Jasper Middle School students taste Indiana-grown food at Food Day event

More than 500 Jasper Middle School students sampled Indiana-grown food and met local farmers and food makers Thursday, Oct. 15, at the school’s Indiana Food Day celebration.

Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools hosted the event. This year’s statewide focus is tomatoes.

Participating groups included Indiana Farmwise, the Indiana Dairy Association, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Slaughter Orchard and Cidery, Tell City Pretzels, Fischer Farms, Red Gold and Sodexo.

The event featured Red Gold canned tomato products and other Indiana Grown foods. Dave Fischer of Fischer Farms cooked sliders on an indoor grill for any student who wanted one. Sandy Smith of Tell City Pretzels handed out whole grain pretzel bites. Rachel Brandenburger of the state agriculture department and Robin Kitowski of Indiana Farmwise led a word game and an agriculture lesson.

School food service staff made a cheeseburger flatbread pizza and a hummus pizza. The district said the hummus pizza was a surprise hit.

Students filled out a “passport” as they visited each booth. They then answered one of three questions about the guests to enter a drawing.

This is the 14th year Indiana schools have set aside time to highlight Indiana Grown foods, according to the district. It is the second year GJCS has held its own celebration.

GJCS is in the second year of its Farm to School program. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade get agriculture lessons, and students at several grade levels can garden on campus, Conexus said.

Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools is currently working to obtain additional state and federal funding, which would allow them to expand the number of local foods that are served to the students on a daily basis and serve further-processed whole foods not only in season but year-round, Sodexo said in a press release.

Sodexo is the school corporation’s contractor for food and dining services.