June 1, 2023

This Week in Farm to School 

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

KidsGardening's Kids Garden Month Winner!

Congratulations to New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, NC for being one of the winners of Kids Garden Month! New Kituwah is a dual language school for the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina. This entry was created in the Cherokee language by the 4th-grade class at New Kituwah Academy. The school garden is a great way to use the language in an authentic way while connecting to their ancestral land and native foodways.

Learn more here

Racial Equity Learning Lab Informational Webinar, National Farm to School Network

June 14, 2023 // 3 pm ET

The National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is excited to announce a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to convene the Racial Equity Learning Lab (“the Lab”). Through a series of facilitated learning sessions, paired with ongoing peer and mentor support, cohort members will dive into literature, resources, and discussions to build the foundations of a shared understanding of racial inequities in the food system. This webinar will dive into the concept of the Lab and its value-based and co-creation approaches, celebrate the work done by the Lab Advisory Council, and share details about how to apply and join the Lab’s first cohort of 13 members scheduled to convene this September 2023. 

Register here.

Featuring Asian and Asian American Culture in Youth Gardens

June 19, 2023 // 7 pm ET

Join KidsGardening for session six of the Culturally Inclusive Teaching in the Garden Series as educators Cat Ayala and Carla Manuel of Growing Gardens Portland explore ways to feature Asian American culture in youth gardens.

Register here.

National Children and Youth Garden Symposium 

July 12-15, 2023 // Knoxville, TN

The American Horticultural Society is excited to announce that the 2023 National Children and Youth Garden Symposium will be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, July 12 – 15, in partnership with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and UT Gardens, Knoxville, the flagship location of the State Botanical Gardens. Reinvigorate your passion to educate a new generation about the importance of gardening. Network, engage, collaborate, and learn from like-minded peers across the country. Explore the vibrant city of Knoxville with its numerous green spaces and innovative, citizen-driven gardening projects.

View the itinerary and register here.

2023 Small Farm Unit Demonstration and Field Day

July 13, 2023 // 8 am - 2 pm

Join the Center for Environmental Farming Systems for a demonstration and field day at the Small Farm Unit in Goldsboro, NC. You will learn about the Small Farm Unit’s work with specialty crops, and experts will provide equipment demonstrations geared toward improving the efficiency of small farms. 

Learn more and register here.

NC State Extension Resource: Round and Wagge Dance Video

Are you looking for a fun pollinator video about how bees communicate? Well, NC State Extension has got you covered! You have probably heard the buzzing of a bee, but did you know that one of the ways that bees can communicate is through dancing? 

Watch here.

Child Nutrition Label Quiz

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service’s Team Nutrition has released a new quiz about Child Nutrition labels! The Child Nutrition Label Quiz helps operators identify products eligible for a CN label and understand the requirements for accepting CN-labeled products. 

Take the quiz here.

Supporting Kids’ Mental Health

This FoodCorps resource shares the importance of focusing on students’ mental health at school and shares how they practice mindfulness with students. 

Learn more here.

Valuing Diversity: Developing a Deeper Understanding of All Young Children’s Behavior

This publication by the National Association for the Education of Young Children shares tips on how educators can value and uplift various cultures in the classroom. For educators, it is essential to see and understand your own culture in order to see and understand how the cultures of children and their families influence children’s behavior. Only then can you give every child a fair chance to succeed.

Learn more here.

Designing Culturally Responsive Health and Nutrition Programs - Toolkit

The Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum’s new, free guide is a fantastic resource to support cultural humility and anti-bias practice. There are some particularly useful resources for working with Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders - but this resource could be used to serve everyone. This toolkit was designed to address a broad spectrum of nutrition concerns at the individual and community levels. 

Access the full toolkit here.

Lots of Compassion Grant

Tomorrow! Deadline: June 2, 2023

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and KidsGardening announce their new Lots of Compassion grant program, designed to support local leaders looking to transform vacant lots into gardens to help grow compassion in their community. In 2023, 10 grantees will receive $20,000 each to transform a vacant lot into a garden. 

Learn more here.

The Big Green DOA (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) Grant

Tomorrow! Deadline: June 2, 2023

The Big Green DOA is a first-of-its kind project to radically reconceive and restructure grantmaking. By putting nonprofits in the driver's seat and allowing them to make grant awards, they are valuing firsthand experience, subject matter expertise, and local needs. The application takes less than 7 minutes to complete. Food or gardening nonprofits can receive funding from the Big Green DOA. Successful applicants will also receive a DOA governance token to drive future funding. 

Learn more here.

Danone Institute of North America Requests for Proposal for Sustainable Food Systems Initiatives

Deadline: June 14, 2023

Danone Institute North America (DINA), a nonprofit foundation managed by Danone North America announced a request for proposals for the third offering of its DINA Sustainable Food Systems Initiative. The biennial competitive grant is now accepting submissions from eligible applicants in the U.S. and Canada. The 2023-2025 initiative commits a total of $260,000 in funding, its largest contribution yet, for up to five transdisciplinary teams who demonstrate a commitment to actionable and achievable projects that sit at the intersection of community, health of people, and health of the planet. Selected grantees will be challenged to design, implement, and evaluate actionable community-based projects for sustainable food systems that improve human health and nutrition over a two-year period. Each of the five finalists will receive $50,000 to support and expand their project. An additional $10,000 will be granted to the team with the strongest communications plan, awarded in the fall of 2023.

Learn more here.

National Garden Bureau: Therapeutic Garden Grant

Deadline: July 1, 2023

The National Garden Bureau promotes the health and healing powers of human interaction with plants through an annual grant program for therapeutic gardens. Three established therapeutic gardens will be selected to receive a grant to help expand or maintain the therapeutic garden. In addition to the grant funding, the selected gardens will also receive a set of Corona Gardening Tools. Schools, non-profits, hospitals, retirement centers, rehabilitation facilities, veteran’s facilities, community centers, day camps, treatment facilities, and inter-generational groups throughout the U.S. are eligible. 

Learn more and apply here.

Farm to School and Universal Meals Case Study - Maine

As part of the National Farm to School Network’s Who’s At the Table? School Meals Campaign, they are releasing four spotlights of states that have successfully implemented universal meals. This second case study presents a deep dive into Maine’s LD 1679, and how the state’s small, nimble coalition has leveraged their state's deep commitment to farm to school to pass universal school meals. 

Learn more here.

Farm to School and Universal Meals Case Study - Vermont

As part of the National Farm to School Network’s Who’s At the Table? School Meals Campaign, they are releasing four spotlights of states that have successfully implemented universal meals. This first case study presents a deep dive into Vermont’s Act 151, and how the state’s coalition has created a “virtuous cycle” by connecting farm to school and universal meals in their advocacy. 

Learn more here.