Now entering its third year, the Greater Johnstown School District’s AgriQuest Farm-to-School initiative is building on its success by continuing to bring meaningful agriculture and food education experiences to students from prekindergarten through 12th grade.
What began in 2023 with simple efforts to bring local foods into schools has evolved into a Districtwide initiative that helps students explore nutrition, agriculture, science, sustainability, and career opportunities, while strengthening connections to their community.
“At Johnstown, we’re bringing agriculture, nutrition and hands-on learning into our classrooms while bringing the whole community to the table,” said Superintendent of Schools Alicia D. Koster. “These experiences help students connect what they learn in school to the world around them and inspire them to explore new opportunities for the future.”
The AgriQuest breakthrough
AgriQuest started with the desire to incorporate more locally-sourced products into students’ meals and provide students with hands-on learning through field trips to local agribusinesses and taste-testing locally produced foods such as maple syrup, cheese, fruits and milk.
As interest and enthusiasm for the program grew, educators realized food as a powerful teaching tool to connect multiple subject areas. Lessons broadened to encompass agriculture, environmental stewardship, health, science, nutrition and cooking – giving students meaningful ways to engage with real-world concepts.
Recognizing this incredible momentum, Superintendent Koster stepped in to ensure the effort reached its full potential. She enlisted longtime Johnstown elementary teacher Ellen Roehl as the AgriQuest Department Leader. Tasked with expanding the curriculum across all grade levels. She is supported by two AgriQuest coordinators in each school building who help bring the program to life.
Pilot Light: National inspiration, local impact
One tool that Roehl is using to incorporate AgriQuest curriculum is her partnership with Pilot Light, a non-profit organization that helps schools use food and cooking to engage students in academic learning and life skills development.
Through the Pilot Light fellowship, teachers gain access to professional development, educational resources, stipends and a network of innovative educators across the country.
Roehl spent the 2025-2026 school year as a Pilot Light fellow, and was able to leverage resources to introduce new ideas at Johnstown, strengthen local partnerships with vendors and community partners, and expand learning opportunities for students throughout the District.
“Cooking is about experimenting, tasting and having fun. The resources I’m bringing forward from Pilot Light are enhancing the AgriQuest program and giving students a deeper understanding of where their food comes from, how it was produced and why it matters. Every child deserves to understand and shape their own food story,” Roehl said.
When discussing food, Roehl encourages students to consider allergies and dietary needs. By sharing that she cannot eat artificial food dyes, she sparked curiosity and empathy among students. During a chef demonstration at Warren Street, Chef Nia McGuire showed students how ingredients can be adapted, describing how her own food allergies inspired her culinary career. Students then decorated cupcakes with frosting naturally colored with beets, reinforcing the importance of understanding what goes into food and how recipes can be modified to meet preferences and restrictions.
Under Roehl’s guidance, students are doing more than just tasting local foods – they are learning about the people, processes, and systems that bring food from farms to tables.
Walk through any Johnstown school, and you’re likely to spot one of the hydroponic growing towers in classrooms and common areas that have become a visible symbol of the District’s AgriQuest program.
The immersive learning experience allows students to cultivate herbs and vegetables year-round, conduct taste tests, and deepen their understanding of topics ranging from plant science to sustainability. These lessons encourage students to think critically, ask questions, and see how classroom learning applies beyond school walls.
Community collaboration and innovative partnerships
Community partnerships have become a cornerstone of AgriQuest’s success, supporting food education across the District while reflecting Pilot Light’s emphasis on bringing industry knowledge into the classroom.
Local chefs, businesses, farmers and organizations share their expertise directly with students, creating experiences that connect learning to everyday life. Through demonstrations, mentoring opportunities, donations, and special events, community members help students discover skills, interests and career possibilities they may never have considered.
One example came during Transportation Day at Pleasant Avenue Elementary School, where local organizations and businesses helped transform the event into a community celebration. Lanzi’s Food Truck provided a chef demonstration and donated pizza and pasta to feed students, staff and first responders. Pop Pop’s Ice Cream Truck and other local partners added to the day’s activities, creating memorable experiences while strengthening ties between schools and the broader community.
Another example of AgriQuest’s community-centered approach took place this spring at Knox Middle School, where Megan Saltzman, chef at Union Hall in Johnstown, guided students through making granola bars with simple, healthy ingredients they could recreate at home.
For Roehl, these partnerships create benefits that last long after individual events. “The chef demos build relationships between students and their food, schools and local businesses, and among neighbors,” she said.
Community organizations, retired educators, volunteers, and local leaders have also contributed their time, talents and resources to projects ranging from sensory gardens to nature trail revitalization. Together, they are helping cultivate a culture of collaboration, service, and community pride.
Bringing learning full circle in the cafeteria
Food education doesn’t stop when a special event ends or a classroom lesson concludes. Each day, students continue that learning in another important setting: the cafeteria.
For Johnstown’s Food Services Director Simone Bodman, incorporating local foods into school meals is about far more than what’s on a lunch tray. As the district works toward New York State’s 30% NYS Initiative, which provides increased reimbursement to schools that source at least 30% of their lunch ingredients from New York producers, expanding the use of local products benefits both students and the community. The effort provides fresh, locally sourced foods while supporting regional farmers and strengthening the local economy.
Bodman’s commitment to food education includes far more than menu planning. Through the district’s Farm to Institution New York State (FINYS) grant, she coordinated Cornell Cooperative Extension Regional Roots training in scratch cooking for food service staff. She also helps ensure students have regular access to fresh fruits and vegetables through a USDA-funded snack program.
School food service professionals play a key role in helping students explore those foods. By preparing new recipes, answering questions and encouraging students to try unfamiliar ingredients, they create opportunities for students to broaden their tastes and learn about different food traditions.
Throughout the past school year, students expanded their culinary horizons through a variety of international menu offerings, from Tajín tropical salad and Mexican street corn to Canadian poutine, Peruvian pulled pork, African-inspired sun butter stew and jollof rice, and European favorites such as chicken gyros with tzatziki.
“Whether students are learning a recipe in class or discovering something new in the cafeteria, every experience is an opportunity to build skills, ask questions and understand how food connects to agriculture, health and everyday life,” Bodman said.
Connecting AgriQuest, PBL & STEAM in 2026–2027
For the upcoming school year, Roehl will serve in a one-year role as a Teacher on Special Assignment for Performance-Based Learning (PBL) and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), while continuing to serve as the Department Leader for AgriQuest. In this expanded position, she will work to weave these initiatives together, creating meaningful opportunities for students to apply classroom learning through hands-on experiences, make connections across disciplines and explore future career possibilities.
“Ellen’s expanded role is an important next step in our strategic work to increase student engagement and ownership of learning,” said Superintendent of Schools Alicia D. Koster. “By aligning AgriQuest, performance-based learning and STEAM, she will help our educators design relevant, hands-on experiences that invite students to ask questions, make choices and apply their learning in meaningful ways.”
The curriculum will help students discover that agriculture encompasses a wide range of careers and opportunities, from engineering and robotics to environmental science, food production, marketing and business.
By bringing together educators, farmers, chefs, food service professionals, businesses, and community organizations, the district is showing students that food is more than nourishment. It is a pathway to learning, connection, creativity and opportunity.
“AgriQuest, PBL and STEAM are not additions to our core curriculum; they are powerful ways to bring it to life,” Koster said. “When students use reading, writing, mathematics and science to investigate authentic questions and solve real problems, they deepen their content knowledge while strengthening the critical-thinking, communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills they will apply in future learning, careers and everyday life.”
Most importantly, it is helping cultivate the curiosity that inspires students to keep asking questions, trying new things and imagining the possibilities ahead.