In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., HISD’s Nutrition Services Department hosted 86 students at the Food and Agriculture Literacy Center at Mykawa Farm for a day of volunteering, learning, and strategizing to combat food insecurity in the HISD community on Saturday, Jan. 13. Attendees included students from Stevenson Middle School, Kashmere, Wheatley, and Worthing High School students in the Miles Ahead Scholars program, as well as the Texas A&M 4-H Global Leadership Beyond Education (G.L.O.B.E.) program.
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Beyond the Plate to Capitol Hill: HISD Nutrition hosts USDA Deputy Under Secretary
HISD’s award-winning Nutrition Services Department welcomed guests on Jan. 30, including USDA Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean, for a roundtable discussion about Beyond the Plate, the district’s focus on building capacity within HISD communities to ensure they have access to healthy food options.
Continue readingNutrition Services hosts elementary and middle schoolers for Food and Agriculture Literacy Harvest Festival
The Food and Agriculture Literacy Center at Mykawa Farm is a labor of love made possible by HISD’s dedicated Nutrition Services Department. Mykawa caretakers welcomed two classes from Young Elementary School and Attucks Middle School for a Fall Harvest Festival to celebrate a successful planting season.
Continue readingHISD Nutrition Services earns top 10 spot in international challenge
HISD’s Nutrition Services Department is committed to mitigating inequity in childhood nutrition in the Houston area. Since the inception of Mykawa Farm, home to the department’s Food and Agriculture Literacy Center, Nutrition Services has prioritized practical and tangible uses for the education they provide through the Get Growing Houston program.
Nutrition Services recently took their ideas to a global stage, reaching top 10 in the Healthy Childhood Challenge (HCC). The international competition launched by Novo Nordisk in collaboration with UNICEF calls for ideas designed to improve the nutritional, physical, and emotional well-being of children in their home environments.
Continue readingHISD employees learn about hydroponic farming
No soil to farm? No problem. A group of HISD employees learned how to grow plants in water during a crash course at the Dream Harvest Farming Company.
Pop-up farmers market coming to HISD’s Hattie Mae White building
Nutrition Services Food and Agriculture Literacy Program will host a pop-up farmers market at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center on Friday, June 3, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Continue readingWaltrip HS honors school lunch heroes
Waltrip High School wrapped up Teacher Appreciation Week on Friday, May 6, with the presentation of a proclamation from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner recognizing School Lunch Hero Day. It’s a day of celebration in honor of HISD’s dedicated Nutrition Services staff and the lasting impact their work has on the students they feed every day.
Continue readingNutrition Services, military veterans join to plant seeds of hope on 9/11
As the sun rose over Mykawa Farm, Bernadette Plummer gathered with fellow military veterans to build garden beds where students can plant seeds and a gazebo to offer the young agriculturists shade from the Texas heat.
Nearby, other volunteers assembled outdoor teaching tables and a hoop house where seeds from HISD school garden will be kept warm enough to sprout in the winter.
Lamar senior teaches students about bees at HISD farm
Amongst the blooming plants and swarming insects that lay claim to a sprawling green space in Southwest Houston, stood the youngest of instructors who was developing a buzz all her own.
In her final weeks as a senior at Lamar High School, Lisa Rollinson was tapped to lead educational workshops for nearly two dozen students at the Food and Agriculture Literacy Center at Mykawa Farm.
As one of just five experts selected for the job, Rollinson received the honor after being designated by the Texas Department of Agriculture as one of 12 Health Ambassadors for a Ready Texas. The designation recognizes teens who advocate for healthy lifestyles.
Continue readingNutrition Services hosts student workshops during Food & Agriculture Day at Mykawa Farm
Nearly two dozen students craned their necks to see the green plants and bright, booming flowers as their buses arrived Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Literacy Center at Mykawa Farm.
As they got off the bus, they bounded toward a hollowed-out tree trunk, eager to visit the workstations designed to help them connect classroom science to real-life agriculture, nutrition, and the natural world.
“We’re here today to share with you how food comes from the soil and ends up on your plate,” said Marcus Glenn, Area Manager for Nutrition Services Food and Agriculture Literacy.
The Food and Agriculture Literacy Center at Mykawa Farm is a working educational farm that integrates nutrition and food science with core curriculum to provide students with hands-on learning experiences.
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