Every year in early October, schools across the nation look locally for their foods, and students learn a little bit more about the lunch on their plate. It answers the age-old question, where does it all come from?

Farm to School Day, which took place Oct. 2, is a United States Department of Agriculture program that helps schools access local foods, according to the Wyoming Department of Education. 

Park County School District 1 already incorporates some locally grown food in its meals with lettuce from Greybull Valley Produce served each week, but Farm to School Day highlights it, said Savannah Layland, the district’s food services director. 

The majority of vegetables came from Shoshone River Farms, as well as Greybull Valley Produce.

“An increasing number of schools are sourcing locally grown foods for their school meals and snacks and providing complementary educational activities that emphasize food, farming and nutrition,” the WDE explains on its website.

The goal of the day is to teach students about where their food comes from,” Layland said. “It also offers hands-on opportunities from students and highlights the quality of local food.

“We highlighted it on Farm to School Day, so it helps increase the nutritional education for students.”

Studies show that vegetable consumption increases when students know where their food comes from, and when they know it’s grown nearby, Layland added.

This year’s menu — peaches and cream oatmeal for breakfast, and taco loaded baked potatoes for lunch — was constructed using seven local or regional producers. Sy Schlattman, a high school sophomore out of Greybull, provided the Yukon golden potatoes, Gluten Free Oats of Powell was used in the oatmeal, ground beef came from Frank’s Butcher Shop (which raises and sources beef) in Hudson, bell peppers and other veggies came from Cody, side salads were sourced from Greybull and apples and nectarines came in from Idaho. Even the sauce, Flaming Gorge Chipotle Sauce, was produced in Wyoming. 

This year was relatively easy to source local foods, Layland said. The most difficult part of sourcing food for Farm to School Day was finding producers who would deliver in the area. Last year, Layland used a company that would find local foods and produce in Wyoming and curate the order, but this year she decided to go directly to the producer. To do this her team examined the price of different producers and their ability to fill a large order with help from Bobby Lane, the WDE farm to school coordinator.

“We’re serving 1,200 kids a day for lunch,” Layland said.

And out of this large student population a few even noticed that fresh local taste, with multiple students at the middle school, where food services resides, commenting on the special menu.

“We had quite a few students come in, one student said ‘it was a 10 out of 10 favorite meal,’” Layland said.