Grocery Store and Farmers Market Food Systems Education Resources

[John Fisher]

Greetings,

I am looking for program and lesson ideas for grocery store- or farmers market-based education resources for primary grades. 

At Life Lab we ran the Field to Market to You Program with a local grocery store chain in the early 2000's. Do you have any more current activity resources like lesson write ups, slide decks, scavenger hunts or program themes you'd be willing to share.

View copies of our program materials on our history blog https://www.lifelab.org/life-lab-history/2001/12/2001-field-to-market-to-you-2 . These include Spanish and English Language activity journals and program description documents. 

We recruited and trained UCSC College interns to be instructors of this program. They first visited a classroom and then a subsequent day the class would come and tour the grocery store.

Field To Market to You

4th-6th Grade Program

In-Class Presentation, students:

• brainstorm the roles of farming, processing, distribution, and transportation in the life cycle of food production

• investigate local and non- local food

• learn about nutrition labels

New Leaf Community Market Exploration - At their local New Leaf, students:

• compare bulk vs. packaged foods

• research food labels

• play Wow-Cow (an animal by- product game) - learn cool facts about various animals

• investigate the nutrition and locality of produce, and sample in-season produce

2nd-3rd Grade Program

In-Class Presentation, students:

• explore the local food history of Santa Cruz, from the Ohlone to the present

• compare foods eaten and prepared throughout history to understand how they differ from food today

New Leaf Community Market Exploration - At their local New Leaf, students:

• go on a scavenger hunt to find foods that were eaten by the Ohlone, the Pioneers, and by us today

• tour the operations of their local grocery to see various aspects of store management

• sample delicious treats throughout the exploration.