School Garden Food Safety

School Garden Food Safety Training & Documentation Manual

Minimize risks by using this ODE School Garden Food Safety Training & Documentation Manual. Designed to be printed out and placed in a binder. Not a regulatory program, but a tool to enable you to follow practices which will help you serve food from your school garden safely!

Complete ODE School Garden Food Safety Training & Documentation Manual

Individual Sections

Cover
Companion Guide & Instructions (start here!)
Section 1: Garden Checklist-Startup
Section 2: Garden Checklist-Weekly
Section 3: USDA Best Practices for Handling Food
Section 4: Staff Training & Log
Section 5: Student Training & Log
Section 6: Composting Logs
Hot Composting Log
Cold Composting Log

To See this manual in action, here's a WEBINAR that was presented on 3/21/2017.

This is the same presentation that Rick Sherman shares with School Garden Coordinators during Growing Garden's School Garden Coordinator Garden Certification course. Special guest include Louva Montour, Culinary Instructor with the STAR school in Flagstaff, AZ. The above manual is presented for the first half hour, Louva shares about Arizona's school garden certification process after that.

Additional Resources

PESTICIDES

Did you ever wonder what the Oregon law is for pesticide use on school grounds? Wonder no more, here's a link to the law and a checklist of situations that come up in certain situations Pesticide use on school grounds

LEAD

Portland Public Schools had issued a temporary ban on eating produce from school gardens. Growing Gardens, a nonprofit that does a majority of urban agriculture and education in some of these gardens, Here is an updated response to the situation
Q&A on Lead and drinking water from Oregon Health Authority
Lead in the home garden and urban soil environment from the University of Minnesota
Lead Safety for the Home Garden from Michigan State University
Evaluating and Reducing Lead Hazard in Gardens and Landscapes from Oregon State University Extension

Composting

Misc.

Best Practices and other resources from around the country in school garden food safety:
Best Practices for Using Produce from School Gardens (Overview)
Healthy Gardening Fact Sheet from Oregon Health Authority. Contains links for testing your soil, interpreting soil results, and information on contaminants.
Food Safety Handbook from NC State Coop. Ext.
Food Safety for School and community Gardens (Food Safety Culture Team)
Here's a handy checklist for verifying garden safety at farms! from Iowa State University
Oregon State University - Soil Science Education Grant Summary
Rick Sherman's presentation at the National Children & Youth Garden Symposium July 2014 "Implementing a School Garden Food Safety System"