BCSD Nutrition Department Wins Golden Radish Award

The Baldwin County School District is pleased to announce that its School Nutrition Department has been selected as the recipient of the coveted Golden Radish Award by the Department of Education, the UGA Extension Service, the Department of Public Health, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture. The Golden Radish Awards began in 2014 as a way of recognizing the efforts of schools in promoting farm-to-school practices. "We have won it every year," said Nelson, "as high as the platinum level."

Even during the Covid-19 shutdown, Baldwin's nutrition department was still serving students fresh fruits and vegetables from its garden, doing taste testing, and buying from local suppliers. "With the BCSD having gardens in all of our schools, we are able to do that from the PreK program all the way up through the high school," Nelson said.

Every year, Baldwin School District is able to lay claim to the platinum level awards because of the diligence and hard work of its students, teachers, support staff and community members. "Teachers take their students out into the garden, they plan lessons around the garden, they take their math classes, their English and writing classes, and find new ways of approaching learning for gardening," Nelson said. "This year, we even had a music department take their lessons into the garden, which was quite interesting for us."

Nelson said that the department enjoys enormous support from its local farmers, businesses, and higher learning institutions which allows the staff to continue to build on those strong foundations.

Congratulations to our BCSD Nutrition Department and to all who continue to find innovative ways to use, maintain and expand our school gardens.