Students are treated to a wagon ride during a Food Farm event at Simplot Grower Solutions on June 13.(Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Food farm

Elementary students learn the meaning of ‘Farm to Table’

Jun 13, 2025 | 3:00 PM

In a garden plot on the grounds of Simplot Grower Solutions in Hamlin, a piece of white cotton fabric that had earlier been tossed into a hole quickly disappeared under a mound of dirt.

A smattering of elementary school students from Medstead had made short work of the “planting” by using their hands and feet and when it was fully covered, they celebrated their success by adding a flag to mark the area.

“I liked planting the underwear,” said nine-year-old Aleena Wirth.

She and her classmates had been learning about where their food comes from before it ended up in the grocery store during the Food Farm event and visited different stations throughout the morning.

This peculiar exercise was all about soil.

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“We call it ‘Soil Your Undies’ which for the Grade 3 kids is a real hoot and they get to look at what some microbes do in the soil in decomposing and breaking down items,” said Greg Frey, business unit director.

Stomping in the undies. The students will have to wait a few months to see what microbes in the soil have done to the cotton briefs. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

“When they come and dig ‘em up in the fall and they have not a lot left, it’s just kind of a neat way to bring the science into it.”

Thursday’s field trip brought Grade 3 students from both rural and urban schools out to learn about the ingredients that eventually become food such as hamburgers and french fries. Partnering with Agriculture in the Classroom and with the support of Pattison Agriculture, the program has been running for 13 years in Kindersley but is only in its second at the Hamlin location.

“Over the last 13 years, we would’ve had over 2,200 kids come through this program,” he said of the theme.

The students learn the process of what goes into making the fan favourite and what needs to be grown and raised in order to create the perfect burger and fries.

“They come here now in June at the end of their Grade 3 year, we plant some potatoes and lettuce and cucumbers, tomatoes. They see 4H steers, they get to talk about what it takes to grow healthy food,” said Frey.

Students Cailiegh MacLean, Ares Arseneau, Quinn Burns and Aleena Wirth point out weeds. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

“Then they come back in the fall and they harvest what they planted, maybe grind some hamburger, they make buns and then they make french fries, and so they actually make the end product.”

According to Brigitte Johnson, teacher at Medstead Central School, they were part of the inaugural event last year and jumped at the chance to come back.

“Even though we’re in a small town, lots of kids don’t know about this stuff so, unless they live on a farm,” she said, as she watched her students plant sunflower seeds.

“It’s good for them to get hands on…and it’s nice just to add to the curriculum.”

One of the presenters was 13-year-old Mady Adamson who spoke to the students not much younger than herself about how Saskatchewan crops create food.

Students plant fruit and vegetables. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

“I think it’s a really great opportunity for these kids,” said the farmer who has been making presentations for four years about farm to table and runs a social media site ‘Learning about Ag with Mady.’

“It’s hugely important and I feel like it goes hugely under recognized, like even I as a farmer sometimes just see my farm and then I see my table and I don’t even know what fully happens in between.”

Adamson explained she brought along some Saskatchewan grown crop samples and talked to the students about what they make.

“I think they thought it was really, really cool,” she said.

“They hadn’t really realized that their bread and their soup came from the seeds and the grain that I get from my farm.”

Eight-year-old Owen Johnson said they had a lot of learning opportunities.

“We learned about steers and what beef comes from and technology, farm parts and farm tools,” he said.

He explained while his favourite part was taking a horse-drawn wagon ride, his favourite educational moments included the lesson on soil and grooming the two steers named Goose and Mouse.

Students learn about where their burgers come from. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

Both Johnson and Wirth live on farms and said theirs are smaller than the organization they were visiting.

“I have like chickens and cows and – just chickens and cows – cats and dogs,” said the eight-year-old farm boy.

“We like to do 4H every year and we like planting a garden and plant jalapeno peppers and tomatoes and potatoes and peas.”

Wirth added she loved living on a farm, which have cows, cats and dogs and a garden, though she wasn’t sure what grew in it.

“It’s nice and peaceful and you can have so many animals and just go everywhere.”

Meanwhile, the education continues and Frey said it was important people understand the process that goes into getting healthy food to their table.

Ares Arseneau digs a hole in preparation of planting. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

“Over time, we, as a society, get more distant from the farm if we’re not directly in that primary production at a farm level,” he said.

As for the teenage educator, one thing she has learned about agriculture is that there is more than a farmer involved.

“There’s the farmers, there’s the agronomists, there’s the brokers, there’s the people driving trains, there’s the people of the ports, there’s all of these people to the cycle and nobody realizes that,” she said.

“We’re also working very hard to be sustainable. We try a lot of different practices – we do zero-till farming, we use sectional control – sustainability is hugely important to us because we also need to sustain these soils to grow quality crops.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social