Growing a Child’s Imagination

Lacey Fletcher is a mom, local farmer, and FoodCorps service member in Cedarville, Arkansas. She teaches lessons on cooking, gardening, and nutrition, and works to promote a school-wide culture of health in her community. As a result, her young students are seeing their food in a completely different way.

As a third-grader, Carson Dyer was asked to describe her ideal garden. “If it was really magic, I would grow squash cupcakes. They would be rainbow and they would grow to be the size of a car so it would take you, like, days to eat it.”

At Carson’s school, students cultivate their own garden and develop a first-hand appreciation for what they eat.

Another FoodCorps service member, Abrianna Peyton, points to the practical benefits of farm-to-school: “I was a big hands-on learner as a child, and there’s something different when you can get in there and do the things yourself and see what you created. Farm-to-school gives kids the self-confidence that they’re capable of achieving things.”

Getting an eight-year-old to want to eat squash for days? Now that’s an achievement!

Newman’s Own proudly supports FoodCorps, which helps to provide food education and nourishing school meals for more than 120,000 students every year.