October 6, 2022

This Week in Farm to School 

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

NC Crunch Countdown!

It's #NCCrunch time! You can crunch on October 19th or any time during the month that works for you. Have you registered yet?

NC Crunch events offer youth and adults an opportunity to taste and learn about locally-grown NC produce as well as honor our #NCFarmtoSchoolHeroes!

Register below for a free guide with tips, templates, and links to resources.

Register here.

Serving Latinx Students and Communities

October 11, 2022 // 4 pm ET

Join KidsGardening for their Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month webinar which will address how to engage students and communities using gardens as regenerative spaces. The presenters have a wide range of experiences with garden education. They will share the principles and practices of garden education with a focus on pedagogy and partnerships to successfully serve Latina/o/x students and their communities.

Register here.

Driving Sustainable Farm to School Initiatives Through the Farm to School Institute Model

October 11, 2022 // 1 pm ET

Since 2010, Vermont FEED has hosted the Northeast Farm to School Institute, a unique year-long professional learning opportunity for school, district, and early childhood teams to build robust, sustainable farm to school programs. The FTS Institute builds capacity in school communities to create a culture of wellness while improving educational, environmental, and community outcomes, and it is rapidly becoming a national model. Join this webinar to learn about this impactful training model, the evidence base behind its design, the key components of farm to school sustainability, and how the FTS Institute is being adapted across the country, with support.

Register here.

Meal Talk: Taste-Test Events

October 12, 2022 // 3 pm ET 

In honor of National School Lunch Week, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Team Nutrition Initiative will present a Meal Talk webinar on taste-test events. Team Nutrition staff and guest speakers from the Pennridge School District in Pennsylvania and Kern County Superintendent of Schools in California will share tools, tips, strategies, success stories, and best practices related to hosting taste-test events with elementary and secondary school students. 

Register here.

Finding Your Future in Food Systems

October 19, 2022 // 6 pm ET

This ongoing webinar series, hosted by the North American Food Systems Network, provides participants with connections and insights to help them identify next steps for their careers. The series features speakers from job-creating organizations, agencies, and businesses, some working locally in their communities, others with national and international scope. Produced by college students for college students and other emerging professionals.

Register here.

NC Superintendent Truitt: Sweetpotato Read Aloud

Join North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, Catherine Truitt, as she reads about sweetpotatoes journey from NC farms to NC School Nutrition programs.

NC Commissioner Troxler: From Farms to School - Crops of NC

Join the North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler, as he reads a story about apples journey from NC orchards to NC School Nutrition programs.

Celebrating the Heritage of Hispanic Foods

This KidsGardening resource explores the history of various Latin American ingredients. September is National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the histories and contributions of a diverse group of people who have ties to Spanish-speaking cultures. Many of these cultures can be found in Latin America — Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Islands — and one of the ways we can celebrate and honor various cultures is through their traditional foods.

Learn more here.

Landscape Design for Youth Gardens Course

Starting Date: October 11, 2022

In this course, KidsGardening will introduce participants to the basic steps and elements of landscape design that can be used to plan an interactive, fun, and sustainable youth garden. The goal is to provide design guidance to help participants plan a youth-friendly garden that is engaging while also appealing to a broader community audience. The focus will be on the practical application of basic design techniques to help new-to-youth gardening educators, community volunteers/leaders, and family members start a gardening journey with the kids in their lives.

Learn more here.

Guilford County School Garden Grant 

Deadline: October 7, 2022

School Garden Grant applications for the 2022-2023 school year are available! The purpose of the Extension Master Garden (EMG) School Garden Micro-Grant Program is to provide funding support for Guilford County School vegetable gardening programs. Grants up to the amount of $250 each will be dispersed to recipients. 

Apply here.

Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program

Deadline: October 7, 2022

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Community Food Projects are designed to increase food security in communities by bringing the whole food system together to assess strengths, establish linkages, and create systems that improve the self-reliance of community members over their food needs.

Learn more here.

Budding Botanist Grant 

Deadline: October 14, 2022

The Klorane Botanical Foundation is committed to supporting programs that teach respect for the environment and protect nature through the preservation of plant species and biodiversity. Designed to further their mission, the Budding Botanist Grant will help students learn about plants, explore their world and inspire them to take care of the life they discover in their local ecosystems. In late 2022, twenty high-need schools across the United States will be awarded $1,000 in grant funding to support their youth garden programs. 

Learn more and apply here.

Whole Kids Foundation Bee Grant

Deadline: October 15, 2022

The Whole Kids Foundation is offering two grants to support establishing or growing bee programs. The Traditional Bee Grant allows for K-12 schools or non-profit organizations that serve any grades K-12 to start a new or enhance an existing bee program hosting live bees on their campus. The traditional track is for new applicants only. The Renewal Bee Grant allows for K-12 schools or non-profit organizations that have previously received a Bee Grant to receive support to grow their programs. The renewal is for previous Bee Grant recipients only. 

Learn more here.

From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals

Deadline: November 15, 2022

The primary goal of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals Program (NEXTGEN) is to enable 1890 institutions, 1994 institutions, Alaska Native-serving institutions and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions (specifically, the certified Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities (HSACUs)), and insular area institutions of higher education located in the U.S. territories to build and sustain the next generation of the food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) workforce primarily through student scholarship support, paid internships, fellowships, and job opportunity matching, and facilitating pathways to employment in the federal sector.

Learn more here.

Access to School Meals at No Cost

This week’s blog For What It’s Worth blogpost by the North Carolina Alliance for Health explores the benefits for school meals at no cost.

Learn more here.

Food For a Better Future: Reach Out to Your Candidate

The National Farm to School Network and a coalition of partners have come up with six key values that collectively work to establish a just, equitable food system that promotes the health of all school children and benefits producers, workers, educators, and their communities. This guide has step-by-step instructions for reaching out to your candidates to advocate for a more equitable food system.

Learn more here.

School Principles: School Lunch

WNYC Studios discusses school meals and nutrition as part of education, the history of school lunch, how school lunch policy should change, and the importance of equitable food access in schools for all kids.

Listen here.

Center for Environmental Farming Systems’ Committee on Racial Equity In-Between Guide

In-betweens, developed by CEFS Committee on Racial Equity initiative, are a follow up to their racial equity trainings. This in-between guide is designed as a “grab and go” for you to pick up and use with your own crew of practitioners or as a template to create your own guide based on resources and learning styles most relevant to you, your community and your region.

Learn more here.

Teaching for Change Social Justice Books

Social Justice Books has curated a selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

Learn more here.

The (R)Evolution of Indigenous Foods

Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge reservation, is the founder of The Sioux Chef. Through his research and culinary experience of thirty years he has uncovered and mapped out the foundations of the indigenous food systems and where its revitalization belongs in the future.

Watch here.