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This Week in Farm to School
March 24, 2022
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Farm to school connects local agriculture, schools, and partners to benefit students, educators, farmers, families, and communities.
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Share Your Story with The National Farm to School Network: Supply Chain Difficulties and Adaptations
Deadline: March 24, but stories will be accepted on a rolling basis
Supply chain difficulties are ongoing, and the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) would like to hear stories from you that should be elevated to policymakers about the Child Nutrition challenges you are facing now and that you anticipate facing this summer and fall. If you have a story to share, contact NFSN's Policy Director, Karen Spangler, at karen@farmtoschool.org.
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Build a Better District Wellness Policy
Today! March 24, 2022 // 2 pm EST
Join an Alliance for a Healthier Generation as they guide participants through revising their district’s wellness policy. Participants in this 30-minute session will learn how to use Healthier Generation's one-of-a-kind digital policy builder tool to select evidence-based practices, add state or local policy requirements, along with USDA final rule language, and collaborate with district leadership to update your policy for school board approval.
School Garden Support Organization Network Webinar: What Makes School Gardens Thrive?
Today! March 24, 2022 // 2 pm - 3:15 pm EST
Come 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. Jaimie will share a summary of her research of over 110 school gardens and introduce viewers to a school garden sustainability survey and scorecard. Kate will share 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.
Call Your Legislator Skill Building Workshop
March 30, 2022 // 7 - 8:15 pm EST
Do you want to call your legislator but don't know exactly what to say? Join Toxic Free NC for a workshop on what to say and what decision-makers are listening for. They will also have some practice rounds to help you gain confidence and add another advocacy tool to your toolbox. Spanish / English interpretation will be provided.
Policy and Advocacy for Food Systems Change Courses (Virtual)
April 5 - 7 // 1-2pm EST & April 20 // 3pm EST
Join the Wallace Center’s Food Systems Leadership Network for a spring series dedicated to building collective knowledge around policy and advocacy for food systems change. Equity Advocates will debunk the misconceptions around nonprofits and advocacy and offer tips for how to get started and stay involved. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition will walk through the Farm Bill as everyone gears up for its 2023 reauthorization.
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Join a Farm to School Coalition of North Carolina Working Group!
Are you interested in collaborating with other farm to school stakeholders in North Carolina? The Farm to School Coalition of NC is seeking individuals to join one or more of our Working Groups – education & engagement, systems change, impact & outreach, resiliency, and sustainability. If you’d like to learn more about these Working Groups and how you can get involved please complete our interest form below. We look forward to collaborating with you all!
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NPR Article: Millions of children will miss healthy school meals when pandemic relief expires
Millions of children rely on school meals to keep hunger at bay, so School Nutrition Directors scrambled to adopt new, creative ways to distribute food to families. As a part of pandemic relief legislation, the federal Food and Nutrition services agency waived the requirement that schools serve meals in a group setting, increased school-year reimbursement rates to summer levels for school food programs, and granted more flexibility in how food is prepared and packaged. School Nutrition Directors have stated that some of these changes were improvements on the status quo.
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Research Article: The Association Between Duration of School Garden Exposure and Self-Reported Learning and School Connectedness
When students feel connected to their school, they experience positive health and academic outcomes. School garden programming has the potential to help children achieve academic outcomes and feel connected to their school. Researchers describe the results of a secondary analysis utilizing data from an evaluation of a university-supported community school garden program (CSGP). Using a cross-sectional survey study design, researchers examined the impact of school garden programming in Title I schools on primarily Latino/a (Hispanic) elementary student self-reported learning and feelings of school connectedness by comparing students with ≤ 1-year exposure to those with
>1 year.
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Providing Shade and Shelter From Weather
As spring approaches, many outdoor education programs are providing more programming outside but shifting weather patterns throughout the day can be challenging to navigate. Physical comfort is centrally important to the success of outdoor learning programs. This article describes many different approaches to providing shade and shelter for outdoor learning.
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School Nutrition Foundation Equipment Grants
Deadline: March 31, 2022
The School Nutrition Foundation is teaming up with industry partners to provide new kitchen equipment to deserving districts. Apply now for the 2022 SNF Equipment Grant Program, featuring applications for not one but FIVE grants! Eligible applicants have the opportunity to win equipment grants, each worth between $20,000 to $100,000 of equipment. Applications and photos must be submitted by a School Nutrition Director. This year, only finalists will be asked to submit a 2-3-minute video. They will announce the recipients in May of 2022.
Outdoor Classroom Challenge
Deadline: April 8, 2022
Project Green Schools is challenging schools across the country to develop and implement a meaningful outdoor classroom and learning space that awards one Grand Prize of $10,000 to further enhance an existing space or build a new space. Schools will submit a formal write-up, proposed budget, and design of their outdoor learning classroom/space. Project Green Schools will invite the top five designs to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges in Spring 2022 to determine the winner.
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. USDA is hosting informational webinars for FMPP and LFPP on April 5th 1 PM EST and for RFSP on April 6th 1 PM EST.
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 relevant 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.
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Tell Congress: Health and Economic Gains of School Meals at Risk If Child Nutrition Program Waivers Expire
Congress did not include the extension of Child Nutrition waiver flexibilities in the recently passed omnibus appropriations bill (see NFSN's statement); however, Child Nutrition advocates are continuing to seek opportunities to grant USDA the authority to extend flexibilities. Please continue to raise awareness with North Carolina Representatives and Senators about the urgency for Congress to grant these flexibilities.
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.
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.
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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.
An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System, Ninth Edition
This annotated bibliography provides current research and outreach on structural racism in the U.S. food system for the food system practitioner, researcher, educator, and advocate.
Next Shift: Charity to Solidarity Campaign
Next Shift is a narrative change campaign born out of Closing the Hunger Gap, a network of organizations and individuals working to expand hunger relief efforts beyond food distribution towards strategies that promote social justice and address the root causes of hunger.
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