State Superintendent and ISBE Chairman visit Greenfield
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By Carmen Ensinger
By Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press
State Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders and Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Dr. Steve Isoye, back, along with Greenfield FFA student Addison Wright, middle, bottle feed some calves at the FFA farm during their visit earlier this month.
The Greenfield School District welcomed the Illinois State Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders and the Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Dr. Steve Isoye to the District on Oct. 2 for the first time in the school’s history.
“It was an honor to be able to show them all of the great things we have happening in our district,” Greenfield Superintendent Andy Stumpf said. “We were able to tour all of our district buildings, visit Fleur De Lis field and discuss a variety of important educational topics impacting not only our district, but the entire state and finish the day at our FFA Farm.”
In fact, it was the FFA farm which brought the two men to Greenfield.
“Greenfield has the best Farm to School program I’ve seen,” Sanders said. “Their Illinois FFA students are involved in growing the food they eat – all fresh! All in this small district with a huge heart!”
Sanders is referring to the fact that the students in the district are eating meat grown on the FFA farm. The district received a $3,500 Farm to School grant earlier this year which they used a portion of to have one of the cows they raised on the farm, located just south of the Rt. 108 and Rt. 267 junction, processed.
FFA students raised the cow for approximately nine months. The cost to have it processed was around $1,200 and it provided around 750 pounds of ground beef, some made into hamburger patties and some just ground up to be used in dishes like beef and noodles.
“We had at least a couple of weeks’ worth of beef for the kids,” Stumpf said. “The important thing is that it allowed us to use the money that we would otherwise have used to purchase meat with for that meal for something else. I think it was a win-win for everyone.”
Sanders and Isoye also heard a history presentation from Nick Walker’s Advanced History class.
