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Rallying to Sustain Local Foods in Vermont School & Childcare Meals

Group of six students smiling at a lunch table in a brightly-lit room with a playful underwater-themed mural in the background. They are enjoying various meals neatly arranged on the table.

Among the many cuts stressing our national systems—food, agricultural, environment, health, and otherwise—critical funding for farm to school and early childhood programming is in jeopardy. With the Vermont Farm to School & Early Childhood Network, we’re advocating to restore the Local Food for Schools and Child Care funds.

 

Investing in Local:

Our Future Food Citizens

Two students are engaged in a classroom cooking activity, with one chopping purple potatoes at a desk.

“My favorite school meal is macaroni and cheese, and I think everyone should have the chance to find their favorite meal at school. Some students might not always have food at home, and school meals make a big difference. How can we learn if we’re hungry?”


The Vermont Farm to School & Early Childhood Network organizes annually at the State House to show legislators the impacts of food system education and local purchasing. Watch a collection of enthusiastic testimonies from Champlain Elementary students in Burlington.

 

Activity:

Of Plants & Poetry

Group of individuals in a formal meeting at the State House engaging in discussion, with some participants visible on a monitor indicating a virtual connection via Zoom.

Enjoy this activity from Shelburne Farms' recent ABCs of Farm-Based Education program. Sample fruits and veggies, then work together with your students to write poems based on your taste-testing.

 

Maine's Scratch Cooking Champion

A school lunch service with beets, pasta salad, and baked squash.

"Everybody needs to realize how important food is to students. It can make or break their day, even. If they're hungry, they can't focus."


Food Service Director Denise Tapley Proctor in Maine joins the Northeast Farm to School Podcast. She shares the positive impacts of their scratch cooking program, which recently received the 2024 USDA Innovation in Preparation of School Meals award.


Denise is an alum of the Maine Farm & Sea to School Institute, an adaptation of our own Northeast Farm to School Institute.

 

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Vermont FEED is a farm to school partnership project of

Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools and NOFA-VT.

 
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