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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Advancing Indigenous Health Equity and Security
Today! August 24, 2023 // 2 pm ET
Policy is a major determinant of health among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Explore the complex factors that have contributed to high rates of obesity and diabetes among Indigenous Peoples in the United States, including but not limited to, the disruption of Indigenous knowledge systems, commodity food offerings, displacement, and federal funding shortfalls. Identify best practices for engaging with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Villages and learn how state and federal food commodity programs can advance food sovereignty efforts. This webinar will be presented by Alec Calac, MD-PhD Student, Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, UCSD-SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health.
Learn more and register.
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School Garden Support Organization Network Open House
Today! August 24, 2023 // 2 PM ET
Come learn all about the School Garden Support Organization Network! You’ll get a taste of what the SGSO Network seeks to do as a network: connect their members with one another and continually gather feedback on what you need to be successful in your programs. As a result, there will be time to meet other folks on the call and time to engage in a listening session where you’ll share your biggest school garden challenges, needs, and solutions.
Learn more and register.
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From Soil to SNAP: District 7 Community Conversation About the Farm Bill
August 28, 2023 // 2 pm ET
Join the North Carolina Food System Advocacy Coalition, Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC, Feast Down East, and the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute for an afternoon conversation on the 2023 Farm Bill. The event will feature light snacks and a panel of folks involved with the local food system. Your voice matters and they hope to share the outcomes of this conversation with Congressman Rouzer of NC District 7, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee.
Learn more and register.
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U.S. Department of Agriculture’s People’s Garden Webinar: Climate Smart Agriculture & Who’s in the Garden
August 31, 2023 // 3 pm ET
How do we work with Mother Nature to successfully garden in some of her harshest climates? Join USDA to learn how gardens across the United States thrive in challenging weather conditions and how to manage invasive species in our gardens.
Learn more and register.
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Farm to School Local Foods
August 31, 2023 // 3 pm ET
Join the Institute of Child Nutrition for a webinar on procuring local foods. The webinar aims to equip School Nutrition Professionals with effective procurement practices for incorporating locally sourced foods into school meal programs. It will feature strategies for sourcing local foods, establishing community partnerships, and addressing procurement challenges.
Learn more and register.
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NC Farm to Summer 2023 Success Stories
Did you serve local foods in meals or snacks or teach students about agriculture, nutrition, or local food this summer? Share your farm to summer activities with us! Complete the NC Farm to Summer Challenge survey to share your story. The Farm to School Coalition of NC plans to highlight #NCFarmtoSummer success stories in the coming weeks learning up to Farm to School Month.
Learn more about NC Farm to Summer and complete the Challenge survey.
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USDA Recently Announced the 2023 awardees of the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program
Designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools, USDA Farm to School grants can help farm to school programs get started or expand existing efforts. Funds support a wide range of activities from training, planning, and developing partnerships to creating new menu items, establishing supply chains, offering taste tests to children, purchasing equipment, planting school gardens, and organizing field trips to agricultural operations. Grantees include schools and districts (large and small, rural and urban), Indian tribal organizations, agricultural producers or groups of agricultural producers, non-profit entities, and state and local agencies.
Read the list of awardees.
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Building Gardens. Building Minds.
NC State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute has created an online course for learning how to establish a school garden and utilize it as an engaging outdoor classroom. In addition to basic site preparation and crop considerations, the course will cover behavior management, curriculum connections, and building a school culture that supports building minds.
Learn more.
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How Facilitating Dialogues on Race is Fostering Systemic Change in Cooperative Extension
Coming Together for Racial Understanding is a community-based, dialogue-to-change process initiated by Cooperative Extension and developed in partnership with the dialogue-to-action organization, Everyday Democracy. The goal is to facilitate new ways of working together across racial differences to foster understanding, and to build trust to take collective action to address racism.
Learn more.
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Environmental and Climate Justice Syllabus
The Just Environment Lab has created the Environmental and Climate Justice Syllabus to share readings, articles, case studies, and biographies from key writers, scholars, and activists working for environmental freedom. This resource generates a searchable and citable list of Black, Indigenous, and/or Latinx individuals, organizations, and movements that are indispensably foundational in the continued fight for environmental and climate justice.
Learn more.
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2024 CHS Foundation Classroom Grant Application
Deadline: September 15, 2023
CHS Foundation provides $500 grants each year to pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade teachers who have classroom projects that use agricultural concepts to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and more. Eligible projects include classroom and schoolyard gardens, embryology projects, aquaculture projects, and agricultural literacy reading programs to name a few. Teachers have until June 1 the following year to complete the project and submit a final report. Only-state certified classroom teachers employed by a school district or private school teachers are eligible to apply.
Learn more and apply.
Farm to School Technical Assistance-Cooperative Agreement
Deadline: October 10, 2023
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service has released the request for application for their Farm to School Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement. The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to support nonprofit entities and Indian Tribal Organizations to implement national and/or regional-level farm to school activities. Awardees under this cooperative agreement will undertake projects supporting USDA’s priorities of Food System Transformation, Improving Child Health through Nutritious School Meals, and Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Eligible applicants are national and/or regional level nonprofit entities and Indian Tribal Organizations with a history of meaningful engagement with the target audience for this cooperative agreement.
Learn more and apply.
NC Farm Bureau Going Local Grants
Deadline: November 15, 2023
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.
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Confusion in the Cafeteria Article from School Meals for All NC
Families can apply to see if their students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. Some school districts participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allowing them to offer school meals at no cost to all students in CEP schools. In 2011, the NC General Assembly established recurring funding to cover the co-pay for reduced-price school breakfast for students. For the 2022-23 school year, the NC General Assembly also provided non-recurring funding to cover the co-pay cost for students who qualify for reduced-price school lunches. The reduced-price lunch co-pay funding expired on June 30, 2023. What does this mean for families? All of this can be very confusing. This blog post by the NC Alliance for Health aims to provide more information and encourage families to learn about the School Nutrition Services offered at their school.
Learn more.
USDA Invests Nearly $30 Million to Boost School Nutrition in Small & Rural Communities through Partnerships with Action for Healthy Kids
As part of a cooperative agreement to develop and implement the USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, Action for Healthy Kids recently awarded nearly $30 million in subgrants to 264 school districts across 44 States and the District of Columbia, reaching students in some of our nation’s highest-need schools. Graham County Schools in western North Carolina was selected to receive a Healthy Meals Initiative grant to enhance school meals in a variety of ways.
Explore an interactive map of the grantees.
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