This Week in Farm to School 

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

Power of Narrative; Creating An Equitable Food & Farm Bill A Virtual Film Screening Event

Tomorrow! April 19, 2024 // 2:30 pm ET

This event, co-hosted by Black Farmers United NYS, Equity Advocates, Food for the Spirit, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, and Race Forward, features a film uplifting BIPOC voices in food and farming, followed by insights from guest speakers.

Learn more.

SUN Bucks Webinar

April 22, 2024 // 12 pm to 1 pm ET

The North Carolina DHHS Division of Child and Family Well-Being (DCFW) invites you to join the upcoming Lunch & Learn webinar for community organizations to hear more about the newest summer food assistance program: SUN Bucks. Beginning in Summer 2024, SUN Bucks will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families with school-aged children during the summer months. Benefits can be used to buy healthy food at places like grocery stores, farmers markets, and some online retailers. This is the first of three webinar dates. 

Learn more and register.

Crisis on Our Plates: How Climate Change is Impacting Nutrition and Food Security

April 30, 2024 // 9 am ET

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It's transforming our food systems and exacerbating global health challenges. Join RTI International for this engaging learning event on the nutrition-climate nexus to understand how climate change impacts nutrition, from reducing food availability to changing the concentration of essential micronutrients in our crops.

Learn more and register.

School Garden Summer Programming

April 30, 2024 // 3 pm ET

Join this webinar hosted by the School Garden Support Organization Network to learn about options for guided virtual farm field trips, as well as resources, tips, and considerations for school garden programs interested in hosting their virtual farm field trips. Hear from West Broad Street YMCA in Savannah, GA, and DNATL Community Food Council in Del Norte County, CA on how they implement summer programming to take advantage of the summer bounty as well as provide programming for students. The webinar will cover creative staffing for summer programs and managing volunteers, as well as details on a farm to summer camp program that engages students ages 5-13.

Learn more and register.

“I Tried Local…” Toolkit Training: School Gardens

Hear a success story from Heather Gast, a Kindergarten Teacher, at Weaverville Primary School in Buncombe County, NC. Gardens provide children with sensory learning opportunities that promote curiosity about food, their culture, and the environment. Gardens can be tools to teach a variety of subjects, as well as promote social-emotional learning and cultural awareness. This spotlight is from Growing Mind’s “I Tried Local…” Toolkit Training. 

Learn more.

Growing Poems Lesson Plan

Through this lesson plan from KidsGardening, students will cultivate creativity and communication skills through garden-inspired poetry.

Learn more.

How School Lunch Is Made And How You Can Help

Inspired by questions USDA receives from students about school lunch, this publication was developed as part of the Fueling My Healthy Life collection. This article is connected to eighth-grade educational standards and provides students with information about what's in a school meal, who decides what's on the menu, and how students can have a voice in the process.

Learn more.

Children’s Books Celebrating Arab American Heritage

Honor Arab American Heritage Month with kids of all ages by reading these books about culture and community. April is Arab American Heritage Month and FoodCorps shares books for early childhood, grade school, and teens highlighting Arab American culture. 

Learn more.

Heal the Soil, Heal Our Economy 

From the personal to the systemic, this episode explores how the foundation of our economy and our ecology, the soil under our feet, serves as a powerful reference point for repair and transformation and how institutions serving Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities are leveraging this “grounded” approach. This is episode four of the Road to Repair podcast. 

Learn more and listen.

Braiding Seeds Fellowship

Deadline: May 1, 2024

Applications for the 2024 Braiding Seeds Fellowship are now open! This is an 18-month fellowship for BIPOC-beginning farmers and land stewards across the Northeast and Southeast United States. Each of the 10 selected fellows will receive a $50,000 stipend, mentorship, professional development workshops, in-person and virtual cohort gatherings, finance and business plan support, and one one-on-one coaching. They will also be awarding 12 mini-grants of $2,500 each to runners-up. 

Learn more and apply.

USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) Announces Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP)

Deadline: May 14, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) announced the availability of approximately $26 million for the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) to help local and regional food entities develop, coordinate, and expand producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets, and local food enterprises. Additionally, AMS has added to the suite of resources available to support communities and practitioners in local and regional food systems development.

Learn more and apply. 

Food Justice for Kids Prize by Newman’s Own Foundation

Deadline: June 11, 2024

Is your organization working towards food justice for kids in the United States? If so, this is your chance to receive up to $100,000 in grant funding over the next 2 years and deepen your impact! Apply by June 11, 2024, at one of the links below. They welcome applications from all eligible organizations, and in particular seek to be inclusive of organizations led by and/or representing historically marginalized and under-represented groups, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The Newman’s Own Foundation is seeking applications from organizations working in two priority program areas: 

(1) Indigenous Food Justice (Apply here) and

(2) Nutrition Education and School Food (Apply here)

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Farm Bill Baseline, Explained

Once or twice a year, the CBO releases a Budget and Economic Outlook, which includes updated economic projections of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) mandatory farm and nutrition assistance programs. These economic projections – commonly referred to as “baseline projections” or simply “baseline” – rarely grab headlines, but are nevertheless major determinants of federal agriculture policy, and in particular the farm bill.

Learn more.

Senate Bill Offers a Pathway to Sustain Local Food Purchasing Program

On March 19, Senator Jack Reed led the introduction of the EAT Local Foods Act of 2024 alongside twelve co-sponsors and with 184 endorsements from organizations, farms, and businesses from across the country. The bill seeks to sustain the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, which launched in 2021 as one of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) initiatives to transform the food system and build resilient regional supply chains.

Learn more.