Farm to School is a nationwide movement bringing local fresh food to school cafeterias and generating excitement among children for eating well. Hands-on experiences--where students pull carrots out of the earth with our farmers, learn how to chiffonade collard greens with our chef, or work as a class on a collaborative painting with a local artist to hang in their school cafeteria--are transformative in creating positive attitudes towards nutritious food, in turn creating better health outcomes for our community.
Our farm and education programs intersect not only through the use of the farm as a center for learning, but also in our work with bringing good food and programming to our local public school district. In 2016 we began providing fresh produce to Beacon City School District cafeterias and have continued to do so to date. We believe that every growing child has a right to healthy, fresh food, and the school cafeterias are a great way to provide fresh produce to all of the children in our community.
In 2019 we were the recipient of a USDA Farm to School grant which allowed us to hire a part-time Farm to School Coordinator and expand our programming to offer professional development courses to teachers and food service staff, purchase cafeteria equipment for the school district and build a school garden at Rombout Middle School. This work wouldn’t have been possible without the collaborative relationship we have with the Beacon City School District Food Service Director, school administrators, teachers and wellness committee.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought new, unforeseen challenges to our Farm to School program. We were unable to offer students trips to the farm or any in-classroom taste tests or programming due to safety concerns. Despite these challenges we were able to continue working with our community partners to pivot to remote programming. We provided fresh produce to the school district for distribution during remote meals, and worked with our community partners to create “Remote Meal Kits” for families that included kitchen staples like cutting boards, child-safe knives, a vegetable peeler and a recipe binder. Since the first Meal Kits were distributed we have worked with Land to Learn to create pre-recorded Vegetable of the Month cooking demonstrations and videos from the farm with fun facts about the vegetable we are featuring and virtual taste-tests. You can see all our Remote Meal Vegetable of the Month programming on the Vegetable of the Month Page.
Our Farm to School program has evolved and become more robust over the last seven years in collaboration with our partners the Beacon City School District and other community organizations such as Land to Learn, Beacon Green Teens, Fareground and many more. For an overview of the many facets of our Farm to School Program, visit our Overview page.
Thinking about procuring more local food for your school district’s cafeteria, or selling produce from your farm to your local school? Visit our resource library for information and inspiration for starting your own Farm to School program.