Cheese Produced By Walter B. Saul High School Students Being Sold At Local Philly Markets
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Students in Roxborough are learning a unique lesson in farm-to-table dining. A program at Walter B. Saul High School is selling cheese from their farm.
There's a new local option at T & F Farmers' Pride in Roxborough: W.B. Saul Cheese. How local? The cows are less than a half-mile away in a barn on Henry Avenue, and W.B. Saul High School students are the farmers.
"I kind of feel accomplished in some sort of way because it's like, when you're shopping, you don't really think you have any part of the whole process," said Iman-Renee McCall, an 11th-grade farmer.
The farm and dairy science program have been around for decades, but the cheese production was born out of the pandemic.
"One of the truckers retired and nobody picked up his route and so we were scrambling to find an outlet for our milk," farm manager Jane Arbasak said.
Lactating cows don't stop producing milk. The farm has five of the six recognized dairy breeds in the country.
"The last thing we wanted to do was to dump milk," Arbasak said.
CBS3 is told not only are those students learning about farm work, but they're also learning about lessons for the real world. Most notably, responsibility. The students feed, groom, and milk the cows.
"You're coming in here, you make sure that it's healthy because that's your cow, that's your responsibility," said Justin Perry, an 11th grader. "You want to treat it like it's your family."
The students start the program as freshmen witnessing the cow's birth, and with the new cheese production, their learning comes full circle.
"From ninth grade to 12th grade, the cows are full circle," Emily Cullen, a teacher, said. "The dairy cycle is full circle. The students are full circle."
The cheese can be found at T & F Farmers' Pride and Weavers Way Co-Cp.
