This Week in Farm to School | |
Farm to school connects local agriculture, schools, and partners to benefit students, educators, farmers, families, and communities. | |
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Food Storytelling Through Harvest of the Month
November 6, 2023 // 6:30 pm ET
Join Vermont Feed for an interactive and inspirational workshop featuring culturally affirming approaches to engaging in food systems education. Participants will build community by reflecting on and sharing your own food stories. Together, you’ll explore how to create a welcoming space that honors multiple foodways, identities, and cultures within the learning community you’re in. You’ll take away activities, techniques, and inspiration from Vermont Harvest of the Month resources that have been recently updated to center equity.
Learn more and register.
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Indigenous Women Leaders Shaping Environmental Justice
November 8, 2023 // 1 pm ET
Join Green 2.0 next week for a conversation with Indigenous women who are leading sustainability and environmental justice efforts in their communities. From leading conservation projects that protect their ancestral territories to advocating for sustainable practices and environmental justice, Indigenous women have long been at the forefront of shaping the environmental movement. However, recognition of their leadership and their representation in decision-making roles within environmental organizations is lacking.
Learn more and register.
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School Meals for All NC 5K Fun Run
December 2, 2023 // Wrightsville Beach, NC
The SMFA Ambassadors are hosting a 5K Fun Run to bring awareness and support for School Meals For All NC. They are offering a virtual run in addition to the in-person event.
Learn more and register.
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Recorded Webinar: 2023 Farm to School Census Informational Session
The USDA’s Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program is conducting its fourth Farm to School Census in Fall 2023! This Census is the only national survey that examines local food purchasing, school gardens, and agricultural education efforts in schools. This webinar illustrated the scale and impact of farm to school within North Carolina and showed participants where there is room to grow. School food authorities (SFA) representatives, Extension Agents, non-profit partners, and farm to school advocates are encouraged to work together to complete the Census!
Watch the webinar.
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Therapeutic Horticulture Resources
Horticultural therapy (HT) is a dynamic intervention that uses gardening and nature-based activities to promote therapy and wellness for people with physical, emotional, developmental, or mental disabilities in professionally conducted programs. This website was designed to serve participants and their families, volunteers interested in supporting programs, interns seeking professional certification as well as professionals and service providers interested in offering therapeutic horticulture opportunities.
Learn more.
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Putting Local School Wellness Policies into Action: Stories from School Districts and Schools
Schools play an important role in the overall health of children and adolescents. To better understand the steps and strategies that schools and school districts have used to implement their wellness policies, staff from the Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the US Department of Education collaborated with Danya International, Inc. to identify stories from schools and districts. The goal was to highlight schools that had taken action in key areas, such as improving school meals and increasing physical activity levels among students.
Learn more.
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Farmer’s Market Scavenger Hunt
The NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services created a farmer’s market scavenger hunt. In this activity, students work with teachers to find as many different items that vendors sell at the market as they can. This is a great handout to complete on a trip to the market. Teachers or parents can also access the market’s Facebook page to see photos of items available throughout the year.
Learn more.
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California Will Help BIPOC Collective Cultivate Land Access for Underserved Farmers
With a recent grant from the state of California, Ujamaa Farmer Collective hopes to provide farmers of color with land to start or grow farming businesses.
Learn more.
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Vision, Values, and Voice: A Communications Toolkit
The Opportunity Agenda’s toolkit provides guidance for developing values-based messages that engage core audiences, disrupt dominant narratives, and help shape the public dialogue. In addition to big-picture thinking about communications strategy, you will also find tips and examples of a range of tactics, and concrete messaging guidance in the form of “opportunity flashcards” which provide short and easy-to-find advice and sample language on a range of social justice issues. This resource is for those working to influence public thinking about social justice issues over the long term while also crafting effective short-term campaigns.
Learn more.
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NC Farm Bureau Going Local Grants
Deadline: November 15, 2023
The North Carolina Farm Bureau is happy to provide agricultural outreach grants to NC teachers through their Ag in the Classroom Going Local program. These grants value up to $500. Going Local Grants help educators provide Pre-K through collegiate-level students with valuable, real-world education and experiences directly related to the agricultural industry and the NC Standard Course of Study. Teachers practicing in private and public North Carolina schools, colleges, and universities are encouraged to apply.
Learn more.
2024 Farm to School Grant
Deadline: January 24, 2024
The USDA Farm to School Program is excited to announce the official release of the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Farm to School Grant Program Request for Applications (RFA). USDA will award up to $12 million in competitive grants to eligible entities through the grant program this fiscal year. Each grant will help implement farm to school programming that increases access to local food in eligible schools, connects children with agriculture for better health, and inspires youth to consider careers in agriculture.
The RFA includes five tracks - Implementation, State Agency, and three Turnkey grants - to support a variety of projects and implementation stages. A wide variety of entities are eligible to compete for funding through this grant opportunity. Schools and other institutions operating the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and/or Summer Food Service Program; State agencies; local agencies; ITOs; small- to medium-sized agricultural producers or groups of small- to medium-sized agricultural producers; and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for Farm to School Grants.
Learn more and apply.
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Governor Announces Funding to Expand Breakfast Programs in NC Public Schools
Governor Roy Cooper announced that $1.4 million in federal funds will go to support North Carolina public schools in expanding student breakfast programs. The funding will provide grants of up to $50,000 per School Nutrition Program to allow schools to better provide students with innovative school breakfast options, such as breakfast in the classroom, grab-and-go breakfasts, or second chance breakfasts when students have the option of eating breakfast during a break.
Learn more.
2023 Farm to School Census
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service released the fourth Farm to School Census on October 2nd and your participation counts! The Census surveys all public, private, and charter school food authorities (SFAs) operating the National School Lunch Program about their farm to school relevant activities. The Census results are publicly available, and the information is vital to help schools, partners, advocates, and producers understand the role of farm to school in supporting resilient local food systems and contributing to student experiences at school.
Learn more.
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