A6
AG DAY
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
From the farm to the school
Prairie City students
learning and growing
what they eat
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Prairie City students are
putting food on the table.
The Farm to School pro-
gram implemented this
school year at Prairie City
School District is teach-
ing students from preschool
through sixth grade where
their food comes from while
providing their cafeteria with
food they grew on campus.
Farm to School Coordi-
nator Amanda Rockhill said
the kids in the program really
enjoy the class because they
get to work hard raising
something they can eat as
they manage cattle, crops
and chickens on campus.
“They get their hands
dirty, and they’re in charge of
the things that are out here,”
Rockhill said. “I told them
from the start, ‘Guys, these
are not my chickens. This is
not my garden. This is your
guys’ garden and chickens.’”
Every kid from preschool
to sixth grade, about 114 in
total, gets a chance to par-
ticipate in the program for
30 minutes every other day.
Rockhill said the kids love
going outside to work with
the animals, land labs and the
chicken coop that was built
this year.
Sixth-grader Bristol Bai-
ley said she loves to see all
the animals and take care of
them while learning about
them, especially the goats.
Tatyn Harper, a sixth-
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Amanda Rockhill holds one of the goats that was recently born.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Fifth- and sixth-grade girls begin shoveling out straw on March 18.
grader, said he enjoys the
program because he likes to
work with animals and the
chance to work outside of a
classroom. He said he likes
to feed pigs and cows in the
program because it’s what he
does at home.
Harper said he got to learn
many things about chickens
that he didn’t know before,
such as the process chick-
ens go through before they
hatch.
“Before I came, I knew
nothing about chickens,
and then we hatched a cou-
ple last weekend,” Harper
said. “(Rockhill) showed us
how many days it takes for a
chicken to hatch and how to
take care of it.”
Students get to gather
eggs every day, clean the
coop and feed and water
the chickens. The fi fth- and
sixth-graders just fi nished
incubating eggs in their
classroom while learning
how the embryo grows in its
21-day cycle, Rockhill said.
The kids also raised two
hogs and two steers that were
recently sent to the butcher.
“The kids cleaned up
after them, they watered
them, they fed them, the
whole enchilada,” Rockh-
ill said. “They were tiny lit-
tle pigs, and we talked about
what they were for. They
will be eaten and used in the
cafeteria.”
Sixth-grader Chet Work-
man said he likes the oppor-
tunity to work outside with
animals, especially the
steers, goats and pigs.
Happy National Ag Day
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Amanda Rockhill said the
second-graders love to work
with the chickens. The chick-
en coop produces around 20
eggs daily.
“I liked feeding them
and working with them,”
Workman said. “I defi nitely
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Sonja Harig, left, and Rylee Workman help clear out rocks on
March 18.
learned how to take care of
animals, what to feed them
and how many days it will be
until they’re born.”
Rockhill said the kids
learned about diff erent cuts
of meat and how they can be
used in diff erent dishes.
“The kids thought it was
pretty cool,” Rockhill said.
“Yeah, it’s pig meat, but they
didn’t grasp the entire pic-
ture. There’s pork chops,
bacon, sausage, which are
all diff erent things that came
from the same animal.”
There are also four goats in
their land labs that have been
giving birth over the past cou-
ple of months, providing the
opportunity to care for the
newborn goats and learn about
the diff erent breeds.
Rockhill said the Farm to
School program helps stu-
dents better understand the
wide range of agriculture in
Oregon.
“We talked about the fi sh
industry, and they never
thought about that as part
of agriculture,” Rockhill
said. “You wouldn’t think
so, because when you think
of agriculture you think of
cows.”
Rockhill said watching
the students learn new facts
about agriculture has been
enjoyable.
“When they learn some-
thing new they’re just so
fun, and I like when they
come up and tell me a ran-
dom fact on agriculture,”
Rockhill said.
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