Schools

Tastings: Zimmer & Olam Schools Providing Healthy Food Choices

Students plant vegetables, and both kids and adults have an opportunity to obtain organic vegetables through partnership with community-supported farm.

The following information is provided Mindy Rodden, Director of Outreach for Zimmer Preschool and Olam Academy, which are at the off Valley Road. The preschool and early elementary academy students grow vegetables and, more recently, have begun partnering with an organic farm from Pennington.

The Basking Ridge Patch welcomes submissions to our new weekly "Tastings" column, with information about restaurants, food and drink at in the township and the Somerset Hills Community.

The Zimmer Preschool and Olam Academy have recently partnered with Honey Brook Organic Farm as a means to provide alternative access to healthy food choices for the community. At the Zimmer Preschool and Olam Academy, located at The Chabad Jewish Center on Valley Road in Basking Ridge, nutritious food and healthy lifestyle choices are integrated into the curricula daily.

Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Children are able to take walks on our lush 7.5 acre campus and explore nature’s rugged beauty and her seasonal changes. Several years ago, we started our garden to give our students a view into the relationships between all living things, plants, insects, animals and people. We collect rainwater to irrigate our plants. A compost station teaches the value of recycling.

It was therefore a natural segue for Zimmer Preschool and Olam Academy to seek out a working relationship with Honey Brook Organic Farm. Beginning this spring, the farm will be making Sunday morning deliveries of their vegetable boxes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chabad center.

Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Vegetable boxes are available to the local public for purchase via the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership. A CSA is an attempt to address the many problems of modern agriculture by redefining the relationship between the farmer, consumer, and the natural biological systems which comprise a farm.

A CSA program is a type of “cooperative” where a consumer financially commits to a full season of produce months in advance of the growing season. Each week from June to Novembe,  the consumer receives a variety of freshly harvested crops. As a member you will enjoy the freshest, most nutritious produce available, harvested daily for you and your family by the farm staff.  This is a wonderful opportunity for the community to participate in.

To my knowledge, there are no other organic CSAs in the area and this is a wonderful opportunity for our community! Just as an aside, March is National Nutrition Month. I, myself, am a huge advocate of participation in CSAs and improving nutrition for all.

Community Supported Agriculture provides the farmer with several practical advantages, including the resources to buy seeds and other supplies before the first spring strawberry ripens in the field. It allows the farmer to focus on actually growing crops during the growing season instead of fretting over sales and delivery schedules. The rewards and risks inherent in agriculture are shared by the farm community, which means that in years of environmental or weather constraints, members may receive more of one crop but less of another.

Contacts regarding the CSA should be made directly with the farm. The website is www.honeybrookorganicfarm.com.

Information about Chabad's partnership with Honey Brook Organic Farm, the Zimmer and Olam schools, or camp, is on the Chabad website or at 908-604-8844.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here