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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Celebrating Farm to School Week in Pamlico County Schools
Pamlico County Schools sourced locally grown produce and proteins from North Carolina farmers, including McCoy Cattle Farms, Tidewater Grain Company, Brasstown Beef, Bridgeton Poultry, Cattle Farms, R&H Produce, and many others to celebrate its second Farm-to-School Week, May 8-12. The week was organized by the Child Nutrition Department in collaboration with the Pamlico Farm Bureau, Pamlico County Middle School Future Farmers of America, Small Grain Association, The Dairy Alliance, and the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDA&CS). In addition to eating locally grown lunches in their school cafes, students were able to experience and participate in educational activities related to agriculture!
Check out the Pamlico County Schools Facebook Page.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Webinar Recording: Economic Impact Assessment of Public Incentives to Support Farm to School Purchases
Hosted by Cornell University, this webinar explored the 30% NY Initiative that substantially increases school lunch reimbursements if School Food Authorities purchase at least 30% of their lunch ingredients as New York food products. You can learn more about the results from the study sharing the food purchasing data from Buffalo Public Schools, the second-largest school district in the state, and the largest School Food Authority to qualify for enhanced reimbursement. Researchers estimated the gross and net economic impacts of the policy through a customized input-output model.
Watch here.
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American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Resources and Lesson Plans
The mission of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is to build awareness, understanding, and a positive public perception of agriculture through education. Explore their downloadable activities and lesson plans about agriculture!
Learn more here.
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The USDA People’s Garden Registration
The U.S. Department of Agriculture welcomes you to join the People’s Garden network by registering your school garden, community gardens, urban farms, and small-scale agriculture projects as a People’s Garden. Once you join, USDA will send you a sign to proudly mark your participation in the People’s Garden Initiative and remind you of upcoming People’s Garden news and events.
Join here.
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National Survey Looks at Youth Garden Funding
KidsGardening, Big Green, Captain Planet Foundation, Green Our Planet, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, and Whole Kids Foundation conducted a national survey in March 2023 that revealed more than $14M was awarded to youth gardens in 2022 in the form of about 3,000 grants.
Learn more here.
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Making History Matter: Toolkit for Communicators
Funded by the Mellon Foundation and carried out in partnership with the FrameWorks Institute, National Council on Public History, and Organization of American Historians, Reframing History is the result of a two-year, deep-dive research effort to understand how Americans think about history and how the field can more effectively explain history’s value. The recommendations from this project are designed to help historians, educators, museum professionals, and history advocates to be able to more cohesively and convincingly communicate about history to build a wider understanding of what inclusive history looks like and why it is important for all of us.
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.
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Healthy Meals Incentives Grants for Small and/or Rural School Food Authorities
Tomorrow! Deadline: May 26, 2023
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and Action for Healthy Kids have worked together to offer competitive grants (up to $150,00 per School Food Authority) for small and/or rural SFAs to support their efforts to improve the nutritional quality of their school meals and meet the Healthy Meals Incentive Recognition Awards criteria.
Learn more here.
Lots of Compassion Grant
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
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 proposal 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.
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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.
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School Meal of All Movement in the NC General Assembly
The School Meals for All Act (HB844) has been filed with three other specific school meals bills: School Meals for Every Child (SB708), Free Lunch for Some Students/Stop Lunch Shame (HB776), and Universal No-Cost School Meals (HB777). Additionally, a number of other bills also include school meals for all.
Learn more about the School Meals for All NC Campaign.
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