SARASOTA, Fla. — Thanksgiving Day traditions are notably connected to agriculture as part of celebrating the fall harvest. But with many of our farms being replaced with housing developments, many children often grow up not knowing how their food gets to their table.
The Sarasota School District hopes to change that with a state-of-the-art farm renovation that would transform its agriculture program and keep young people better engaged about the subject.
“We’ve got this 40 acres right here in the middle of town that is good farm property to help maintain agriculture education so that students and families know where their food comes from and how agriculture impacts almost everything that we do,” said Tripp Jennings, the district’s assistant director of career and technical education
The land located near McIntosh Middle School was originally owned by Jasper Crowley, who first purchased it in the 1950s. Crowley, a descendant of one of the early families to settle in Sarasota, was also a well-known local educator and conservationist.
District officials said they’re keeping his legacy alive with their plans for the land which include multiple ways to enhance classroom instruction.
“What we will end up with is two large animal barns, about 50 stalls for students to host animal projects. We will have a large covered arena. We will have a large greenhouse and a food science demonstration kitchen building,” Jennings said.
“Everything from pre-kindergarten students doing sensory. They could come out here and get the sights and smells and touches all the way to career and technical education where plumbing students install irrigation in a garden,” he continued.
Educators hope to use this as a way of changing children’s and families’ relationships and perspectives about food production and careers.
“We want our students to understand where their food comes from and that’s helping them to understand the entire food system,” said Kate Traugott, farm manager at Sarasota County Schools.
Once completed, the facility would benefit the nearly 45,000 students in the Sarasota School district.
“They need to be out on the farm to develop a sense of place and safety in this type of environment. If it’s their first exposure, they have a lot of questions and that’s part of helping them learn,” Traugott said.
The district plans to use a combination of federal, county, and state funds to pay for the renovations estimated to cost around $6 million.
Officials hope investing in the property in this way will protect it from prospective and enticing development dollars.
“Keep the educational opportunity alive because even if it all gets developed agriculture, still a major impact on the economy, textiles clothing, medicine, paper, almost everything that we do,” Jennings added.
The 50 stalls that would be at the farm facility would allow students to rent space for their animal and farm-related projects and help them participate in county fairs.
