Farm to Table class offered

RITZVILLE — Lind-Ritzville Middle School is getting funding as a boost for its new Farm to Table class.

AgWest Farm Credit has awarded a $3,500 grant to the middle school for the new class on food and farming.

The grant will go toward equipment and supplies for the elective class.

Other elective classes in the cycle include photojournalism, drama and wildlife.

During the spring 2023 quarter, middle school officials asked students what would interest them most for new elective classes for next fall.

“Almost unanimously, (they) answered cooking,” Principal Don Walker said.

Middle school mathematics teacher Christina Heater then pitched the idea of using an undedicated classroom as the new base for the cooking class.

With the help of her para-educator, Eleda Najera, they pulled in ag teacher Lori Sanderson, who then introduced the idea of “farm to table.”

“She was very interested in teaching,” Walker said.

The farm-to-table class is part of the CTE curriculum, which is the basis of Sanderson’s class.

The new class focuses on food, safety, proper measuring and the origins of foods like flour, milk and eggs.

However, the classroom needed to be updated with new equipment and supplies.

Linda Erdman stepped in to help the school apply for the AgWest Farm Credits “Rural Community Grant Program.”

AgWest serves much of the West Coast, but has offices in nearby Ritzville, Pasco and Moses Lake.

The program awards up to $5,000 for community projects such as improving community parks and fire engines for rural fire departments.

The grant requires that an active customer or a current employee write a letter of recommendation to the grant committee.

Erdman reached out to AgWest, and employee Stacy Schoessler drafted a letter.

“I referenced the past uses,” Schoessler said, noting she referenced previous uses of the room as a home economics classroom and hoped that the newly done room could be used for the class.

“Farm kids are the minority in classrooms today,” she said. “Exposing the kids to the source of their food is important.”

Schoessler has been on the Lind-Ritzville Alumni board in previous years and finished her letter to the grant committee by saying she “felt that students needed to know that potatoes did not come from boxes.”