By Suzie Dudas, owner and lead farmer at Nourishing Food for Thought
“What is that?” a child asks as they stand in our garden and point to a tomato.
“Can I eat it?”
A moment later comes another question: “Don’t you have to wash it first?”
These are the kinds of questions we hear at Nourishing Food For Thought (NFFT), a working teaching farm in Jupiter. They make us laugh — but they also make us think.
For many children, food begins at the grocery store. Chicken comes in nuggets, milk comes in a carton and tomatoes appear neatly packaged or already sliced. They may know what their favorite foods taste like without ever having seen where those foods begin.
That disconnect isn’t because parents don’t care. Life is busy, and children today have fewer opportunities to experience the everyday processes that used to be part of growing up. A working farm can change that. When a child picks a tomato, feeds a chicken, watches a cow being milked, digs in the garden or helps prepare something grown on the farm, they are learning much more than where food comes from. They are learning patience, responsibility, curiosity, confidence and the value of caring for something outside themselves. They are also getting something increasingly precious: time outdoors, away from screens, doing something real with other people.
And you don’t have to live on a farm to start reconnecting your children with their food. Grow a tomato plant together. Let your child wash vegetables for dinner. Visit a farmers market and talk about what is growing locally. Let them crack the eggs, stir the ingredients or get their hands dirty. Most importantly, give them opportunities to ask questions — and then help them find the answers.
At NFFT, families can take that learning a step further. Families and homeschool groups can book private farm tours and participate in homeschool programs, and children can join our farm-based day camps and children’s programs.
Families who want to get involved themselves can join us for Volunteer Wednesdays and experience what it means to care for a working farm. These experiences aren’t simply about keeping children busy. They are about giving them a relationship with food, nature and their community.
NFFT is a nonprofit teaching farm, and keeping this kind of hands-on learning available in our community depends on donations, volunteers and word of mouth. When a family visits, volunteers, brings a friend or tells another family about the farm, they are helping preserve a place where the next generation can learn something surprisingly important:
Food doesn’t just come from a package. It comes from somewhere.
Someone has to grow it, care for it and prepare it — and we can all be part of that connection.
Maybe the goal isn’t to make every child a farmer. Maybe it’s simply to make sure they know what a tomato looks like before it becomes a sauce, understand that milk comes from a cow and have the chance to get their hands dirty along the way. That’s why places like Nourishing Food For Thought matter.
Learn more at nourishingfoodforthought.org.