One of the founders of an effort to teach elementary schoolchildren where their food comes from said she’s overwhelmed at how the event has grown in four years.
Glenda Murphy held the first Burger and Fries Farm at her acreage outside of Melfort in the fall of 2013, working together with Jessica Hutton, the then manager for the Carrot River Valley Watershed Association.
“There was a place in Yorkton that was doing a pizza farm and she was wondering if we had the ability to do it here,” Murphy said.
So Murphy got the teachers of her two kids involved and hosted the event.
“Lots of kids now are getting removed from the farm and don’t realize where their food comes from, so we wanted to show them, from start to finish, what it takes to get the food to the plate.”
Murphy hosted the event for two years, then Victor Kernaleguen of Gateway Veterinary Services took the hosting at his practice.
“I think it’s definitely a good success again this year,” he said about the June 7 event. “The biggest thing that we shoot for is make sure that kids know where their food comes from.”
Grade 2 and 3 students from the three Melfort elementary schools and Gronlid Central School received lessons on farm safety, beekeeping, beef production, dairy production, crop production, water management and gardening.
The event has grown since its inception.
“We started with 38 kids and now we’re up to 102,” Murphy said. “It started with just Reynolds and now we’ve got Reynolds, Brunswick, Maude Burke and Gronlid.”
Murphy said she didn’t expect that kind of uptake.
“I kind of did it as a two-class project and it’s turned out to be something bigger than that.”
There are also more sponsors, increasing from eight in the first year to more than 40.
Murphy said it’s also neat to see how the kids respond to the event and find out just how much they don’t know about where their food comes from.
