By: Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

In 2017, farm to school and farm to early care and education activities took root in all 50 States, D.C., the U.S. Territories, and Native Communities. Some highlights from the year include: STEM lessons in school gardens, students cooking in kitchen classrooms, locally-sourced meals on school lunch trays, community partnerships such as those with master gardens and local non-profits, farm field trips, events during October’s National Farm to School Month, state-level policies supporting farm to school funding, and so much more. Check out this list of farm to school stories representing our entire network to see what farm to school looked liked in 2017!

• Alabama: In July, Governor Kay Ivey signed a new Farm to School Amendment into law. This bill allows local farmers to sell produce directly to schools, allowing more locally grown produce in school cafeterias. (Yellow Hammer News)
• Alaska: Fish to School showcases how strategic partnerships benefit the entire community. (Cordova Times)
• Arizona: Evans Elementary in Tempe, AZ uses horticulture therapy a tool to help students better manage emotional and behavioral issues. (Wrangler News)
• Arkansas: Students in the Westside High School Agriculture program raise pigs and goats at school to be sold in their community. (KAIT8)
• California: This fall, the Farm-To-Student Collaborative Program in Marin County, CA supported local sourcing and procurement partnership that make it possible for schools to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers and their very own school gardens. (Patch)
• Colorado: Farm to Early Childhood and Education in Colorado means that preschoolers are learning hands on farming as tool for preventing childhood obesity. (PBS News Hour)
• Connecticut: 20 Foodcorps Servicemembers in 15 school districts worked to support healthy school environments in Conneticut. (CT Post)
• Delaware: “Schoolyard habitat programs like our sensory garden are part of our school’s efforts to go green,” said fourth grade teacher Leona Williams, who worked with Delaware Nature Society naturalists to help design the garden. (Delaware.gov)
• District of Columbia: Students at the DC Bilingual School benefited from an 8,000-square-foot garden that supports science education, community engagement and outdoor exploration of all kinds. (Huffington Post)
• Florida: Let the numbers speak. In spring 2017, Broward County Public Schools served over 40,000 pounds of Florida-grown strawberries to Florida students over a two-week period. (South Florida Times)
• Georgia: Students in Tifton, GA celebrated the 14th annual Children’s Farm Day! Middle and high school students come up with the fundraisers for the event, put the exhibits together, staff the stations and teach third graders about the importance of agriculture. (Tifton Gazette)
• Guam: From buying local food to planting school gardens to teaching kids where their food comes from, Guam is ‘bringing the farm to school.’ (USDA.gov)
• Hawaii: Mālama Kauaí designed and implemented a farm-to-school pilot program that prioritize farm-to-school sourcing, reflects local traditions, and includes culturally relevant foods. (Civil Eats)
• Idaho: There was a lot of buzz in Hailey, ID as Syringa Mountain School incorporated beekeeping into their school garden program. (KMVT)
• Illinois: Illinois State Senator Pat McGuire visited Tibbott Elementary School in Bolingbrook to observe the school lunch program including the school’s garden and hydroponic veggie tower. (The Herald News)
• Indiana: Johnson County master gardeners helped plant a new garden at a Greenwood elementary school with the goal of helping students learn about plants and the environment. (Daily Journal)
• Iowa: This Iowa summer school program gave their students a special treat. They got to taste salsa, pesto, and lemonade made with ingredients they grew all summer, along with using honey from their beehive. (Voice of Muscatine)
• Kansas: KC Healthy Kids’ Ultimate Eat Local Recipe Challenge gave young cooks a chance to shine. (kchealthykids)
• Kentucky: Sales of lunches increased 38 percent at Sts Peter and Paul Regional Catholic School after launching a new, farm to table menu. (LexGo)
• Louisiana: LSU AgCenter hosted a state wide conference dedicated to farm to school initiatives. (The Franklin Sun)
• Maine: Ten Brunswick High School Students spend three mornings a week getting paid $9/hour to tend their school garden. “They’re learning a work ethic: Show up on time. Commit to the job. Give it your best effort. Take initiative.” (The Forecaster)
• Maryland: The Carroll County Public School’s garden operates with these goals: teach students about where food comes from, promote healthy eating, and provide food for students and families that are in need. (Carrol County Times)
• Massachusetts: Since flipping the switch on their new composter in October, Barnstable High School has processed anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds of food waste daily from the 1,100 8th, 9th,and 10th-graders participating in the program. (Cape Cod Times)
• Michigan: Michigan legislators expanded the 10 Cents a Meal for School Kids & Farms program for the upcoming school year (GroundWorkCenter.org)
• Minnesota: In Duluth, new language in the district’s policies and a position dedicated to coordinating the school gardens helped expand farm to school. (Duluth News Tribune)
• Mississippi: Partnerships are powerful. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce partnered with the Mississippi Department of Education to bring Mississippi Farm to School Week to the state. (MDAC)
• Missouri: One St. Louis school has a kitchen classroom where all students -preschoolers included- slice, dice, whisk, and bake for an hour a week. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Montana: Trout to tray means that Montana students are raising trout in their school’s aquaponics system to serve a dual purpose - providing nutrients to plants in the greenhouse and becoming a source of food on lunch trays. (Missoulian)
• Native Communities: At Indian Township School in Maine, the school’s librarian led the school community in planting, harvesting, and finally eating their new three sister’s garden. (NFSN)
• Nebraska: Students at Overton and Litchfield public schools were fed homegrown beef and pork as they launched Nebraska Thursdays as part of National Farm to School Month. (Kearney Hub)
• Nevada: Farm to school programs can be seen as a tool to addressing food insecurity through a two-pronged approach that addresses the immediate need to feed people and systemic problems related to nutrition. (Las Vegas Sun)
• New Hampshire: New Hampshire master gardeners and the University of New Hampshire Extension Services offered free seeds to school and youth gardens around the state. (Valley News)
• New Jersey: September’s Back-to-school night at Kings Road School featured a special reception where parents could visit the school’s communal garden and enjoy homegrown treats before the evening’s events began. (TAPinto.net)
• New Mexico: Stakeholder from throughout New Mexico celebrated their many local food successes at the second annual Farm to School Awards (Green Fire Times)
• New York: Farm to school is a vehicle for change. In the poorest congressional district in America, these Bronx schools are growing a lot of food alongside healthy attitudes. (MBGplanet)
• North Carolina: Teams in nine North Carolina counties joined the NC Farm to Early Care and Education (NC Farm to ECE) Initiative. This program connects local farms and early childhood and education centers throughout the state. (NC State Extension)
• North Dakota: Bob Drees and his family farm hosted fourth-graders from Thompson and Grand Forks. It's the fourth year he's brought school kids to his farm to help them learn more about modern agriculture. (West Fargo Pioneer)
• Ohio: This fall the National Farm to School Network announced that Ohio State University Extension will be the local host for the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference April 25-27, 2018 in Cincinnati, OH. (NFSN)
• Oklahoma: Three Norman schools held a Green Schools Summit, which included discussions on food waste reduction and school gardens. (Norman Transcript)
• Oregon: Unanimous support from the Oregon House, Senate, and Governor passed House Bill 2038 allocating $4.5 million for schools to continue to buy Oregon-grown and processed foods and to support agriculture- and garden-based education. (KATU)
• Pennsylvania: Once overrun with weeds, Pinehurst Elementary School’s PTA adopted the community garden in front of their school and transformed it into an outdoor classroom for several classes a day in all subjects. (The Pilot)
• Puerto Rico: Los estudiantes de Puerto Rico cuentan con un nuevo recurso educativo que visita las escuelas, ofrece clases de cocina, los orientan sobre los alimentos sanos, los ayudan a la elaboración de un huerto escolar y también los llevan a fincas agrícolas para realizar recorridos guiados. (endi)
• Rhode Island: School gardens align with Next Generation Science Standard. In Rhode Island, schools gardens used to promote an “authentic learning experience”. (South County Life Magazine)
• South Carolina: For the third year in a row, kids throughout Greenville County, SC participated in the Healthy Lunchtime Throwdown, which challenges students to create their favorite healthy recipe for a chance to have it appear on menus throughout the school district. (Greenville News)
• South Dakota: Yankton Boys & Girls Club started a kids garden club in June, and they plan to to grow potatoes in pots indoors this winter. (Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan)
• Tennessee: Bolton High students are maintaining their own garden and harvesting fruits and vegetables to feed food insecure families in their community. (WREG)
• Texas: STEM skills blossom in school gardens. Students can see season change, grow food to learn plant cycles, and observing pollinator habitat in the garden. (Community Impact)
• U.S. Virgin Islands: The V.I. Department of Agriculture worked to establish a sustainable Grower’s Collaboration Program with the goal of operating in partnership with farm to school and Harvest of the Month programs. (St. John Source)
• Utah: Third grade students at Canyon Elementary School in Spanish Fork ‘crunched’ into Utah-grown apples while participating in an event to highlight proper nutrition with the Utah County Health Department and Utah Farm Bureau Federation. (Daily Herald)
• Vermont: Policy change alert! In June, Governor Phil Scott signed a new bill, which further enhances Vermont’s farm to school programming by expanding the program and setting new, ambitious goals for growth. (VT Digger)
• Virginia: During National Farm to School Month, students at Virginia L. Murray Elementary School celebrated Virginia Farm to School Week by participating in the "Crunch Heard ‘Round the Commonwealth," a synchronous eating of Virginia apples. (Charlottesville Today)
• Washington: Native plants were included in this Washington school garden. “The plants were chosen for their identification and educational opportunities, significance to Native American culture, and to most please the children, many of the plants will have edible fruit.” (Island Sounder)
• West Virginia: Students at Marlowe Elementary School in Martinsburg rolled up their sleeves to create their own herb garden, whose harvest will be used in their own school cafeteria. (The Journal)
• Wisconsin: Holmen School District served students at all six of its schools a lunch of student-raised chicken served alongside local fruits and vegetables. More than 3,000 portions of chicken were served for Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, a partnership of the Holmen High School FFA and the La Crosse County Farm2School program. (La Crosse Tribune)
• Wyoming: Celebrations were held in Lander to introduce the community to this kid’s garden, which is the first of more to come in the Fremont County School District. (KCWY)

The National Farm to School Network wishes you a happy, healthy holiday season. We cannot wait to plant more seeds of change with you in 2018!

By Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

At our 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in June 2016, LaDonna Redmond gave keynote remarks focused on ending systemic oppression in the food system. In her address, she urged the audience to understand that “every community has the intellect to heal itself.” She explained that the role of individuals working within farm to cafeteria is to use our skillset to uncover the intellect in our communities so that people believe in themselves. What if this approach was seriously considered within farm to school and farm to early care and education work? What would it look like for youth to be leading the movement?

Many organizations throughout the country focus on youth leadership as a way to further farm to school efforts.  In our most recent Trending Topics: Youth Engagement through Farm to School Webinar, our network highlighted three organizations that put youth empowerment front and center in their work:

• YES! Youth Empowered Solutions: Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) is a nonprofit organization that empowers youth, in partnership with adults, to create community change.
• Alameda County Office of Education’s Project EAT:  Project Eat works to end health inequities and close the achievement gap in school communities.
• Vermont FEED’s Jr. Iron Chef VT: This statewide culinary competition challenges teams of middle and high school students to understand how they can effect change in the food system by creating healthy, local dishes that inspire school meal programs.

Mary Beth Louks-Sorrell, Executive Director for YES! highlighted that when youth are not included, “One fourth of the population is being ignored, instead of tapped for their potential to contribute to improving things.” Additionally, Mary Beth offered up a set of best practices to consider before starting work with youth, including asking these questions:

• What will be the role of youth in your work?
• What do you hope to achieve from the inclusion of youth
• Why are you interested in the thoughts, ideas, input, and leadership of youth?
• What are some ways you might envision the way you and your organization operates or the direction of the work changing once youth are involved?

Vermont FEED’s School Food Programs Coordinator, Marissa Watson commented on the importance of holding space for kids to participate, stating that, “school food change takes many players: students, food service, parents, and the community.”
Kate Casale from Alameda County’s Office of Education explained that including youth as leaders within farm to school work is a perfect opportunity to tap into their creativity and innate interest in justice. She also reminds us about the importance of letting youth tell their stories in their own words.

Jason, a seventeen year old from the program Bronx Youth Force explains, “If you had a problem in the Black community, and you brought in a group of White people to discuss how to solve it, almost nobody would take that panel seriously. In fact, there’d probably be a public outcry. It would be the same for women’s issues or gay issues. But every day, in local arenas all the way to the White House, adults sit around and decide what problems youth have and what youth need, without ever consulting us.”

Young people are the changes makers of tomorrow, and today. Their ideas, contributions and voices are invaluable to the work of growing more just and equitable food systems, and we should always be conscious to have a place for them at the table.

Appetite For Change is a North Minneapolis nonprofit organization that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change. "Grow Food" is the culminating project of Appetite For Change's Summer 2016 Youth Employment & Training Program. Urban Youth wanted to share their message - the importance of actively choosing healthy foods - with their peers in a fun, accessible music format. Learn more about Appetite For Change here.

If you are interested in learning more about youth leadership within farm to school and the local food movement, we invited you to join us at the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in April 2018. An entire conference workshop track is dedicated to “Youth Leadership and Engagement” within the farm to cafeteria movement, and we’d love to have you be part of the conversation!

Photo Credits (from top to bottom): Vermont FEED and Alameda County Office of Education (middle and bottom).

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By Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

When I think about food, especially during the holiday season, I think about my traditions with family and friends. From holidays to birthdays and reunions, food has always been a central part of my celebration of life events. In the recently published New York Times Op-ed titled Feeling Conflicted on Thanksgiving Viet Thanh Nguyen explains, “DNA, in any case, tells us little about culture. Food tells us more.“ Farm to school is as much about food, culture, and celebration as it is about education, health and access.

Schools and early care settings across all 50 states, D.C., the U.S. Territories, and Native communities are using farm to school as an approach to deepen their understanding of food as a tool for cultural connection and celebration. At Warm Spring K-8 Academy on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon, there is urgency to connecting school and community culture to food traditions.  District Superintendent Ken Parnell explains:

You can’t just focus on math and literacy, because the rate of diabetes in our community is heartbreaking. Male life expectancy is 38 years. Many adults die from complications from diabetes. You can’t just say that’s a health concern and leave that in the community (outside of the school), because it affects our students. In my first year, eleven students lost parents. We have a responsibility to start working with students at a young age around nutrition.

The school district has framed farm to school as an opportunity to connect students to local, healthy, and traditional foods, such as root vegetables and salmon.  As the school became more engaged with these traditional foods in the cafeteria, they also realized there were opportunities to extend farm to school activities to families. For example, the school district’s family engagement nights, which turnout up to 1,000 students and family members, provided an exciting opportunity to celebrate healthy, traditional foods on a wider scale. After reflecting of how to better incorporate traditions into family nights, the district planned a powwow where everyone participated in dancing and enjoyed traditional food. Ken added, “It would have been much easier from the (school) kitchen (to work alone), but we worked with tribal partners to prepare traditional foods.”  

Every community has different food and cultural traditions – and that’s worth celebrating! Here are several additional snapshots of how farm to school celebrates traditions, relationships, and an overall connection to community-based food:

- Students in Arkansas are celebrating the holiday season and learning about each other cultures with a recipe swap. One student shared a family recipe dating back to 1911!

- In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, middle school students in rural Iowa learned about table settings, polite dinner conversation, and menu selection. To conclude their class, they enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch together where they could put all they learned into practice.

- For about 20 Phoenix School culinary students, preparations to feed a Thanksgiving feast to 200 students and staff would not be complete without a trip to the school’s garden. Picking herbs from the garden was among the tasks needed to be finished before Tuesday’s big event.

By Maximilian Merrill, Policy Director

Farm to school policies have been a key strategy for making local food procurement, food education and school gardens a reality for millions of children. To support the continued growth of state policy advocacy, we’ve updated one of our signature resources that tracks how farm to school-supportive bills are strengthening the farm to school movement.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey: 2002-2017 provides state-by-state summaries of every enacted, defeated or pending farm to school-related bill from January 1, 2002 through March 31, 2017. It also includes analysis and infographics on state farm to school legislative trends; case studies on successful farm to school advocacy efforts in Alaska, Oregon, Texas and Washington, D.C.; and, additional resources to help advocates learn about and replicate the wide variety of existing state farm to school laws, policies and programs.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey: 2002-2017 builds on a survey that was originally released in 2011, and updated in 2013 and 2014. This most recent version reflects legislation through March 31, 2017. With this update, we’ve found that 46 states, including Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have proposed 491 bills and resolutions supportive of farm to school activities. Forty of these states, including D.C., have enacted farm to school-related legislation. Since the last legislative survey published in 2014, Louisiana, Arkansas, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona have enacted their first farm to school legislation, with only a handful of states remaining that have yet to pass farm to school policy.

In the last two years alone, over 200 farms to school-related policies have been proposed in state and territory legislatures. The most popular policy initiatives were food education, funding and promotional events. Other popular policies included price percentage preference legislation to enable schools to purchase local foods and farm to school pilot programs.

In addition to providing summaries on each of these proposed policies, the State Farm to School Legislative Survey also offers tools to help advocates advance new legislation in their states. Check out four case studies that analyze successful farm to school advocacy efforts and compare how different states have tackled farm to school policy opportunities with different approaches. While each state and territory has a different political climate, these case studies offer examples that can be replicated across the board. For example, farmer databases or local preference laws may be more attractive for a legislature concerned by budgets or boosting local jobs.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey is designed to offer farm to school advocates like you a roadmap to learn about and compare existing, potentially replicable state farm to school laws, policies and programs in order to advance new legislation in your state. So dig in, and start exploring the opportunities!

Have questions about this new resource or need a thought partner on how to connect with your state lawmakers? Don’t hesitate to contact our Policy team for support! We look forward to hearing how your advocacy efforts continue to support the growth of farm to school, state by state.

By Lea Madry, Development Director

It’s hard to believe that the final weeks of 2017 are upon us, and at the National Farm to School Network, we are reflecting on an extraordinary year for farm to school. For that, we have you – our members, donors, partners and friends – to thank. Your commitment to our shared mission and partnership in advancing the farm to school movement has helped support many more healthy kids, thriving farmers, and vibrant communities across all parts of the country. Together, we’re keeping the farm to school movement growing strong!

Here are several highlights of our 2017 success that you helped make possible:  

200 New State & Territory Partners: Embarked on an exciting new chapter of our work with the selection of nearly 200 partner organizations across all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and, for the first time, U.S. Territories, to serve as our 2017-2019 Core and Supporting Partners.

New Strategy: Launched and began implementing our ambitious 2017-2019 Strategic Plan, which includes expanding and refining our policy advocacy, programs and partnerships to institutionalize farm to school and early care and education.

National Advocacy: Worked with bipartisan champions in Congress to introduce the Farm to School Act of 2017, which proposes an increase in funding from $5 million to $15 million for the highly successful USDA Farm to School Grant Program. The Farm to School Act of 2017 would also ensure that the grant program fully includes early care and education sites, summer food service sites, after school programs, and tribal schools and producers, while improving program participation from beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Support for Native Communities: Launched Seed Change initiatives in five Native communities as a strategy to leverage community-wide initiatives towards building food sovereignty and revitalizing use of traditional foods. Activities have focused on procurement of local and traditional foods, school gardens, and food and agriculture education in Native schools.

Expanding Farm to Early Care and Education: Enriched existing networking and collaboration opportunities among ECE stakeholders through a national listserv and quarterly webinars. We also launched a Roadmap for Farm to Early Care and Education resource and Growing Head Start Success with Farm to Early Care and Education tool, which promotes understanding of how farm to ECE can support achievement of Head Start Program Performance Standards.

Innovation Awards: Presented Innovation Awards to celebrate beginning farmers in their first 10 years of farming and farmer veterans. This year’s awards have been given to two farmers in recognition of their exemplary efforts in selling local produce to schools and engaging kids in learning where their food comes from: Dylan Strike from Strike Farms in Bozeman, Montana and Jon Turner from Wild Roots Farm Vermont in Bristol, Vermont.

National Partnerships: Facilitated expanded engagement in farm to school with a new initiative to designate a “National Partner of the Year.” In this inaugural year, we partnered with the School Nutrition Association to better connect our members and school nutrition professionals for fostering a nation of healthy, well-nourished kids.

New Resources: Expanded our resource library with new resources for helping farm to school efforts grow in all communities, including a study of the economic impact of farm to school, an updated version of our State Farm to School Legislative Survey, and new non-English and bilingual farm to school resources.

Your donations have made this work possible, and they’re crucial to helping us do more in 2018. Make your end of year, tax-deductible donation today to keep this movement growing.

We’re on track to build on 2017 successes by expanding the farm to school movement in 2018, as part of our new strategic plan. To support our ambitious growth goals, we’ve launched the Seed Change Venture Fund so that passionate individuals like you can invest in our movement. Will you make a donation during the final months of 2017 to help sustain our movement and propel our growth?

After all, 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, you’ll be contributing to the Seed Change Venture Fund, which supports our bold growth goals for farm to school in 2018 and beyond.

By donating, you’re helping us 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. Give today!

Photo Credit: DC Greens

For the past 31 days, millions of schools, farmers and communities across the country have been celebrating the movement that’s connecting kids to fresh, healthy food and supporting local economies. From Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between, people are recognizing the power of farm to school to benefits kids, farmers and communities. That’s what National Farm to School Month is all about!

This year’s campaign celebrated the small actions that people take every day to get involved and support farm to school and farm to early care and education in their communities. Through our Farm to School Month “Take Action Pledge,” we heard from hundreds of people across the country about the action steps they took in October:

• Invited parents to join students for a lunch of fresh collard greens and South Carolina grown sweet potatoes – South Carolina
• Worked to build an active Farm to School Committee that helps connect community entities and passionate people – Michigan
• Continued to teach my daycare center children about the importance of growing vegetables by turning a recycled crib into a raised garden bed – New York
• Incorporated produce from our own school greenhouse into school lunch menu and salad bar – Maine
• Hosted a Fall Harvest Party in the school garden, featuring tasty treats using produce from the garden, reading from a garden-themed book together, and farmers who shared their stories with students – Iowa

Yesterday we participated in the #GreatAppleCrunch. Every student received an apple from Munchkey! #WIAppleCrunch #F2SMonth #WhyWeCrunch pic.twitter.com/VSpOQU0E52

— MHASDLunch (@MHASDLunch) October 13, 2017

At the National Farm to School Network, we’ve been leading Farm to School Month celebrations by sharing farm to school inspiration and stories from partners organizations including Alliance for a Healthier Generation, National CACFP Sponsors Association, The NEA Foundation, School Nutrition Association, USDA Office of Community Food Systems and Youth Empowered Solutions. Thanks to special support from CoBank, we also shared several stories about how small farmers across the country are experiencing the benefits of farm to school, such as new market opportunities, expanded profit margins, and consistent buyers for their products.

On social media, we celebrated with a #FarmtoSchool101 tweet chat to spread awareness and generated new support for the movement. More than 289 people joined the conversation on social media, sharing stories about the positive impact farm to school has in their communities. On Instagram, we hosted #TakeoverTuesdays with Strike Farms, Loudoun County School Nutrition, and FoodCorps to share what farm to school looks like for the folks who do it every day!

Millions of students celebrated Farm to School Month by crunch into fresh, local food with events like the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch, Hawai’i CHOMP, Florida Cucumber Crunch and Montana Crunch Time. Policymakers from Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Vermont made proclamations declaring October Farm to School Month in their states. In Georgia, kids learned about planting, harvesting and cooking legumes with Georgia Organic’s “Make Room for Legumes” celebration. In Massachusetts, farm to school advocates gathered at the State House for a Farm to School Awareness Day and announcement of their 2017 Kale Blazer Award. In Alaska, schools celebrated farm to school every week in October by focusing on a different Alaska agricultural products, such as tubers and roots (Eskimo potatoes), meat (Caribou) and leaves (fiddlehead ferns). We could keep going!

Farm to school is a grassroots movement powered by people like you, taking small actions every day to bring more local food sourcing and food and agriculture education to students across the nation. There are 334 days to continue growing and strengthening the movement before Farm to School Month 2018! Help us keep the momentum going by joining our network and stay up-to-date on the latest stories, new resources, policy actions, learning opportunities – like the upcoming 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, April 25-27, 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Healthy kids, thriving farms and vibrant communities are worth taking action for every day!

Thank you to this year’s National Farm to School Month sponsors - CoBank, Territory Foods, Captain Planet Foundation, Organic Valley, Perdue, Emeril Lagasse Foundation, Stand2Learn and High Mowing Organic Seeds - as well as the Featured Partner and Outreach Partner organizations that are helping us spread the word about farm to school throughout October. And, thanks to you for being a farm to school champion in your community.

By Wendy Allen, Organic Valley

One of our favorite things about National Farm to School Month is October’s abundance of farm-fresh foods, many in a rainbow of colors that children don’t often associate with food. Apples in colors other than red; carrots in colors other than orange; white, yellow—even blue!—potatoes fresh from the soil. And nothing beats the flavor of vine-ripened, heirloom tomatoes in hues of red, orange, yellow and purple.

Schools that source local foods are providing an educational experience for our children that goes way beyond the classroom. Not only are the varied colors of unique, local foods beautiful, each color represents vital nutrients for growing bodies. Best of all, a rainbow-colored plate supports local farmers whose kids may be in your own child’s class. Schools that go one step further to source local and organic are also supporting a way of farming that reduces the use of chemicals on our food, our land and, therefore, in our children’s vulnerable bodies.

Here are a few more of our favorite ways you can participate in National Farm to School Month in your homes and communities!

Harvest the season’s bounty. Visit a local apple orchard or pumpkin patch and pick your own. Many children these days don’t connect that their food comes from the soil or animals rather than the store shelf. Teach them this valuable lesson with a fun and colorful fall experience!

Know your farmer. Meet a farmer at the farmers market and learn the story behind your food. Ask them questions: Where is your farm? What’s your favorite part of your job? What can my family do to support you and other local farmers? Is your farmers market closed for the season? Look into fall and winter “community supported agriculture” (CSA) shares to get local foods nearly year-round. Find a CSA farm new you at www.localharvest.org.

Be a leader! If your local school doesn’t have a farm to school program, talk to the school administrators about starting one! You can use the National Farm to School Network’s excellent “Benefits of Farm to School” resource to help explain why farm to school is a win-win-win for kids, farmers and communities! In addition, many states have organizations that help install gardens, and schools can get free curriculum to connect science, nutrition, health and physical education classes with their gardens. Here’s a resource from Organic Valley’s home state of Wisconsin, which any state could use to get started:

• The Got Dirt? Gardening Initiative provides a toolkit with step-by-step plans for starting a community, school or childcare garden. To bring the classroom to the garden, the program also created the Got Veggies? Garden Based Nutrition Curriculum, which is a free download. Download both toolkits here.
• For additional curricular resources, visit the National Farm to School Network resource library.
• Know of other great resources? Share them with us on Facebook or Twitter!

Grow your own! Start small with a window herb garden, a manageable space in the backyard, or even vegetables that are suited for pots on the porch. A great kids’ activity! Volunteer to visit your local school to help students plant their own classroom herb garden.

Cook together. Cooking can be a great learning experience. Encourage lots of colors for balanced nutrition, and talk about where the foods came from – does your child know that butter comes from cream, which is part of milk, which came from a cow? Talk about it while making your own butter!

National Farm to School Month is a great time to engage with your child’s classrooms and encourage teachers to work in food and farming education. It’s so important to help our children learn to appreciate where our food comes from and the hard work it takes to bring that food to our tables.

Organic Valley is a 2017 National Farm to School Month sponsor, and happy to support the National Farm to School Network in its efforts to support family farming and teach children about where our food comes from.

By Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

Growing up in suburban Dallas, Jill Elmers felt far from farm country. Even as a young adult, she did not envision her life as a farmer. Jill began her career as an engineer, got burned out, and took time off to farm in 2000. Ever since her first season, she has had a little bit of land every year. Then in 2006, Jill saved up enough money to buy her own farmland. Today, she owns and operates Moon on the Meadow Farm in Lawrence, Kansas.

Moon on the Meadow is a six-acre, certified organic farm growing a variety of produce including: fruits, veggies, herbs and flowers. In addition to Jill, up to six employees work at the farm, some seasonally and a few year round. Through the use of season extension techniques such a tunnels, Jill is able to produce all year for the farm’s retail and wholesale markets including: farmers markets, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and farm to school.

This is the farm’s second year selling to local schools, and Jill says that this business relationship has given her farm a consistently reliable market. “The core items that they (schools) buy, they know how much they need every week, and so those sales are consistent.”  Last year, the farm sold cucumbers and cherry tomatoes to the Lawrence schools, and this year they have added romaine, cilantro, and winter salad mix.

Jill is one of a number of U.S. farmers discovering the economic benefits of farm to school. Economic Impacts of Farm to School: Case Studies and Assessment Tools, a recent report from the National Farm to School Network and Colorado University, examines the economic impact of local purchasing and provides new insight into the potential for farm to school procurement to positively impact local economies. This report finds that not only were surveyed farmers satisfied or very satisfied with most aspects of farm to school sales, but farm to school farms purchase more inputs from the local economy, which results in positive local economic impact. Beyond the economics, farm to school has far-reaching and positive impacts for students, farmers, and communities.

Jill is happy that farm to school has secured her a more reliable farm income; however, she was quick to explain that farm to school is about so much more than that. The team at Moon on the Meadow Farm is proud to supply healthy, organic food to the schools surrounding them. Since the farm is located eleven blocks from the center of Lawrence, the schools that this urban farm supplies actually surround it. Jill’s favorite farm to school moments are when students make the trip to the farm. Specifically, the Lawrence 7th grade health students who take a field trip in the fall and spring.  Jill explained that the students not only inspire her but all of her farm’s workers. It seems some type of poetic that the students inspire Jill and her team, because I am most certain that the farm inspires the students - maybe even a future farmer or two.

The National Farm to School Network thanks CoBank for their generous support of this blog and our 2017 National Farm to School Month celebrations!