This Week in Farm to School from NC April 14, 2022

Farm to school connects local agriculture, schools, and partners to benefit students, educators, farmers, families, and communities.

Join the Education & Engagement Working Group! Are you interested in developing and growing farm to school education initiatives across North Carolina? If so, the Education & Engagement Working Group is perfect for you! This working group aims to engage youth and adults in farm to school across the state by hosting professional development opportunities and curating statewide education initiatives.  If you are interested in joining the Education and Engagement Working group, please complete our form. We’d love to have you! View Working Group Interest Form here.

Today! For Kids by Kids Garden Chat April 14, 2022 // 4 pm EDT KidsGardening is hosting a livestream created just for kids. This 45-minute livestream will celebrate Kids Garden Month with three kid gardeners sure to uplift and inspire. Join Kendall Rae Johnson (6), Te'Lario Watkins II (14), and Emma Biggs (16) as they share stories of how they came to gardening and why growing plants can change the world. Come with your questions! The kid gardeners are eager to hear from their peers and share advice on how to get started in the garden. Please note that this webinar is geared toward kids, but KidsGardening asks that an adult be in the room as well. Register here. Today! Listen Up! Understanding Food Justice and Environmental Justice through Music (Virtual)  April 14, 2022 // 7:30 pm EDT Music can be used to understand and communicate about food justice and environmental justice. Communicating through music can strengthen and uplift food and environmental justice practice that is diverse in terms of epistemology, representation, and mode. This event is hosted by the Food Studies Program and the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. It is part of the Food Studies’ Program’s Critical Food Studies and Social Justice Spring 2022 event series and the Tishman Environment and Design Center’s 2022 Earth Week activities. RSVP here. Making Your School Wellness Policy Count Webinar Series April 27, 2022 //10:15 - 11:30 am EDT Join North Carolina Healthy Schools for session two of their Making Your School Wellness Policy County series. A few members of the Farm to School Coalition of NC will cover how to assess compliance and progress with wellness policies, report, and communicate challenges and successes for the required Triennial Assessment. Please note that this session takes place during the Annual SHAC Meeting as a breakout session. Registration closes on April 20th.  Register here. Recording: What Makes School Gardens Thrive? Learn about two key pieces of research on indicators of building successful school garden programs by Associate Professor Jaimie Davis of UT Austin and Assistant Professor Kate Burt of Lehman College at the City University of New York. During this webinar, hosted by the School Garden Support Organization Network, Jaimie shares a summary of her research of over 110 school gardens and introduces viewers to a school garden sustainability survey and scorecard. Kate shares an overview of the GREEN Tool, including its domains, as well as initial results and observations from her work identifying how school gardens build a resilient support community. View the recording here.

NC Cooperative Extension: Starting Your School Garden  Download this guide to get started on developing a plan to build and sustain a school garden. From crafting a school garden team to managing volunteers, learn best practices to set your school up for success. Read more here.

Kids Gardening Pollinator Journal  Springtime is here which means our pollinator friends are buzzing around the garden again! Kids Gardening has a great resource about pollinator journals for pre-school through 12th grade. Learn more here.

Life Lab Nature Journaling  In this lesson, students create their own garden journals and use them to record observations of nature in the garden through drawing, writing, and painting. Journaling brings literacy, art, and creativity into the outdoors and can be used as a one-time activity or as an ongoing routine; it can be guided and scientific, open-ended, or anywhere in between. Learn more here.

Journal Article: Mapping New Agricultural Lands: From Conventional to Regenerative Published through the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), researchers study how conventional agriculture has come under question for its environmental and social costs. Their research suggests that regenerative agriculture and land management practices can be organized around farming and grazing practices that regenerate interdependent ecological and community processes for generations to come.  Read more here.

Tomorrow! WNC Farm to School Jumpstart Grant Deadline: April 15, 2022 The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Growing Minds Jumpstart Grant is now open! Eligible schools and organizations can apply for funding in the amount of $500 to $1,000 to support their farm to school projects. Funding can be used to start new projects or to expand upon existing activities. Pre-k through 12 schools, homeschool groups, teacher and nutrition education programs, and community-based organizations serving children and families are eligible to apply (see below for more details). Schools/organizations must be located within the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina (Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yancey) or the Qualla Boundary. Applications are due on the 15th of each month through August 2022. Learn more here. Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) Deadline: May 16 USDA has opened grant applications under the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP). This funding is available through three channels, with the USDA including a focus on Farm to Institution (FTI) projects for two of the funding streams: The Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grants will develop food businesses that connect local food to institutions, and the Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant supports public-private partnerships that build and strengthen the viability of local or regional food economies. The third stream, the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), supports direct-to-consumer markets such as farmers markets and CSAs. The Wallace Center has created this set of resources on applying. Learn more here. National Institute of Food and Agriculture Grant Deadline: July 28, 2022 The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Sustainable Agricultural Systems supports approaches that promote transformational changes in the U.S. food and agriculture system. NIFA seeks creative and visionary applications that take a systems approach for projects that are expected to significantly improve the supply of affordable, safe, nutritious, and accessible agricultural products while fostering economic development and rural prosperity in America.  Learn more here. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Grants CSPI is releasing several grant opportunities this funding cycle that is organized into 4 focus areas: State and local policy grants, Community prioritized policy innovation grants, Federal lobbying grants, Power building grants. Many topics will be relevant to school food, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR), and other categories related to Farm to School. Click the link below to find more information, including resources for applicants and application information, and sign up to be notified about relevant funding opportunities. Learn more here.

Support Kids Not Red Tape Senator Stabenow and Senator Murkowski introduced a bipartisan bill to extend the USDA waiver authority for Child Nutrition programs (read more about why that's important). Follow this link to urge our Senators to support this bill. Read more about the bill. National Farm to School Network State (NFSN) Policy Map NFSN recently launched an exciting new State Policy Map resource. State legislative sessions are in full swing, and they would love to learn about state policies that should be highlighted and shared through this interactive tool. View the map here. Extensions for Child Nutrition Waivers A report released on March 7 by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service underscores the negative impact of supply chain disruptions and staffing challenges on School Nutrition Programs during the 2021-2022 school year. The report also found that nearly 90 percent of school districts used the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) waiver to serve meals for the school year 2021-2022, which allows schools to offer all students meals at no charge and provides higher reimbursement rates which have been needed to support nutrition finances during the pandemic. Learn more here. Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) Update Advocates are gearing up for another potential push for Child Nutrition Reauthorization, the largest piece of federal legislation that authorizes school, summer, after-school, and early care and education (ECE) meal programs. You can read more about the CNR process and National Farm to School Network's top issues here, and see information about key legislative proposals ("marker bills") here. While no package of legislation has yet been released, there is an opportunity to build support among legislators for strengthening these programs through funding, access, farm to school activities, and an equity lens that can truly shift power for a racially just food system. Use this form to reach out to your legislator and let them know the Child Nutrition priorities that are important to you.

The Importance of Native Food Systems During COVID and Beyond In times of environmental transition and unrest, a return to and revitalization of Native food systems is both necessary and beautiful. In the words of an elder basket maker who lives in the central valleys of California, “The land is calling us to watch the dance.” And now, as questions about the origin, health and sustainability of the food we eat increase – and the demand for strength and recovery as a result of COVID-19 continues – more and more people are hearing that call, and not only watching the dance, but participating. Read here. Indigenous Seed Keepers Network The mission of the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network is to nourish and assist the growing Seed Sovereignty Movement across Turtle Island (North America). As a national network, they leverage resources and cultivate solidarity and communication within the matrix of regional grass-roots tribal seed sovereignty projects. Watch here. 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge  Food Solutions New England will host its 8th version of the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge from April 4th to the 24th in 2022. Register here.

Farm to School Coalition of NC | www.farmtoschoolcoalitionnc.org

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