Students and community members gathered recently for the annual “Crunch Heard ‘Round the Commonwealth.” This year's event was hosted at Isle of Wight County Schools’ award-winning Agricultural Land Lab as part of Virginia Farm-to-School Week.
The statewide Crunch campaign encouraged Virginians to take a bite out of a fresh, Virginia-grown apple. Students, educators, and several elected officials gathered at Isle of Wight's Agricultural Land Lab to participate as a group and raise awareness of Virginia's farm-to-school programs.
Students not only explore where their food comes from and gain practical agricultural skills in the programs, but they also enjoy the "fruits of their labor" during lunches in their school cafeterias. Additionally, older students train elementary school students in the lab as an introduction to agriculture and caring for animals.
Several groups of elementary school students joined the tour of the lab. They enjoyed meeting and learning about rabbits, pigs, chickens, goats, and cows. They also toured the lab’s greenhouse, which has been completed since last year’s event.
Isle of Wight offers this working-farm experience through its Agriculture/Land Lab program, part of its Career and Technical Education (CTE) Academy.
“To give our high school students this opportunity to have the hands-on [experience] with growing crops, having a greenhouse, having animals that they take care of every day and really learning the ins and outs makes the learning more authentic, more engaging, and really helps develop that passion in those students,” said Instructional Coordinator Stacey Rodgers.
Other CTE programs that Isle of Wight offers include Building Trades, Certified Nurse Aide, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Early Childhood/Little Sprouts, and Welding. These programs aim to prepare students for a wide range of careers, teach workplace readiness skills, offer industry certifications, and inform students about further educational opportunities.
Rodgers shared that her son participated in the Land Lab program in high school and is now studying agriculture at Virginia Tech. He isn’t sure yet what direction he may take within the industry, but she said the Isle of Wight program gives students a strong foundation in business, biology, and math.
Superintendent of Isle of Wight County Schools Dr. Christopher Coleman said it is rare to have a land lab of the caliber that Isle of Wight offers “with this curriculum, with this layout, with not only a teacher but a farm manager also, and the full support of not only the board of supervisors, but the school board and the community.”
“This community has figured out how to give students real-life experience that hopefully will result in more teachers, farmers, and other leaders for Isle of Wight and communities across the Commonwealth,” said Virginia Department of Education Superintendent of Public Instruction Jenna Conway.
See photos from the event:
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