Congressional Visit Celebrates Watertown's School Nutrition Program

The Hosmer Elementary School hosted a congressional visit on Monday as two members of the Massachusetts House delegation joined city and school officials in celebration of Watertown’s leading school nutrition program.
Congressman Jim McGovern and Congresswoman Katherine Clark came to Watertown as part of the “End Hunger Now Tour,” a series of visits to organizations and communities across the state to discuss food access and food insecurity.
The lawmakers were led on a tour of the school by two second graders, Daphne and Maya, who walked the congressional visitors through a day in the life of a Hosmer student. Rep. Clark and Rep. McGovern then joined the full Hosmer second grade class for lunch, eating a fresh salad with lettuce grown in the WPS Freight Farm.
At lunch, students asked many questions about how bills are passed and were excited to discover that both Representatives knew the late Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, whom they recently learned about in class. Rep. McGovern showed students pictures of him with Lewis and talked about the impact that civil rights leaders like Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on America.
Before visiting the Hosmer School, McGovern and Clark stopped by the Watertown Public Schools Freight Farm to learn about Watertown’s Farm-to-School program and the High-Tech farming class at Watertown High School. The WPS Freight Farm can produce nearly 1,000 heads of lettuce per week. The converted shipping container turned hydroponic garden provides food for both Watertown’s school cafeterias and the Watertown Community Fridge.
