Rural-urban outreach: How one Kentucky farm family shows city kids where lunch comes from

Near Mayo, Ky., in the hills of the Outer Bluegrass, Lois Mateus (right) and her husband, Tim Peters, regularly invite crews of inner-city Louisville kids to their farm to see where food comes from -- and to smell the compost, gain some respect for plants, pick some peppers, collect eggs from real chickens, drink some mint tea and touch the limestone from which so many of the area's historic fences are built, Mateus writes in the May edition of Mercer's Magazine, a monthly publication of The Harrodsburg Herald, a strong, independently owned weekly.

Mateus' and Peters' outreach is aimed at the sixth graders at Nativity Academy, a school with a multicultural population that has few open spaces. The students are "carefully selected for their potential to enter high schools with strict academic requirements," reports Mateus, who is on the advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

Peters and Mateus make sure the kids see and smell the vegetables and herbs, but also, she writes, understand what it takes to get the soil ready for cultivation and what it takes to harvest crops. They explain plant nourishment and the role of beneficial insects. It's really an opportunity, Mateus writes, to bring out the farmer in them, and to teach conservation, recycling and water resource management to those who have never thought of where their daily meals came from. 'They can't stop asking questions, about the vegetables and herbs and flowers," she writes. "Everything has been a revelation." For the full story, click here and when prompted, go to page 16 of the magazine.