{"id":122798,"date":"2013-11-26T22:49:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T05:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-gets-a-boost-for-farm-to-school-projects\/"},"modified":"2013-11-26T22:49:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T05:49:37","slug":"montezuma-county-gets-a-boost-for-farm-to-school-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-gets-a-boost-for-farm-to-school-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County gets a boost for Farm to School projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mancos sixth-grader Mickaela Moores won $50 for her poster, titled \"Where Does Your Water Shed?\" Her project showcased how water usage impacts people and environments downstream.
Mancos sixth-grader Mickaela Moores won $50 for her poster, titled \"Where Does Your Water Shed?\" Her project showcased how water usage impacts people and environments downstream.<\/span>Courtesy Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Montezuma Farm to School project will continue to grow in 2014, thanks to a $40,000 grant.<\/p>\n

The $40,000 Colorado State Conservation Board (CSCB) matching grant will help fund farm field trips, summer camps, in-class farmer visits, school gardens and after-school programs, project director Sarah Syverson said.<\/p>\n

The Farm to School program aims to involve students, teachers, local producers and parents in a dynamic approach to sustainable food production and conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne carrot at a time, one kid at a time, we are making a difference in students\u2019 conceptions and connections to their agricultural heritage and their growing future,\u201d Syverson said.<\/p>\n

In addition, gardens at Dolores, Mancos and Cortez schools help teach students about soil and water conservation methods and practices.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s vital that specific curriculum concepts in math and science are incorporated around drought education and resilience, considering the region has been in long-standing drought conditions for more than a decade, Syverson added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to provide practical, hands-on experiential education about our region\u2019s agricultural challenges and needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Montezuma Farm to School project, the task of interweaving water and watershed education into the garden classes is taking on more and more importance,\u201d Americorps volunteer Harrison Topp said. \u201cWhen in it comes to raising responsible Colorado citizens and the future agrarians of Montezuma County, these lessons are imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topp said several local students are grasping those lessons as evidenced by a recent poster contest sponsored by the Mancos Conservation District, Dolores Conservation District and Colorado Association of Conservation Districts. The contest \u2013 \u201cWhere Does Your Water Shed?\u201d \u2013 called for students to answer the question by creating informative posters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned we use a lot of water, everyday, for everything,\u201d said Mancos sixth-grade contestant Kaytea Mayhan.<\/p>\n

Mayhan explained for her poster she simply counted the number of times she turned on the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned the faucet on over 30 times a day,\u201d she explained. \u201cI\u2019ve got to start thinking about that and doing it less.\u201d In 2014, Topp said the Montezuma School to Farm Project would do more to educate students about drought conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope these lessons will inspire students to engage in the conversation about how, as residents in an increasingly arid region, we can adapt to promote resilience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Syverson said the latest grant is welcome news following the decision by Livewell Montezuma to pull back its funding for the program. The Mancos Conservation District joined forces with the Dolores Conservation District to apply for the $40,000 matching grant. Both the City of Cortez and the Town of Mancos have stepped forward to help match the grant.<\/p>\n

With a $140,000 operating budget for fiscal year 2014, the Montezuma Farm to School project has reached more than 1,600 students and produced more than a ton of produce for school cafeterias since its inception four years ago.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

gives $40,000 grant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13,83,1074,3270,93],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-middle-school","tag-organic-foods","tag-students"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122798"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}