Serving Up Good Nutrition VIRTUAL FARM TO YOU PROGRAM EDUCATES STUDENTS ABOUT NUTRITION AND AGRICULTURE
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THERE IS A NEED FOR GREATER HEALTH EDUCATION, AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY OUR PROGRAM EXISTS. BECKY BROWN
72 WINTER/SPRING 2022
n elementary boy runs down the halls of his school and shouts, “This is the best day of my life!” He stands there with a proud smile across his face because he completed the Farm to You program. Stories like this bring a smile to the face of Becky Brown, Farm to You coordinator and OSU Extension education coordinator. Created in 2008, Farm to You is an educational and immersive experience for elementary students that was designed to be a live, in-person experience, Brown said. Its purpose is to teach, engage and inform students about proper nutrition and agriculture. Created by Community Nutrition Education Programs, a service of Oklahoma State University Extension, Farm to You has hosted more than 160,000 students and has been displayed at hundreds of schools across the state. “Farm to You is one of our most popular exhibits because there is certainly a buzz at the school when kids get to experience it,” said Jennifer Klufa, assistant state specialist for OSU Extension. “Seeing the kids’ reactions makes it worthwhile and proves Farm to You is just one example of direct education that can make an impact.” Oklahoma ranks in the bottom five for overall state health with 34.8% of
children ages 10 to 17 being overweight or obese, Brown said. Farm to You presents students the opportunity to learn about Oklahoma agriculture, nutrition and health as a way to overcome those statistics in a fun way, she added. “Our goal is to educate about where food comes from and the importance of wise nutritional choices so as to negate misinformation and improve the health of Oklahoma youth,” Klufa said. Several Oklahoma schools work hard to teach about health, but Oklahoma’s unfavorable health statistics show there is still work to be done, Klufa said. This is why the team travels to schools and provides those resources in an engaging and enjoyable way for kids, Brown said. When Farm to You is offered in person, first- through sixth-grade students travel through the physical display and attend nine primary stations curated by CNEP. Thirdand fourth-grade students receive a passport booklet in which they answer eight evaluation questions to test their knowledge and retention of the station they previously attended. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CNEP created a virtual version of the program in 2020: Virtual Farm to You. Virtual was the sole avenue Farm to You was offered during the
