FBU Fits Perfectly into the Farm and Nutrition Education Program at Jones Valley Teaching Farm

Jones Valley Teaching Farm is in the middle of downtown Birmingham, Alabama and is a valuable resource to the community. They have helped improve healthy food access by providing community garden plots to downtown residents and sell their produce on site as well as at the Saturday Farmer’s Market. While they are a production farm, the focus is education programs for children. Seed to Plate is their most well-known program. Students come to the farm for a science based, hands on learning experience where they learn where food comes from. After harvesting seasonal produce, they go into the kitchen to learn about nutrition and make a healthy snack using what they harvested. By the end of the year, they will have had 3,500 students come to Jones Valley Teaching Farm! With the growing demand for Seed to Plate, Jones Valley Teaching Farm is adding to their program equipment and materials.

Jones Valley Teaching Farm has had one of Rock the Bike’s bike blenders for a few years now and love it so much they’re ordering two more with the funding from Junior League! It fits perfectly into the farm and nutrition education program teaching students the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. What’s more impressive to a kid than picking your own fresh strawberries and spinach, then putting them into a blender with juice and pedaling to make themselves a tasty, nutritious smoothie? Jones Valley was invited to a spring festival at another community garden in town and asked to bring the bike blender. Below is a photo of that day:

 

Jones Valley Teaching Farm also works with a local co-op “Bici” who took old bikes and refurbished them to give to children or those who couldn’t afford a bike. Bici has come to the farm to talk to the kids about bike safety and to do bike tours downtown. The Farm also has a really cool bike plow for the garden!