Upcoming Events
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National
USDA Garden to Be Used for Education Visit WebsiteFri, Jun 19th, 2009 - Fri, Sep 25th, 2009
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a weekly summer workshop series at 'The People's Garden' to teach area residents and tourists about the many aspects of growing a garden. The "Healthy Garden" Workshop Series will be held every Friday from noon to 12:30 p.m. from June 19 through Sept. 25, at 'The People's Garden,' located at 12th St. and Jefferson Drive, SW at the USDA Jamie L. Whitten Building on the National Mall in Washington, DC. "In many ways, USDA's 'People's Garden' is the nation's demonstration plot, showing how small steps can mean important gains in mitigating global warming and producing a safe, sustainable and nutritious food supply," said Vilsack. "The garden concepts we're teaching this summer can be your contribution to providing healthy food, air, and water for people and communities across the country."
Summer 2009 online graduate courses Visit Website
Mon, Jun 29th, 2009 - Fri, Jul 24th, 2009
The John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition offers programs designed to improve the nutrition environment in schools offers an array on online professional development opportunities in health, nutrition, physical education, physical activity and wellness. For more information, click here
Enjoy a Wine Country 4th of July in the Willamette Valley and Benefit Ecotrust’s Farm to School Prog Visit Website
Fri, Jul 3rd, 2009 - Sun, Jul 5th, 2009
The Willamette Valley’s 150 Days of Wine in the Willamette Valley promotion continues throughout the summer, featuring a new event, Red, White & True Oregon Wines. Participating wineries and tasting rooms up and down the valley will open their doors for special wine events and activities over the weekend of July 3-5, 2009. See link for other summer wine events in Willamette Valley.
Food Security: From Local to Global
Sat, Jul 11th, 2009 - Wed, Jul 15th, 2009
Plan now to participate in the Society for Nutrition Education’s 2009 Annual Conference:
Food Security - From Local to Global
The Annual Conference is the premier event for nutrition education professionals from across the globe.
SAVE THE DATE!
SNE 2009 Annual Conference
July 11 - 15, 2009
New Orleans, Louisiana
Contact: Society for Nutrition Education
Real Food Student Leadership Training Visit Website
Sat, Jul 11th, 2009 - Sun, Aug 23rd, 2009
This summer, the Real Food Challenge invites all young activists concerned with agriculture, nutrition, social justice, climate change, sustainability, and the health of our communities and economy - to join us at a Real Food Student Leadership Training. The Real Food Trainings will be geared towards students who are working (or intend to work) on shifting school purchasing practices to fair, ecologically-sound, humane, & community-based foods. This aligns with the Challenge's principal campaign--redirecting $1 billion of college and university food-dollars to a real food economy--although students working on other projects are also encouraged to apply!
Space is limited. We are encouraging pairs of students to come from each university. Students are able to attend any of the 3 trainings:
Real Food Midwest: Ames, IA, July 11-14 (registration deadline: June 12)
Contact: Sue - susandeb@iastate.edu
Click here for more information.
Real Food West Coast: Santa Cruz, CA, August 13-17 (registration deadline July 1)
Contact: Fortino - FortinoMorales@gmail.com
Click here for more information.
Real Food Northeast: Boston, MA, August 20-23 (registration deadline: July 15)
Contact: Marissa - mgrossman@thefoodproject.org
The cost of attending each training, including housing and all meals, ranges from $10-30. That's it! Organizers are also on hand to help attendees fundraise to cover travel and other costs.
3rd National Conference on Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture Education Visit Website
Wed, Jul 15th, 2009 - Fri, Jul 17th, 2009
Registration is now online for the 3rd National Conference on Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture Education, July 15-17, 2009 held at Iowa State University. Come join us in the heartland to learn about key issues of the sustainable agriculture education research and practice community!
Students and faculty in the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, in cooperation with Marshalltown Community College and Michigan State University, have organized three days of cutting-edge, participatory-based programming.
Conference participants will have the opportunity to lead in-depth discussions, share experiences, and exchange resources in a variety of thematic topics, including: Teaching and Learning for Sustainable Outcomes, Sustainable Agriculture Programming, Facilitating Social Change and Community Development, and Exploring Opportunities and Challenges within the Institution.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to visit local learning farms. Regional food, art, and lively music will be featured throughout the meeting, concluding with an Iowa-styled supper!
To support the Marshalltown Community College Entrepreneurial Agriculture Program's GLove Project, we request that participants bring new work gloves of any size or type. These will be distributed to local farm workers and immigrant horticultural workers.
To register online, please visit SustainableAgEd.org
Weight of the Nation: CDC's Inaugural Convention on Obesity Prevention and Control Visit Website
Mon, Jul 27th, 2009 - Wed, Jul 29th, 2009
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, will host its inaugural conference on obesity prevention and control, Weight of the Nation, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. Weight of the Nation is designed to provide a forum to highlight progress in the prevention and control of obesity through policy and environmental strategies and is framed around four intervention settings: community, medical care, school, and workplace. Plenary and concurrent sessions will focus on strategies implemented in these settings that have lead to policy and environmental changes which may improve population-level health. A key feature of the conference is a move from didactic presentations to an emphasis on interactive discussion between plenary and concurrent session panelists, and the audience. Plenary sessions will present case studies on the use of policy and environmental strategies within certain settings (e.g., workplaces) and sectors (e.g., law or economics) while concurrent sessions will discuss specific issues within the setting context (e.g., strategies to leverage built-environment initiatives to increase physical activity in workplaces).
Maine
MSFSA Annual meeting w/ farm to school forum Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Tue, Aug 4th, 2009 - Thu, Aug 6th, 2009
MSFSA's Summer Conference
August 4, 5, & 6
at Sunday River in Bethel
Includes Free Vendor Show,
Farm to School Forum, Certification & Educational
Sessions all topped off with a fun event with Bob
Marley!
Washington
Slow Food Youth Workshop at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts Visit WebsiteThu, Aug 6th, 2009 - Wed, Aug 12th, 2009
What: A week long Slow Food Youth Workshop at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts will be offered the second week of August. While at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts, the participants of the Slow Food Youth Workshop will be immersed in a working farm experience that includes caring for goats, poultry and honeybees. Students will learn about gardening with a focus on species recognized by RAFT and the Slow Food Ark of Taste. They will participate in cheese making with farm fresh goat milk. All at the farm will cook meals together using the fruits, vegetable and meat raised on the farm.
There will be daily discussions that help build a value system based on Slow Food’s principle that food should be "good clean and fair" and why GMOs are a risk to the biodiversity that is needed to maintain sustainable food systems. First hand observation of nature’s operating systems and rural farm community will demonstrate the value of organic farming and orcharding.
The Slow Food Youth Workshop at Quillisascut is open to 12 participants. Participants must be between the ages of 18 and 29 to qualify as a youth. They need not be Slow Food members.
Where: The Slow Food Youth Workshop will be held at the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts in Rice, Washington. For more details on the farm and the experience of spending a week there please visit the website at www.quillisascut.com.
Cost: The total cost for the workshop for 12 participants is $8,500. The DeVlieg Family foundation has generously donated half of funds ($4,250) for the Slow Food Youth Workshop at Quillisascut. Thanks to the donation, the tuition cost per youth will be $355. Lodging, meals and classes are included in the cost. Transportation will be at the expense of each youth.
Maine
Connecting Classrooms to Cafeterias: From Arugula to Zucchini - A Conference for K-12 Educators Visit WebsiteFri, Aug 7th, 2009 - Fri, Aug 7th, 2009
Description: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm / $15.00 per person includes a delicious local foods lunch. WORKSHOPS INCLUDE: Integrating School Garden Activities into Classroom Curriculum; Maine Foods for Maine Kids Curriculum Program Training; The Making of a Maine Harvest Lunch Cooking Class; Classroom Composting; Taste Testing Activities for Students; Preserving the Harvest. For more information or to register, go to www.mofga.org. Co-sponsored by: Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, Cultivating Community, Maine School Garden Network, Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and PROP's Communities Promoting Health Coalition (A Healthy Maine Partnership).
Contact: Amanda Beal, 207-553-5838
New York
New York State Local Foods - Local Markets Summit 2009: An In-Depth Look at Distribution Visit WebsiteTue, Aug 11th, 2009 - Tue, Aug 11th, 2009
Building on the findings from the 2008 Summit, this year the Local Foods- Local Markets Work Team will focus on distribution:
• Finding cost effective ways to distribute, deliver and obtain products;
• Expanding existing distribution networks and encouraging collaboration; and
• Making connections to NY City Markets.
Lunch will be served. A small registration fee will cover the cost of the lunch.
A final agenda and full registration form will be available June 23.
To learn about the Team’s activities to date visit: http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/projects/workteams/LM/localmarket.html.
Contact: Mary Jeanne Packer or Martha Goodsell
California
A Short Course: Systems Thinking, Education, and the State of the World Visit WebsiteThu, Aug 13th, 2009 - Sat, Aug 15th, 2009
With Fritjof Capra, systems thinker and cofounder of the Center for Ecoliteracy, and special guest David W. Orr
Thursday to Saturday, Aug. 13-15, 2009
This event will be held at the LEED-certified David Brower Center, the new headquarters of the Center for Ecoliteracy in downtown Berkeley. Partial scholarships are available to educators from underserved communities. More information: www.ecoliteracy.org/seminars
In this short course in systems thinking, Fritjof Capra, one of the world's leading systems theorists and author of five international bestsellers, will explore how our major global problems are interconnected and how the challenge of building sustainable communities will require both systems thinking and an ecological conception of life.
Carolie Sly, education program director for the Center for Ecoliteracy, will work with participants to facilitate application of the knowledge to their fields. David W. Orr will join Capra on Aug. 15 to dialogue about how systems thinking and education for sustainable living offer solutions to our current environmental crises.
Climate Change and the Connections that Bind Us Visit Website
Fri, Aug 14th, 2009 - Fri, Aug 14th, 2009
With David W. Orr, leading environmental educator and author of
Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse
Friday evening, Aug. 14, 2009
This event will be held at the LEED-certified David Brower Center, the new headquarters of the Center for Ecoliteracy in downtown Berkeley. Partial scholarships are available to educators from underserved communities. More information: www.ecoliteracy.org/seminars
In this special evening event, David W. Orr will discuss his new book, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, 2009) in which he writes: "The effort to secure a decent human future, I think, must be built on the awareness of the connections that bind us to each other, to all of life, and to all life to come."
Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and a board member of the Center for Ecoliteracy.
Colorado
Colorado Proud School Meal Day Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Wed, Sep 9th, 2009 - Wed, Sep 9th, 2009
The Colorado Departments of Agriculture and Education would like to invite Colorado schools to participate in Colorado Proud School Meal Day. This is a day to celebrate Colorado agriculture and to educate schoolchildren about healthy eating.
In order to encourage eating habits that will promote a lifetime of optimal health, it is essential to teach children about the importance of eating foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy products. Proper nutrition is critical if our educational programs and our students are going to continue to excel.
Colorado farmers and ranchers produce food items that provide the nutrients children and adults need to thrive. Agribusinesses contribute nearly $16 billion to the state economy annually and provide more than 105,000 jobs. With more than 37,000 farms and ranches encompassing nearly 32 million acres, it is easy to understand the value this industry adds to Colorado.
Please visit www.coloradoproud.org and click on "School Meal Day" for downloadable facts sheets, sample menus and other information to help you have a successful event.
Contact: Wendy White, 303-239-4119
National
School Garden Sustainability Summit Visit WebsiteThu, Sep 10th, 2009 - Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
Select School Garden Professionals are gathering at the Life Lab Garden Classroom, University of California at Santa Cruz. As part of Life Lab's 30th year of bringing learning to life in the garden, we are hosting a summit of school garden leaders to document successful regional school garden support models. A regional model, defined for the summit's purpose, is a program, policy or staff person(s) that supports multiple school gardens in a defined region (eg. district, city or county). We all know that successful school garden programs can be led by a garden champion(s), but often these programs are short-lived, and lush gardens turn to weedy boxes. Regional support models create garden champions, build community, and lay the foundation for long-term sustainability. Across the Nation there are a multitude of regional support models that sustain garden-based learning efforts in schools. There is no "one way" to create a successful school gardens program. Our Summit goal is to share the common roots that grow success and publish our findings. Our summit will document successes and challenges of effective regional support models such as:
*District-led models
*Network for a Healthy California Programs
*Non-profit based support models
*CDE supported models
*Policy supported models
*Community (volunteer) support models (Master Gardeners, Boy Scouts, Community Gardens, etc.)
We will share the best resources used for:
*Curriculum use and dissemination
*Garden-based learning professional development for educators
*Effective networking and communications
*Garden creation and maintenance
We will also identify costs and funding sources for sustaining these efforts.
Summit attendance is by invitation and we are expecting that participants will take an active role in sharing their experiences, leading discussions and documenting our findings. See a preliminary list of invitees here. If you have suggestions of others that are supporting regional school garden programs, please send John Fisher their name(s) and contact(s) and he will add them to the list. Not all CSGN Affiliates are listed at the above link because they are not all in his database.
Contact: John Fisher, (831) 459-4035
Maine
Maine Harvest Week Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Mon, Sep 14th, 2009 - Fri, Sep 18th, 2009
ALL Maine schools are encouraged to serve Maine products duing this week. Some schools select one day and go all out and others offer some items daily. this has been a huge success.
Contact: Walter Beesley, 207-624-6842
Maryland
Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week Visit WebsiteMon, Sep 14th, 2009 - Fri, Sep 18th, 2009
The Second Annual Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week will include local foods in school lunches and exciting learning opportunities for students across the State. Last year, almost every county in Maryland participated, serving products from more than 30 different Maryland farms and involving thousands of students in learning more about their food.
Including local food in school lunches and related information in the classroom is good for students and good for Maryland. Farmers have additional income, thereby strengthening the local economy and keeping farm land open and productive. Students receive the nutritional benefits of fresh, local products as well as the knowledge of why this matters. And the financial, environmental, and nutritional costs of transporting food decrease.
Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week is a highlight the Jane Lawton Farm to School Program, created in 2008 to increase the consumption of local Maryland food products by students and to promote Maryland agriculture and healthy eating through school meals and experiential learning involving students and local farmers. The program is a collaboration of public and private organizations, and is supported by the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
Contact: Jane Storrs, 410-841-5770
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Mon, Sep 21st, 2009 - Fri, Sep 25th, 2009
In 2008, this annual statewide event will be September 22 - 26. All schools in the Commonwealth, kindergarten through college, are encouraged to purchase, serve, and promote locally grown foods in their cafeterias during the Week. UMass Amherst Dining Services Director Ken Toong will receive the Blue Ribbon Award for his local purchasing success, and school cafeterias around the state will invite their legislators to eat a local foods lunch with students. Contact Mass. Farm to School Project for more information, kelerwin@localnet.com or 413-253-3844.
Contact: Kelly Erwin, 413-253-3844
Download PDF
Illinois
Cooking Up Change Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Fri, Oct 23rd, 2009 - Fri, Oct 23rd, 2009
Cooking Up Change, hosted by the Healthy Schools Campaign, is a benefit for the Chicago Public Schools. At Cooking up Change 2008, teams of high school students studying culinary arts at public schools in Chicago will have a chance to show just how tasty – and how healthy – a student-designed menu can be.
This event builds on the excitement and enormous success of our first annual Cooking up Change Healthy Cooking Contest in 2007.
The city-wide contest, presented in collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Education to Careers program, will begin with workshops on healthy cooking techniques and culminate with celebrity chef judging and awards at the benefit on Oct. 23.
Teams of students will compete to craft healthy appetizers, desserts and school meals. The student-designed school meal that places first in the contest will be served for lunch in all Chicago public high schools.
Contact: Alicea miller, (312) 419-1810.
South Carolina
SC School Nutrition Association Farm to School workshopFri, Oct 23rd, 2009 - Sat, Oct 24th, 2009
Nationwide school systems are bringing children the freshest food possible, building positive relationships with healthy food and supporting local farms. This session you introduce you to the National Farm to School Network and how farm to school is being implemented in the southeast. Join Allison Schaum, Palmetto Agricultural Consultants, to find out what is happening in South Carolina and how you can become involved.
Contact: Allison Schaum
National
APHA 2008 Conference: Public Health Without Borders Visit WebsiteRecurring: yearly
Sun, Oct 25th, 2009 - Thu, Oct 29th, 2009
The APHA Annual Meeting theme "Public Health Without Borders" will explore transnational public health, and will provide a forum to address a diversity of topics including immigrant and refugee health; water and land rights; coordinating disease surveillance and epidemiologic response activities across borders; air and water pollution management across borders; the international impact of trade, arms sales, tobacco sales and gun control policies; and the international transmission of socio-cultural behaviors with adverse health implications. This Annual Meeting could similarly provide a forum for a better understanding of the aspects of growing multiculturalism that promote healthy living and even to highlight and foster specific traditional practices that may serve to protect minority populations as they enter new environments.
Contact: Crystal Craighead
Arkansas
Farm to School ConferenceSun, Nov 1st, 2009 - Tue, Dec 1st, 2009
This conference will be Arkansas' first Farm to School event. It is scheduled for November 2009. The exact dates will be released soon. The Arkansas Farm to School Conference will be held in Little Rock, Arkansas at the Headquarters of Heifer International in their new education center.
Contact: Sylvia Blain, 501-765-2469
Arkansas Farm to School Conference
Thu, Nov 12th, 2009 - Fri, Nov 13th, 2009
Coming in November
Farm to School Conference at Heifer Village
Little Rock, Arkansas
Meet farmers who have successfully turned school districts into markets.
Talk to school food service directors interested in buying from local farmers.
Learn how to become part of a Farm to School network.
Learn how to benefit from an agriculture processing center for Arkansas' small and medium farmers.
Contact: Sylvia Blain, 501-765-2469
Arkansas Farm to School Conference
Thu, Nov 12th, 2009 - Fri, Nov 13th, 2009
An Arkansas Farm to School Conference will be hosted by Heifer International at its new education center, Heifer Village, in Little Rock on November 12 and 13, 2009. Arkansas farmers, school nutrition directors, nutrition educators and professionals of organizations and agencies working in the fields of agriculture, child health and nutrition education will come together to network with each other, learn from Farm to School experts and develop plans for making Farm to School a reality in Arkansas.
Contact: Beverly Stewart, (501) 907-2856