Press release
Galion students in first and third grade had a unique opportunity to experience a working farm right in their back yard. The students were able to take the educational field trips to Apple Hill Orchards thanks to funding from the Galion City School District Food Service department.
When students arrived, they were greeted by the owners of Apple Hill and divided into two groups. One group began their tour in the orchard, while the other group started in the cider house.
“We are a working farm and kids don’t get to experience this anymore,” Apple Hill owner Anne Joudrey said. “We want to show them what really goes in to growing and taking care of fruit and the trees, explain why honey bees are so important and give them an experience they may not have in their own community.”
Students got to see bins of apples that had been picked on the farm. They got to see how apples are pressed into apple cider. They also got to go into the orchard on a hayride and pick their own apple.
They were surprised to see that the apples had been sorted and cleaned before being offered to customers,” first grade teacher Julie Human said. “It was an exciting experience for the students to go into the orchard to find the ‘perfect’ apple.”
Not only did the trip show students the inner workings of an active farm, it also tied in to several areas of the curriculum.
“There were many curriculum areas that were addressed through our field trip,” Human said. “In social studies we discuss economics through goods (apples) and services, production and consumption (making cider and drinking cider, growing apples and eating apples). In science, we discuss the basic needs of living things (water, soil, sunlight for apple trees) and learned the importance of bees to apple trees.”
The field trip also served a major purpose for the Food Service Department. The field trip was designed to give students an opportunity to see first-hand where the apples come from that are served in the Breakfast and Lunch program.
“One of the goals of school Food Service is to educate students on making good choices that affect their current and future health,” Food Services supervisor Jacki Corona said. “We feel that when students understand why fresh food is healthier for them than processed foods, it will help them choose more wisely when presented with a choice of the two. A healthy lifestyle that includes nutritious food is more beneficial the earlier it is implemented.”
As for Apple Hill, these field trips are both educational and business focused.
“I hope it educates them so they understand better where fruit comes from so they can buy smarter and hopefully buy locally to help the local farmers and orchards,” Joudrey said. “And return here with their families because it really is a generational place. I took a tour here when I was in kindergarten, and I know a lot of my friends bring their kids here now.”
“We are pleased to provide this experience for Galion Elementary students,” Corona said. “We believe it was a very productive use of time out of the classroom as they learned about bee pollination and why that is crucial to our food supply. We had as much fun as the students did and learned a few things we didn’t know about apples, and we are always happy to show our support for local growers and instill that in our local students as well.”