A pair of enthusiastic Hosmer Elementary School ambassadors showed two members of Congress around their school Wednesday, ending with a meal cooked up by the school cafeteria staff that featured produce grown in Watertown High School’s hydroponic farm.
Congressman Jim McGovern and Congresswoman Katherine Clark visited Watertown as part of McGovern’s End Hunger Now Tour of Massachusetts, in support of the bill he filed on Capitol Hill to increase the amount of federal funding for school breakfasts and lunches.
Hosmer second-graders Maya and Daphne guided the two members of Congress through the hallways, into classrooms, through the media center, up and down stairs, and finally through the lunch line in the cafeteria.
Along the way they showed Clark and McGovern the carts which the visit before class starts to grab breakfast each morning.
Brandon Rabbit, Watertown’s Director of School Nutrition, said the Watertown Public Schools made some changes to encourage more students to eat the breakfasts.
“We were doing it before the school day, and we served about 10 breakfasts a day because it wasn’t accessible,” Rabbit said. “So, working with the Hosmer staff and then all the other elementary staff, we made it more accessible by stopping it before the school day and incorporating it (into the school day). Now they get the breakfast their breakfast from the carts when they come in, and then they eat it during their morning meeting. So everyone has access.”
About half of the students in Watertown’s elementary schools eat the breakfast provided by the school, Rabbit said. Even more, about 70 percent, eat lunches made by the Watertown Public Schools’ Food Services staff.
One way to encourage students to eat school-made lunches is to provide tasty meals. Rabbit said part of the effort is to have staff cook meals from scratch.
“It’s just a higher skill set to be able to scratch cook and follow recipes and do all that, where a heat and serve model is more about putting things on trays and heating them up,” Rabbit said.
Fresh ingredients also help make meals more appealing. Watertown Food Services gets greens for its salads from a farm located right in town. Students at Watertown High School can learn how to raise plants in the hydroponic farm located inside a freight container stored next to the Phillips School Administration Building.
Each day, they are bused over from the temporary high school location at Moxley Field. The elective appealed to senior Christina Karalis.
“Yeah, it was different, so I decided to try it,” Karalis said.
Classmate and senior Emily Marini pointed out the seedlings that are ready to be planted in the walls inside the Freight Farm.
“You can see the seeds, that takes about two weeks,” Marini said.
Senior Gavin Foley said the class then makes the transfer.
“We just move it, once it’s grown to these little things, over there to the wall,” Foley said, referring to the high tech walls that have water and different kinds of light to help the plants grow.
Marini added, “Overall it is ready in six weeks.”
McGovern and Clark also got a peek inside the Freight Farm before visiting Hosmer. The visit to Watertown was McGovern’s a stop on his tour to advocate for his legislation.
“I’m doing this, first to highlight the great work going on all around the Commonwealth, and second to highlight that we can build a better food system in this country,” McGovern said. “And that and that work actually starts with our schools, and what we have seen today in this community is really a model for the rest of the country.”
Clark welcomed McGovern to her district, and to Hosmer School, and thanked “the best tour guides, Maya and Daphne.” She added that she was impressed how Watertown has integrated learning into the effort to feed school children healthy meals.
Watertown, and all communities in Massachusetts, are able to provide lunches to all students after the state increased funding.
“It makes a difference. What we’ve seen in Massachusetts is making school lunches universal, and as our second grade tour guide showed us where they pick up breakfast along with every other student,” Clark said. “That is because the Commonwealth has made an investment in our children, so there is no more stigma about who has lunch paid for and who doesn’t. Everybody gets a nutritious meal that they enjoy, and I’ve never seen kids love lunch staff and cafeteria staff like these kids. It’s all part of building a community.”
Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston said that the Watertown Public Schools integrates learning with food nutrition.
“Our work in future farming and healthy free school nutrition represents an exciting step forward in how schools can connect learning, wellness and sustainability through programs like our hydroponic farming initiative,” Galdston said. “Students are not only learning about science and agriculture, they’re engaging in real world problem solving around food insecurity, climate resilience and community health. At the same time, we are living Massachusetts’ commitment to nutritious free school meals, so that every student has access to healthy food that fuels learning, growth and well being. It is our hope that every child in the United States has that same opportunity.”
McGovern’s legislation would increase the reimbursement rate for school lunches by 45 cents and for breakfasts by 28 cents.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it makes a huge difference in the quality of the food that we can serve our young people,” McGovern said.
Rabbit said the extra funding would help sustain Watertown’s school breakfast and lunch program.
“I’m just so grateful that we have the support of our elected officials, specifically, the Congressman’s bill regarding increasing federal reimbursement because increasing scratch cooking — that takes a very skilled labor force,” Rabbit said. “So being able to pay our staff a living wage is incredible. On top of that, the increased food costs and infrastructure that we need to do to make that happen.”
McGovern was asked when he thought his bill might be passed.
“It’s gonna be tough in the next few months, but I’m hoping that maybe next year, this can be a priority again,” McGovern said. “I think every dollar, every cent invested in nutrition for our kids, results in savings. Kids learn better and they don’t fall behind, and they grow to be healthy adults.”
Clark said that she would like to see different priorities in Washington.
“We could save so many kids from hunger if we had a President who prioritized those kids instead of a golden ballroom or corrupt handouts,” Clark said.