At the National Farm to School Network, we enter these last few weeks of 2016 with gratitude and in celebration. It’s been a busy and exciting year for our network and the wider farm to school movement, and we have you – our members, donors, partners and friends – to thank. Your commitment to our mission and support of our work is what keeps the farm to school movement growing strong.

Here are several highlights of our 2016 success that you helped make possible:  

  • Leadership Development: Hosted the 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Madison, Wis., which brought together 1,040 farm to cafeteria leaders from across the country for three days of learning, networking, resource sharing and movement building.
  • State-Level Support: Supported state-level farm to school growth with Seed Change initiatives in Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Mississippi. Seed Change KY, LA, PA completed its 18-month project with schools across all three states having doubled their farm to school activities.
  • National Advocacy: Continued advocacy for Child Nutrition Act reauthorization, including successful integration of Farm to School Act of 2015 priorities in both Senate and House committee bills. Organized a paper plate advocacy campaign, and delivered more than 550 messages of support for farm to school and healthy school meals to legislators on Capitol Hill.
  • Farm to Early Care and Education: Launched the results of our 2015 survey of early care and education providers, and continued to promote networking and collaboration among ECE stakeholder with a national listserv and quarterly webinars.
  • Awareness Building: Celebrated National Farm to School Month in October with 224 outreach partner organizations and thousands of farm to school champions across the country. This year’s campaign spread farm to school messages to a national audience of more than 10 million.  
  • Innovation Awards: Presented Innovation Awards to state partners in Georgia, the Great Lakes and the Northeast to develop new resources and creative outreach approaches for bringing new farmers and producers into the farm to school movement.
  • New Resources: Expanded our resource library with new resources for helping farm to school efforts grow in all communities, including fact sheets  about farm to school in Native Communities and updated early care and education local food procurement resources.


In 2017, we celebrate our 10 year anniversary! The next phase of our growth will have a laser-focus on institutionalizing and sustaining farm to school through network development, expanding partnerships, policy advocacy and leadership development for farm to school in K-12 and ECE settings. Our work will be guided by a new strategic plan to be rolled out in mid-2017.

Farm to school doesn’t happen on its own – it takes people like you championing the movement. We need your help to continue this important work.

GIVE NOW

With your gift, we can continue to build strong farm to school support networks, train farm to school practitioners across the country, drive policy change and develop vibrant communities that support healthy kids and thriving farms. Your generosity is what makes our work possible - we couldn’t do it without you!

Make your end of year, tax-deductible donation today. Together, we can keep this movement growing.