a host in order to thrive. There are four main

shapes of viruses, polyhedral, spherical, helical, and complex54,55.

Viruses attack all different body systems including blood, the

respiratory system, or our liver. It is really challenging to treat

viruses and vaccines are really the only main prevention methods.

Lastly are parasites, which are microorganisms that need a host to

survive and use the host for food and shelter. Not all parasites are

there to harm a host, but they can produce toxins that make the host

sick. Parasites come in all sorts of forms as they are truly classified

as any organisms feeding off another organism, but for foodborne

illnesses, our parasites are going to have a shape like that of a worm56,57. You can treat parasites

with antibiotics, but some parasites have no treatment methods58,59.

48 http://swh.schoolworkhelper.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/bacteria-bacilli-spirilla-

cocci.jpg?x37075 49 http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/courses/bio225/chap04/lecture2.htm 50 https://dr282zn36sxxg.cloudfront.net/datastreams/f-

d%3Ac3342fc75dcd790bc023416e0d99fbc3e65d1769211a42be86c6bc03%2BIMAGE_THUMB_POSTCARD_TI

NY%2BIMAGE_THUMB_POSTCARD_TINY.1 51 http://www.diffen.com/difference/Mold_vs_Yeast 52 http://microbialfoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Mold-yeast-bacteria-01.jpg 53 http://microbialfoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Mold-yeast-bacteria-01.jpg 54 https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/shapes-viruses-viral-vector-illustration-showing-there-many-different-sizes-

43457161.jpg 55 https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/shapes-viruses-viral-vector-illustration-showing-there-many-different-sizes-

43457161.jpg 56 http://www.carolguze.com/text/102-18-diversityoflife2.shtml 57 http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150925190314-toxocara-larva-exlarge-169.jpg 58 http://extension.psu.edu/food/safety/educators/food-safety-lessons-for-middle-school-students/introduction-

background-in-microbiology/FSLssn1-2-10-05.pdf 59 http://www.medicaldaily.com/viral-infection-im-sick-pathogens-384531

Lesson 4 Title: Food Procurement Project – Addressing Yields, Seasonality, and Budgeting

Objective: Students will investigate what it will take to get the food into their cafeteria via taste-

tests events. They will look at seasonality and harvest times to develop a rough calendar for their

taste-tests. Students will determine what other classes and students they will need to work with to

accomplish the taste-tests as well as what it will take to grow, prepare, and introduce the foods. If

students choose to add new foods that they are not currently growing, they will need to include

an analysis of what it will take to grow these foods in the form of a budget.

Topics: Math

Grade Level: 9th-12th Grade

Time: 84 minutes

External Materials Needed: chalkboard/wipe board, projector, computer, writing utensils

Teaching tips:

This lesson is meant to help students get at all the nitty-gritty details of starting their taste-tests.

The various operational and logistical questions are to be used to make students aware of all the

different components that need to be considered to run a successful taste-test program. For

answering these questions, small groups can be utilized if there is some class-wide discussion so

that everyone is on the same page – remember, the proposal is coming from the whole class so

everyone should be on board. To shorten this section, you may take out various questions if they

have already been previously answered or are not relevant in your situation. The portion of

calculating yields can also be taken out, if there is some discussion on why we would need to

calculate yields once the project is approved by the school’s administration. Additionally, other

sections that can be altered are the seasonality activity and the budget creation. If you prefer not

to cover seasonality if you are growing indoors, you may choose to skip over the seasonality

discussion and go straight into creating the rough calendar. The calendar creation is a great

activity (even better with seasonality discussion), but can be modified if needed or combined

with the budget creation activity. If there is no time to fill out the budget worksheet and use the

online sources to gain seed price information, have a short discussion on why it is important to

create a budget and in the final presentation recommend a budget amount or that a budget

amount be determined by the school’s administration. There are two options for the reflection

exercise. The first options cover mathematical topics and the second is more geared toward

Family Consumer Science as it is recipe creation. It is up to the teacher’s discretion on which

exercise should be completed in class or as homework. One suggestion is that if you remove the

budget creation activity from the lesson, use the math problem option as your exercise. The

lesson can also be covered over more than one day if needed.

Lesson Plan and Activities:

Introduction 3 min

For this lesson, students are going to start to make a business plan for their project. Tell them that

we are going to look at starting taste-tests in their cafeteria and want to write up a proposal to

share with the principal (and whoever else would be involved). To create a thorough plan, we

need to determine who are the key players in making this happen, how much food and what

foods can we produce, what foods are introduced at what time of the year, and how will they be

prepared. Remind them that it is just a proposal that it would need to be approved by the school,

but we want to make sure it is as sound as possible.

Procurement Method 7 min

Start by asking the students what could be the value of offering taste-tests in the cafeteria as a

strategy for getting students to eat more vegetables? You can include the following questions in

the conversation:

Why is it important to increase our fruit/vegetable intake?

How likely do you think students would be to try new foods?

Do you think that having students/fellow peers preparing the food would increase

students’ interest in trying new foods as a taste-test?

Taste-tests are a great way to introduce new foods and get people excited about trying healthy

food options that still taste good. After learning about the various policy barriers and challenges

of sourcing food directly into the cafeteria, this method could be an easy way to abide by all the

rules and still get students eating veggies. Increasing fruit/vegetable intake is great for our health

because it decreases the amount of processed foods we are putting into our bodies. If students are

growing, cooking, and serving the foods, peers may be more likely to try something new

compared to if they just saw it as an option in the lunch line. To pursue this method and propose

it to the principal, we need to work out some of the details and include them in our presentation.

Major Operational Questions 15 min

Arrange the desk so that everyone is sitting in a circle. As a group, fill out the Taste-Test Major

Questions Worksheet. They should use these questions/answers in their final proposal

presentation. If the class is very large, have the students break into small groups and then share

their answers with the class and look for converging ideas.

Where will the taste-tests be set up? Inside the cafeteria? Outside? Other? Why?

Who will run the taste-tests? Who will serve the food? Will there be shifts? Do we need

people for different lunch periods?

What will the set-up look like? What equipment will be needed? How will we attract

students over?

Who do we need to work with? Cooking class? Cafeteria staff? Principal? Other? Why?

Who will prepare the food? Who will clean up at the end? Where will the extra food go?

Major Logistical Questions 15 min

As a group, go through the logistical questions found in their Taste-Test Major Questions

Worksheet. They should use these questions in their final proposal presentation.

What foods are they currently capable of growing? How much can currently be grown?

Calculate yields and make time lines of how long it takes to grow

o With students, determine/calculate how many pounds of certain food they

produce in a week/month – these values will then be compared later to how much

is needed per serving of taste-test.

How many students do we need to feed per lunch period? Do we need to limit the amount

of people that can participate in each taste test because of supply?

What supplies will we need to make this happen? Will it vary depending on what is

served? In general, what are the common supplies? Where could we get them/who do we

ask for them?

o Cups, bowls, etc.

How do we determine what foods we will use in each taste-test? What kind of dishes will

be prepared? Should we make the foods seasonally appropriate? What foods should we

introduce to the system?

Seasonality Activity – Calendar Creation 20 min

For this activity, students need to think about what foods should be grown and when. They also

need to think about how long it takes to grow the amount that is needed. Whether you are using a

hydroponic system or a typical garden, thinking about when certain foods are grown can be

correlated with when certain foods should be showcased in the taste-tests. This activity can be

conducted in a large circle or in small groups depending on class size.

Go over the importance of seasonality with the students. “Seasonality of food refers to the

times of year when the harvest or the flavor of a given type food is at its peak. This is usually the

time when the item is the cheapest and the freshest on the market. The food's peak harvest time

usually coincides with when its flavor is at its best”60. Students want to think about seasonality

because it can relate back to the food miles activity. If you know what season certain foods grow

in, you will be more informed when buying foods at the grocery store, and may even be more

inclined to search for locally grown food because you know it will be at its freshest. When you

live in Pennsylvania and buy strawberries in the middle of winter, you know that they are not

being grown locally and are being imported. Knowing this can sometimes change how people

buy and consume foods.

Tell the students that we are going to look at a chart of foods that can be grown through

hydroponics and then try and determine what season they are commonly grown in. Students

will use the information on what can be grown hydroponically added at the end of this lesson to

make their decisions (the pages should be printed and distributed to groups). After students have

thought about what foods they would like to try out, move on to the seasonality guide for PA to

60 Wikipedia. (2016). Seasonal food. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_food

figure out when those foods are typically grown. Using the Seasonal Food Guide61 is a great

online tool that you can bring up with your students to figure out what foods you want to grow

and serve in which months to correspond with appropriate seasonality. Using hydroponics

indoors makes seasonality seem less important because weather is not a factor; however, having

students explore seasonality is meant to make them smarter consumers and expose them to foods

grown in different seasons that they may have not been previously aware of.

Using the calendar worksheet, in this lesson, as a class, have students start filling in where they

think certain taste-tests should fall. When they choose a certain food, they can also write down

suggestions of how the food should be prepared and served (Ex. if you wanted to use lettuce, one

idea would be to do salads). One of the review exercises for this lesson involves recipe creation

so if you do not stress it here students will be able to think about it at the end of the lesson.

Students should be using this calendar to also map out when they plan to start planting a certain

crop, factoring in how long it will take to grow. The worksheet allows students to write the taste-

test for that month as well as what foods they should begin growing. During the budget creation

exercise, students will gather information on each plants’ days to maturity so that they can figure

out how many months they need to plant in advance. They do not necessarily need to pick

specific dates; weeks may work as well until specific dates can be approved.

Some questions they may need to consider are:

How many test-tastes will they have in a week/month/year?

How long does it take to grow each type of food to meet the taste-test deadline?

Next, tell the students we are moving on to another round of logistical questions. These questions

will allow the students to form a budget around what they need to spend to make the taste-tests

possible.

Budget Creation 20 min

Using the following questions, have the students work in groups to complete a budget form so

they know how much everything will cost (they will need access to a computer). Ask the

students why they think it is necessary to be creating a budget? Why can’t we just propose the

taste-tests and ignore the budget component? The answer should revolve around ensuring that

there are enough funds to make this possible and to show their teacher and administration that

they have taken a thoughtful approach to this proposal. The goal is for the students to understand

the struggle of budgeting and perhaps not having enough money to make something happen, but

to also be creative and figure out ways to get the most out of the money they have.

If you already know what the set budget is for your garden, include that number so they know

what they must work with. If you do not have a budget, have the students simply figure out how

much everything will cost. Be sure to include miscellaneous costs like any fertilizers, utilities,

61 http://www.sustainabletable.org/seasonalfoodguide/

etc. Use the Taste-Test Budget Worksheet to work through this activity. (You may also choose to

work as a group in an Excel Document).

- What seeds will need to be purchased to accommodate the foods they want to grow?

- Is there a budget for current foods? If so, what is it?

- How much will it cost to introduce new foods?

- How much does it cost to produce a certain yield of each food? (figuring out how

many seed packs to purchase)

- Can any seeds be saved and used again?

To figure out prices of the seeds and days to maturity, use the following websites to get a generic

information for different fruits and vegetables. These websites will also be valuable in figuring

out the quantity you need to purchase to feed the number of students at the school. If your school

uses a certain provider or seeds, it would be best to gather information from them to use in your

budget.

Burpee Seeds: http://www.burpee.com/

Johnny’s Seeds: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/

During the process, and after the budget is completed, have the students take note of any foods

they needed to remove because it did not fit into their budget. How does this affect their taste-test

calendar? If there is time, have them brainstorm ways to generate revenue to increase their

budget. Remind the students that this budget should be incorporated into their final presentation

to show that they have thought about these details.

Reflection exercise 4 min

To end the lesson, have the students work out the following reflection exercise. Two different

options for exercises are provided. The first exercise is a word problem (the worksheet,

Sunflower Word Problem, will be distributed at the end of class) while the second option is a

recipe creation exercise to have students think through the steps to developing taste-test recipes

(again, worksheet to be distributed at the end of class):

Option 1: Word Problem

To celebrate graduation, a high school in Oklahoma, a world leader in growing sunflowers,

wants to distribute one sunflower to each graduating senior. The senior class consists of 265

students. Using the information below, determine how much it will cost the school to grow

enough sunflowers for each senior, considering that not all the seeds may produce the perfect

flower.

- 1 pack of 20 seeds costs $6.95

- Each seed is to produce one flower

Additionally, using the following information, when should the school plan to start growing the

sunflowers if graduation is June 14th? When should they harvest them?

- They need full sun

- Bloom duration is 6 weeks

- Seedlings emerge in 7-10 days

- Sunflowers usually take 80-120 days to mature

Answer:

265 students / 20 seeds per pack = 13.25 packs needed (round up to 14 packs)

14 packs * $6.95 per pack = $97.3

They should start planting in the beginning of April to allow roughly 3 months for the sunflowers

to grow. They can be harvested the day before graduation, which would have been roughly 1.5

weeks into their bloom.

Option 2: Recipe creation

One important part of our taste-tests is deciding what foods we should offer up at each event.

Answer the following questions that will help us determine what recipes we should use for our

tests:

Where should we look for recipes? Can you think of any sources besides the Internet?

What types of foods should we look for? Is it important to consider the number of ingredients?

Why or why not?

From the list, pick one component of the taste-tests that you think is the most important and

explain why you think that: serving nutritious foods, serving foods that taste good, serving foods

with the least number of ingredients, serving new foods people aren’t used to, other reasons.

What Can You Grow Hydroponically?62

WARM WEATHER CROPS: Start seedlings in March-April, transplant in May. Harvested

by late August:

Tomatoes

Green peppers

Eggplants

Cucumbers

Green beans

Squash (needs room)

Melons (need room)

COOL SEASON CROPS: Two growing seasons: Early spring (February 20); and early fall

(August 30):

Broccoli and cauliflower

Cabbage and bok choy

Lettuces

Spinach

Swiss chard

Peas, snow peas and sugar snaps

Green onions

Carrots (stubbies)

Other: Flowers, herbs, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, peppers, watermelon,

grapes

Note: Vegetables that grow beneath the soil, such as onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips, potatoes,

yams and radishes will also grow hydroponically, but may require extra care

Crops to avoid: corn, zucchini, summer squash, and vining plants. They can be grown in a

hydroponic garden, but they are not space efficient, and just not practical. They will dominate

your whole unit.

62 http://modularhydro.com/ArticleLibrary/WhatCanYouGrowHydroponically.html#top

10 Best (Easiest) Plants to Grow Hydroponically Indoors63

1. Spinach

2. Lettuce

3. Watercress- This semi-aquatic plant thrives best in water that is slightly alkaline and that

keeps moving.

4. Cherry Tomatoes- Keep in mind, though, that tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes, require a

lot of light to grow, so you might want to get a standalone grow light, or one of the cherry

tomato growing kits with LED grow lights.

5. Cucumbers- When planting cucumber vines, keep in mind that as the plants grow, the vines

will likely need to be supported with a large trellis or wire cage. No room for vines and a large

trellis? Popular among container gardeners, the bush types are much smaller than the more

common vine types, and you can buy bush cucumber seeds

6. Peppers (chili)

7. Kale

8. Strawberries- To get started, purchase a couple of strawberry starter runners from a garden

supply store, and place them in a refrigerator for a few of months before planting them in your

hydroponic indoor garden. Such cold stimulation helps jump-start the growing process, and your

strawberry plants should start producing flowers right after planting.

9. Mint- orange mint (also known as water mint) is a semi-aquatic plant that in nature grows best

in shallow water on the sides of ponds and streams. Also, peppermint, which is a hybrid cross

between spearmint and orange mint, loves water. AeroGarden sells hydroponic herb garden

kits that are ideal for indoor use and that are perfect for growing herbs like mint, basil, parsley

and cilantro at home.

10. Basil- The easiest way to get started with growing basil in a hydroponic system is to buy

basil seedlings at a garden center and transplant the seedlings into the hydroponic container after

carefully rinsing the soil off the roots.

63 http://www.healwithfood.org/grow-indoors/best-plants-to-grow-hydroponically-or-aquaponically.php

What to grow in stackable planters64 - Fruits and Veggies

Amaranth (vegetable type)

Arugula

Bayam

Beans: Lima, bush, pole, shell, green

Broccoli

Broccoli Raab

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage and Chinese cabbage

Cauliflower

Chard, all types

Chicory

Collards

Cucumbers

Cress

Dandelion, Italian

Eggplant, European

Endive

Escarole

Garbanzo beans

Gourds

Kale

Kinh gioi

Kohlrabi

Komatsuna

Leeks

Lettuce, all types

Mesclun Varieties

Melons, all types

64 https://www.mrstacky.com/FAQ.html

Misome

Mizuna

Mustard Greens

Ngo Gai

Okra

Pak Choy

Peas, all types

Peppers, all types

Radicchio

Sorrel

Spinach

Squash, all types

Strawberries

Tomatoes, all types

Can grow hydroponically

PA Seasonality Chart http://www.papreferred.com/seasonal_calendar.aspx

Calendar Worksheet

Directions: For each month, determine what foods you want to showcase. Add potentials dates if

you can.

August Date: March Date:

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

September April

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

October May

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ___________

November June

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________ _______________________ ____________

December

_______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________

January

_______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________

February

_______________________ ____________

_______________________ ____________

Test-Taste Budget Worksheet Budget: __________

Seed Type Price Per Unit Quantity Total Price

Total:

Misc. Items Price Per Unit Quantity Total Price

Total:

Sunflower Word Problem Name: ____________

To celebrate graduation, a high school in Oklahoma, a world leader in growing sunflowers,

wants to distribute one sunflower to each graduating senior. The senior class is made of 265

students. Using the information below, determine how much it will cost the school to grow

enough sunflowers for each senior, considering that not all the seeds may produce the perfect

flower.

- 1 pack of 20 seeds costs $6.95

- Each seed is to produce one flower

Calculations:

Total cost: ______________________

Additionally, using the following information, when should the school plan to start growing the

sunflowers if graduation is June 14th? When should they harvest them? Why?

- They need full sun

- Bloom duration is 6 weeks

- Seedlings emerge in 7-10 days

- Sunflowers usually take 80-120 days to mature

Answer:

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Recipe Creation Name: ________________

One important part of our taste-tests is deciding what foods we should offer up at each event.

Answer the following questions that will help us determine what recipes we should use for our

tests:

Where should we look for recipes? Can you think of any sources besides the Internet?

What types of foods should we look for? Is it important to consider the number of ingredients?

Why or why not?

From the list, pick one component of the taste-tests that you think is the most important and

explain why you think that: serving nutritious foods, serving foods that taste good, serving foods

with the least number of ingredients, serving new foods people aren’t used to, other reasons.

Taste-Test Major Questions Worksheet

Directions: Use this worksheet to keep track of major operational and logistical questions that

need answered to make the taste-tests possible. Keep track of these answers for your final

proposal.

Operational questions

Where will the taste-tests be set up? Inside the cafeteria? Outside? Other? Why?

Who will run the taste-tests? Who will serve the food? Will there be shifts? Do we need people

for different lunch periods?

What will the set-up look like? What equipment will be needed? How will we attract students

over?

Who do we need to work with? Cooking class? Cafeteria staff? Principal? Other? Why?

Who will prepare the food? Who will clean up at the end? Where will the extra food go?

Logistical Questions

What foods are we currently capable of growing? How much is grown?

How many students do we need to feed? Do we need to limit the amount of people that can

participate in each taste test because of supply? Are there multiple lunch periods? How many in

each? Where do we find this information?

What supplies will we need to make this happen? Will it vary depending on what is served? In

general, what are the common supplies? Where could we get them/who do we ask for them?

Seasonality Questions

How do we determine what foods we will use in each taste-test? What kind of dishes will be

prepared? Should we make the foods seasonally appropriate? What foods should we introduce to

the system?

How many test-tastes will they have in a week/month/year?

How long does it take to grow each type of food to meet the taste-test deadline?

Budget questions

What seeds will need to be purchased to accommodate the foods they want to grow?

What is the budget for current foods?

How much will it cost to introduce new foods?

How much does it cost to produce a certain yield of each food? (This will help us figure out how

many seed packs to purchase.

Can any seeds be saved and used again?

Lesson 5 Title: Food Procurement Project – Marketing Plan Development

Objective: Students are introduced to marketing strategies that will help them spread awareness

about their food being introduced through taste-tests. They will think about methods of

advertisement and how to get students excited about locally grown produce. Students will also

think about the emotional connections in advertising and how they can use that to grasp peoples’

interests and get them involved. Students will learn about how the media affects the choices we

make when it comes to eating and purchasing foods. They will analyze commercials to

determine what strategies are being used by fast-food restaurants and other food products to

target children and encourage them to buy their foods. The students will then learn other broad

strategies for creating advertisements and will have to work in groups to develop their own

campaign for a healthy food using these strategies.

Topics: Marketing, Psychology

Grade Level: 9th-12th Grade

Time: 84 minutes

External Materials Needed: chalkboard/wipe board, projector, computer, writing utensils

Teaching Tips:

The purpose of this lesson is to get students thinking about what makes today’s advertisements

so successful at getting people to buy certain products and how we can harness those same

strategies to persuade students to take part in the taste-tests. There are underlying psychological

principles within this lesson as students start to consider what the human brain finds attractive

and unattractive in marketing campaigns.

Though this lesson has various video clips to watch, it should be able to fit nicely within the

class period. The day-before-reading is an optional piece, but is particularly beneficial if you are

seeing the students every day because it allows you to easily assign the reading for homework. If

you are unable to have students read beforehand, use the premise of those readings to conduct a

quick discussion before getting deep into the lesson about how the think advertising targets

children. To shorten the lesson, you can omit the Think, Pair, Share activity and decrease the

time spent on the designing a marketing plan activity. To take this lesson to the next level, you

may choose to take the last activity and turn it into a long-term project where students are to

make their plan come to life by creating a commercial, poster, or other form of advertisement to

be used in the school.

Lesson Plan and Activities:

Optional day before reading: Students can read the following articles (pick two, one from each

bullet point). The first discusses how fast food restaurants target children through their

commercials and other strategies, while the second discusses effective advertising and marketing

techniques.

A. http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/11/12/fast-food-ads-continue-to-target-children/

B. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4508191&page=1

C. http://forty.co/effective-advertising-techniques-we-can-learn-from-infomercials

D. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2014/07/10/secrets-of-7-of-the-most-

effective-ad-campaigns/#c136ece12201

Introduction 4 min

Introduce to the students that we will be talking about how the media affects our eating habitats

and food choices. Briefly discuss the readings from last night and with the students start

generating a list of the ways fast food restaurants or other food brands can directly target

children. Through what lenses do they target kids? (TV, internet, social media, catchy songs or

jingles on radio). After you have a list started on the board, show students the following

commercials, stopping after each one to discuss some of the strategies companies used. Give

students the Marketing Strategies worksheet in conjunction with the next activity.

Marketing Strategies / Examples 15 min

Commercial Analysis- Major Themes in Advertising to Kids

Trix Cereal (31sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lhn0UUVIOA

False Advertising- make the product seem healthy

- Fruity Taste, wild berries, part of a nutritious breakfast,

delicious

Kids Only- this product is just for kids

- Tag line: Tricks are for kids

- Colorful and bright with fun music

- Young girl is directing the commercial

Pepsi (44 sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxcerxiSD9o

Celebrity Endorsement- famous people can persuade us to do what’s

“cool”

- One Direction and Drew Brees are promoting the product

McDonalds (31sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EH1IlV5q10

Cross Promotion- advertise two separate things in one commercial

- Advertise LEGO Movie and McDonalds

- Batman plug at end

- Apples and milk are thrilling to eat; enhanced by music choice

Giveaways (Contests)- Kids like toys and the chance to win

something

- Cup included in each happy meal

Discussion questions:

- Can you think of any other products that have used these strategies to target kids?

o SunnyD- only 2% juice, but made to sound as good for you as orange juice when

it is practically sugar water

o Nutella- portrayed as a nutritious option for breakfast

o Jessica Simpson and Justin Bieber- Proactive face wash

o Taylor Swift- Diet Coke

o Ashton Kutcher- Nikon cameras

- What are some of the negative impacts of these ads?

o False understanding of healthy food- Foods are promoted to be healthy and good

for you when many studies and nutrition experts have proven that the nutritional

make up of most of these foods is not healthy at all.

o Health concerns- With increased promotion of fast food, children could be

influenced to consume for of this food in unhealthy amounts leading to diet

related illness like obesity, diabetes, or heart disease

o Parents feel like they need to spend more money- parents are persuaded to

purchases these foods or regularly take their children to these restaurants could

have negative impacts on the amount of money they spend on unhealthy foods.

o Pay more for a label- Nike and Under Armour vs Champion and Mizuno-

consumers are drawn to popular labels and can base their decisions off of a label

alone (see reading B for an example of the power of the McDonalds label)

- Can you name any ads on TV that promote healthy foods?

Think, Pair, Share Activity 5 min

In groups of 2, can you think of any ways we can fight against this type of advertising? Can

you think of ways to encourage commercials related to healthy foods? What would it take to

prevent companies from targeting children in their commercials?

When time is up or the students have finished, write some of their ideas on the board. Explain

that policy is one major way we can limit the impact advertising has on children. We can develop

policy that stops the targeting of children in commercials or policy that incentivizes companies to

make commercials related to healthy eating and living habits. See if the students come up with

any other creative ideas that aren’t policy driven.

Marketing Healthy Foods 15 min

For the rest of the class period, tell the students that they are going to work on designing a

marketing plan to raise awareness about their food grown on the hydroponics system and get

students excited about trying it and eating it. Before they get started, refer to the list we made

on the board that depicts potential strategies, cross out any that you do not want students to focus

on. You can use the following strategies get them thinking more about effective techniques in

advertisement. Use this time to review what we have covered today and how it ties into this

assignment (Have students use last section on the Marketing Strategies worksheet for taking

more notes)

Your message/advertisement/marking plan should:

1. Be memorable- something that people will watch and remember

a. Create a tag-line or catch-phrase

2. Resonate with people on a personal level; give them something to relate to that is

meaningful; be inspirational; story telling is one way to do this

3. Communicate how this “product” is going to fit into their lives and be beneficial or make

them happy

a. Talk about solutions and benefits of product

4. Stand for higher values beyond the product or service- this is greater than just a

shoe/toy/snack/etc.

5. Back up claims with facts and figures

Sources (can share with students if desired):

“Secrets of 7 of the most effective ad campaigns65” By: Michelle Greenwald

“Effective advertising techniques we can learn from infomercials66” By: Shaina Rozen

You can show the following videos as examples of campaigns that follow these strategies:

1. Nike- Find Your Greatness: https://vimeo.com/90357991

a. Positive message

b. We don’t all need to be perfect, as long as we try to do our own personal best

c. Inspirational and relatable to everyone

d. Nike products “help us reach our personal goals”

2. Beats by Dr. Dre- Hear What You Want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zr6qQB2urE

a. Message is about inner strength and conviction, believing in yourself

b. Beats keep you focus so you can ignore the background noise in life that tries to

bring you down

c. Music makes us happy and inspires us

3. Michelle Obama- Let’s Move Campaign:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lbc3cLkEY8

a. Promoting exercise in a fun and positive way

b. Shows lots of examples

c. Developed a catchy song that talks about eating right and exercising each day of

the week

65 http://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2014/07/10/secrets-of-7-of-the-most-effective-ad-

campaigns/#c136ece12201 66 http://forty.co/effective-advertising-techniques-we-can-learn-from-infomercials

The students’ challenge is to take all that they have learned about marketing and advertising and

use it to promote the consumption of their hydroponically-grown foods in a way that grabs

people’s attention and makes them want to choose something healthy over something less

healthy. Think about health benefits, accessibility- where foods will be made available, taste-

appeal to the senses, etc.

Students should be creative, accurate in their facts, appropriate, and use at least 3 marketing

strategies to convey their message.

Develop market plan/strategies for getting students interested 40 min

Using the Developing a Marketing Plan worksheet, have the students start organizing how they

want to advertise their taste-tests to the student body. How will they get students excited about

trying new foods? They will need to outline their goals, what 3 marketing strategies they will

employ, and what activities they will use to get people’s attention (Ex. commercials, school

newspaper article, flyers, songs, surveys, signage, designing a logo, etc.). Page 1 of the

worksheet is used to help students organize their thoughts, while page 2 is to help students

design a chart or logic model of specifically how they will put their plan in place. For each

activity that they choose to do, they need to think about who they are targeting, what is being

offered to their target audience, why people should be interested, how they will get people

interested (the section is to be very specific of the processes they will use), when the different

activities will occur/take place, and what they hope the outcome of each activity to be.

Explain how to use the worksheet with the students, and then give them time as a group or in

small groups to work out their plans. Once they are finished, use the last ten minutes of this

activity to finalize into one consolidated plan. The activities chosen in their marketing plan

should be highlighted in their final presentation.

Reflection exercise 5 min

To wrap up the lesson, read some of the following company slogans to the students and have

them try and guess what company they belong to. For each guess, ask the students what part of

the slogan made them choose that company (if you want to write all the possible answers on the

board you may, but it will be more challenging to have them try and guess out of the blue)67.

“Beauty outside. Beast inside.” – Apple Mac Pro or “Think different” – Apple

“Don’t be evil.” – Google

“I am what I am.” – Reebok

“Live in your world. Play in ours.” – Play Station 2

“Because you’re worth it.” – L’oreal

67 http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/77-catchy-and-creative-slogans/

“Think big.” - IMAX

“Imagination at work.” – General Electric

Marketing Strategies

What techniques and strategies did you notice after watching the first 3 commercials?

- Trix:

- Pepsi:

- McDonalds:

List out other techniques you hear that come up in today’s discussion:

Developing a Marketing Plan

Define up to 3 goals for your marketing plan:

1.

2.

3.

What 3 strategies will you focus on?

1.

2.

3.

What 3 activities will help you reach your goals? (3 advertising/marketing/campaign ideas)

1.

2.

3.

Will you use a tag line? If so, what will it be?

How will your campaign/marketing plan inspire students to eat this food?

What back up claims or facts will you use? What benefits of the “product” will you highlight?

What other students/teachers/classes will need to be involved to accomplish this?

Lesson 6: Project Assignment Sheet

Your task is to put together a proposal for starting taste-tests in your cafeteria. This proposal will

be in the form of a 15-20 minute Power Point presentation and should cover the topics we have

discussed over the past five classes. You want to make sure your audience understands how you

plan to make the taste-tests possible and show that you have thought through logistical details. It

is also important that you talk about your project in the context of local food and food systems so

that your audience understands why the project is important to them and your school. The project

will be scored on how well you connect our lessons into your proposal.

Using the rubric below, your job is to make sure the majority of these questions are answered in

your presentation.

Presentation components – Taste test proposal

What – What is currently being done with the food grown on the system and what do we want

do with it going forward? What is the basis of this project? What research have we done for this

project?

Why – Why is this project important? Are there environmental or health benefits for students?

Where – Where will our project be implemented?

Who – Who will be involved in making this project possible? What groups/classes/students need

to be included in this project from here on out? Are there any roles that need to be played by

cafeteria workers, teachers, administration? Will the project take more time out of someone’s

day in order to run it?

When – When will the project be implemented? How often will the taste-tests occur? Why?

How –How will the project be run? How will food safety be taken into account? How will the

taste-tests be advertised?

Recommendations – Mention any recommendations you have for ensuring this project is

successful. What features could be added to expand the project after it is launched? i.e. a survey?

Limitations – Are there any limitations to this project? Will there be anything that gets in the

way of making this possible? How can we overcome the limitations?

Final Presentation Grading Rubric

Criteria Score

Taste-test plan explained

overall

Great Detail Some Detail Little Detail

Students explain their food

safety policy proposal

Students connect the

importance of food safety due

to the risk of foodborne

illnesses

Students demonstrate that

mathematical concepts have

been considered in the

planning of their test taste

schedule

Students discuss their plan to

advertise and get other students

engaged in taste tests

Students demonstrate they

have thought of effective ways

to capture their peers attention

in their advertising/marketing

strategies

What – What is currently

being done with the food

grown on the system and what

do we want to do with it going

forward? What is the basis of

this project? What research

have we done for this project?

Discussed project in context of

local food and food systems

Mention of changes in

agriculture over years or the

benefits/uses of urban

agriculture

Why – Why is this project

important? Are there

environmental or health

benefits?

Discussed any environmental

impacts

Discussed project in context of

benefits to human health

Where – Where will our

project be implemented?

Who – Who will be involved

in making this project

possible? What

groups/classes/students need to

be included in this project from

here on out? Are there any

roles that need to be played by

cafeteria workers, teachers,

administration? Will the

project take more time out of

someone’s day to run it?

When – When will the project

be implemented? How often

will the taste-tests occur?

Why?

How – How will this all

happen? How will the project

be run? How will food safety

be considered? How will the

taste-tests be advertised? How

we will ensure we have enough

food?

Recommendations – Mention

any recommendations you

have for ensuring this project is

successful. What features could

be added to expand the project

after it is launched?

Limitations – Are there any

limitations to this project? Will

there be anything that gets in

the way of making this

possible? How can we

overcome the limitations?

Presentation was 15-20 min Yes No

Overall quality of student

presentation Good quality Average quality Poor quality