When Vista Unified School District’s WaveCrest Cafe launched its Farm to School program in 2014, few community members knew that it existed, what it was, or why it mattered.
Fast-forward to today and the robust program has seen awareness grow by 400%, enjoying public knowledge of the program between 65% - 70% based on regular surveys conducted by the Child Nutrition Services department.
The innovative department hired Dunk Tank Marketing to design, implement, and provide support for the promotion and outreach of the department as a whole, with Farm to School becoming a focus of the effort.
“Farm to School encompasses so much of what the department does, and it’s a clear and concise way to convey the values and work of the entire CNS team,” says Dave Palmer, Founder of Dunk Tank Marketing.
“The term ‘Farm to School’ is something many people already understand, which makes it easier to convey deeper information. And while the initial perception relates to local procurement, it really serves as a gateway to talk about much more.”
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Clarity & Repetition
All of the activity is great, but without communicating the department’s efforts and programs clearly and often, the message could have easily been lost.
“The temptation of any program is to try and tell people too many things at once, and the core message never takes root,” says Palmer. “With so many messages coming at us daily, it’s critical to have a core message, and then connect every activity back to that core. That’s what works so well for Farm to School - it encompasses the best of school nutrition programs.”
What Is Farm to School?
The National Farm to School Network highlights three core elements of Farm to School:
• Procurement
• Nutrition Education
• School Gardens
For WaveCrest Cafe, each of these elements was in place to some degree across the district. Utilizing the term Farm to School provided a shorthand for students, parents, staff, and the broader community to easily understand what the department was doing and why it mattered.
Procurement: Where Food Comes From
Knowing that much of the food being served was coming from local and California-based farms generated a source of confidence and pride in the meals being served. Sharing stories of the farmers and local vendors created touch points that made meals personal.
From a local farmer providing fresh seasonal fruit to a nearby gourmet bakery that provided fresh dough daily for the district’s pizza ovens, the stories of where food was coming from changed the conversation on school meals for the better.
Celebrating California farms by participating in the statewide California Thursdays campaign was another fun and vibrant way to engage school communities. Equipped with photo frames and a lot of energy, we snapped thousands of pictures of students enjoying fresh, seasonal California foods at lunchtime.
These images were posted on the WaveCrest Cafe website and via social media to showcase the food’s procurement and deliver a clear message over and over again. Clarity and repetition are key.
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Nutrition Education: Making Food Fun
Vista Unified and Dunk Tank Marketing collaborated to create and implement a variety of nutrition education events that engaged and excited students, staff, and families.
Blender Bikes created instant interest among students. With two bikes set up during recess and lunch periods, students took turns activating the blender attachment with pedal-power, and were rewarded with samples of fresh fruit smoothies.
In the process, participants discovered that the fresh fruit in the smoothies was the same fruit that was being served each day at school. This evoked a greater sense of trust and confidence in the quality of the food and the people preparing and serving it.
Harvest Of The Month & Cooking Carts. WaveCrest has long participated in the popular Harvest of The Month program, providing classroom lessons and tasty samples of fresh produce each month. Each month’s lesson and activities are also posted on the WaveCrest Cafe website so that students, staff, and families have 24/7 access to the information and activities.
The department also has a portable cooking cart that teachers can request. The carts are delivered to the schools with all of the materials and instructions needed for a nutrition lesson. Students love the activity as well as getting to taste new and exciting foods, all while learning about the importance of developing healthy habits with fresh, local foods.
School Gardens
School gardens are making a comeback in the current “post-Covid” stage, as students and staff are able to gather again. In fact, there may be no better example of Farm to School than the garden programs that provide food to the schools.
Many school gardens across the country have received permission to sell their harvest back to their school or school district. Many use that finding to cover the costs of the gardens themselves, creating a sustainable loop that benefits all involved parties.
Most school gardens don’t go that far - they exist as engaging ways to teach about nutrition, science, math, and more. Our friends at the Farm to Institution Center have compiled a wonderful list of school garden and Farm to School learning resources.
Communicating To The Community
All of this activity can be dizzying, particularly for busy parents and families. Dunk Tank Marketing has returned to a single maxim in promoting WaveCrest Cafe: clarity & repetition.
“We incorporate the #farm2school hashtag into almost every social post,” says Palmer, “and focus almost all of our messaging on the Farm to School term. It’s trusted, respected, and the WaveCrest Cafe team delivers on it every day, so the promise is delivered and trusted.”
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Jamie Phillips, Director of Child Nutrition Services for Vista Unified says, “Our team has worked closely with Dunk Tank Marketing for several years to promote the excellent work of our team and to engage and inform the community about the quality and importance of the school meal program to our community. Farm to School is a clear and effective way to talk about our nutrition department and all that we’re doing. Being known for Farm to School is a huge positive for our program and our staff.”
CONSISTENT, COMPELLING MESSAGING
Dunk Tank has worked with Vista Unified to design multiple ways to engage the community with the nutrition department and its Farm to School program. Those platforms include a standalone website and social media channels for the department, events on campus, news alerts shared with local media, a monthly email newsletter, and regular website and social media updates.
“Promoting school nutrition generally, and Farm to School specifically, is an ongoing process,” says Palmer. “Too often a district starts a promotion only to taper off as the demands of the school year build. It’s like a school garden that relies on a parent volunteer or single staff person. If anything disrupts that person’s schedule, the garden can go fallow and need to be restarted.
“We’re grateful to work with an amazing team in Vista to collaborate on a consistent, ongoing campaign to keep WaveCrest Cafe in peoples’ minds day in and day out. When students, staff, and families know more about what’s happening, they feel better about the meals served and the care provided by the people preparing and serving them.”
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Images courtesy of Vista Unified School District and Dunk Tank Marketing.