Pizza offers taste of farm life

Sunday, March 28, 2010

by PATRICIA GROTENHUIS

Public school students in Wellington County and the Region of Waterloo are discovering there’s a lot of agriculture in their pizza.

Last week, 800 Grade 3 students from the two municipalities learned about the origin of common pizza ingredients during a workshop held at the Grand River Raceway in Elora.

Called Pizza Perfect, the unique, volunteer-run annual program is the brain child of June Switzer and Margaret Aitken, among others, and is organized by the Grand River Agricultural Society.

“It gives them (the students) a connection between food they like to eat and the work involved before it gets to them,” says Switzer.

Students take part in 20 stations, which are divided between four categories: meat and alternatives, grains, dairy, and vegetables and soil.  At the stations, students plant seeds, measure ingredients, and see live animals, among other activities.

Lunch accompanies this day-long event and guess what’s on the menu?

Pizza, of course.

It can be hard to make eight-year-olds listen, especially for an entire day. But Marijke Van Andel, a Masters student at the University of Guelph who was one of the volunteers, says she could tell all of the students learned, although “some took home more than others.”
 
Even if each student only learns one or two things, the day has been worthwhile, says Switzer. Sometimes the teachers learn more than the students, she adds.

The program had its start in the Farm Comes to Town agriculture education program at the Erin Fair in 1991. Organizers introduced the pizza theme in 1996 when they moved the program to the University of Guelph’s Elora Crop Research Station. It moved to its current location after the Grand River Agricultural Society became a major sponsor.

Aitken says the theme helps ground the students and gives them a reference. She notes there are similar full day agricultural education programs around the province, but she has not heard of any others which focus exclusively on pizza. 

The program is popular: organizers send schools in Wellington and Waterloo invitations in September. Spaces fill quickly, and there is always a waiting list. There is enough demand for Pizza Perfect to be held three days, but two seems to work better for the available volunteer base, says Switzer. BF