Carson, Jeff, Calvin, Francis, and Double Stuffed hang out at Maconaquah Middle School (MMS). They’re not students or teachers. They’re cattle. These cows and bulls are part of a project called School to Table. In the program, the school is a kind of farm—with bovines “teaching” lessons to the next generation of America’s farmers.
God created the first humans “to work . . . and keep” the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:15) Caring for Earth and its animal residents is noble yet difficult. But farmers never wonder where their food comes from. Students at MMS in Bunker, Indiana, don’t either: Some of it comes right from their schoolyard!
Middle-schoolers in a business class formed the plan to keep cattle on campus. They presented their ideas to local officials. Area builders constructed a barn, and farmers donated cattle. Students helped build fences to contain the animals.
Now Maconaquah is part school, part farm. School-to-Table students study farming from books and whiteboards in the classrooms. But most learning takes place outdoors.
Cattle graze in pastures on and near the school grounds. Every day, rain or shine, students do both schoolwork and farm chores. They feed the cattle, administer medicine . . . and muck stalls.
“Yeah, at school, you’re going to be cleaning out cattle pens,” says seventh- and eighth-grade teacher John Sinnamon.
Chores don’t stop on weekends or holidays. The cattle need to be healthy because when they get big enough, the school will buy meat back from the program. Two of the school’s cattle will become hundreds of pounds of beef for lunchroom burgers or sloppy joes.
“This [is] so beyond what a typical school does,” Sinnamon says. “How much time is typically spent on a project in school? A week or two? This has been going on for three years.”
Maconaquah’s School-to-Table project focuses on more than cattle. Students grow tomatoes and harvest honey from a class beehive. In the spring, a new greenhouse will help them grow even more produce for the cafeteria.
One of the MMS cows will have a calf in June. Students will raise it at school. Someday, it too will become food. School to Table is a hands-on cycle-of-life project. And every time a new cow or bull joins the herd, the work—and the fun—starts all over.
