This Week in Farm to School 

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

Craven County Celebrates Farm to School!

All week long, Craven County School Nutrition has been celebrating Farm to School on their menu and through various competitions and activities. This week, their menu has featured farm fresh and local meats, produce, whole grain flour, and more! Through scratch cooking, they are supporting their local neighboring farmers while filling their student's bellies with top tier nutritious foods.

Visit their Facebook page to learn more!

Direct Statewide Contracting with Local Beef Producers: Utah Local Food for Schools Program Spotlight

April 29, 2024 // 3 pm ET

Please join the National Farm to School Network’s Q&A session to learn more about Utah’s unique approach to implementing the USDA Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement. While most states gave funding to schools to incentivize local food purchasing, Utah flipped this narrative by administering a centralized statewide bidding process at the agency level. The result: competitive contracts with local meat producers and a streamlined ordering process for food service staff. Learn about the benefits and challenges of this model from agency staff who will share lessons learned from implementation.

Learn more and register.

Crisis on Our Plates: How Climate Change is Impacting Nutrition and Food Security

April 30, 2024 // 9 am ET

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It's transforming our food systems and exacerbating global health challenges. Join RTI International for this engaging learning event on the nutrition-climate nexus to understand how climate change impacts nutrition, from reducing food availability to changing the concentration of essential micronutrients in our crops.

Learn more and register.

School Garden Summer Programming

April 30, 2024 // 3 pm ET

Join this webinar hosted by the School Garden Support Organization Network to learn about options for guided virtual farm field trips, as well as resources, tips, and considerations for school garden programs interested in hosting their own virtual farm field trips. Hear from West Broad Street YMCA in Savannah, GA, and DNATL Community Food Council in Del Norte County, CA on how they implement summer programming to take advantage of the summer bounty as well as provide programming for students. The webinar will cover creative staffing for summer programs and managing volunteers, as well as details on a farm to summer camp program that engages students ages 5-13.

Learn more and register.

SUN Bucks Webinar

May 8, 2024 // 12 pm to 1 pm ET

The North Carolina DHHS Division of Child and Family Well-Being (DCFW) invites you to join the upcoming Lunch & Learn webinar for community organizations to hear more about the newest summer food assistance program: SUN Bucks. Beginning in Summer 2024, SUN Bucks will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families with school-aged children during the summer months. Benefits can be used to buy healthy food at places like grocery stores, farmers' markets, and some online retailers. This is the first of three webinar dates. 

Learn more and register.

Growing Minds Meet Your Farmer Series: Yellow Mountain Garden

Meet Malcolm and the Banks family, the farmers at Yellow Mountain Garden in Franklin, NC. Set the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, you will learn about small farming, agriculture, and why Malcolm grows a little bit of everything. The farm is set in the middle of a wetland area so you will see a lot of radishes being grown. You will also learn what motivates Malcolm and his family to be farmers, their community visions, and goals to help support food desserts with their local crops. English and Spanish captions are available.

Learn more.

Cooking In Your School Garden

This article from the Maine School Garden Network shares various tools and information you need as you navigate how to teach your students about healthy eating and cooking using fresh ingredients from your school garden. 

Learn more.

Kids Garden Month Contest

KidsGardening is hosting its annual Kids Garden Month Contests for kids and adults. Entries are due April 30, 2024!

• Kids can share their favorite thing about gardening or why kids should garden! Entries can be from individuals, classrooms, or other groups of young gardeners. Entries are judged on creativity, originality, and enthusiasm. Kids can submit short videos, art, photographs, or creative writing. There will be eight winners in four age-group categories and a grand prize winner. Winners will be announced on May 22, 2024. Learn more and enter.
• Adults can share their sincere, funny, or inspirational answers to the question: "What do you love about gardening in your region?". For all of April, you can add your answer to the online community forum as a text response, photos, video, song and dance, artwork, or however, you want to convince the KidsGardening team that your school or area is awesome for gardening! At the end of the month, FOUR respondents will be randomly selected to receive a goody bundle of 1 Back to the Roots mushroom grow kit, seed packets, and garden tools. Learn more and enter.

Cross Culture Solidarity Resource

CrossCulturalSolidarity.com aims to become a one-stop site for people to plug into the wide universe of racial justice history. As of August 2022, there are resources on over 150 racial justice history topics. Cross Cultural Solidarity is especially committed to strengthening bonds of multiracial solidarity. Achieving racial equity and building a strong, robust democracy requires us all to unite, as Black, Brown, and White.

Learn more.

BIPOC in Nature

A list of books, created by Arapahoe Libraries, centering BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people and characters living with and experiencing nature. Includes reads for Children, Teens, and Adults!

Learn more.

Braiding Seeds Fellowship

Deadline: May 1, 2024

Applications for the 2024 Braiding Seeds Fellowship are now open! This is an 18-month fellowship for BIPOC-beginning farmers and land stewards across the Northeast and Southeast United States. Each of the 10 selected fellows will receive a $50,000 stipend, mentorship, professional development workshops, in-person and virtual cohort gatherings, finance and business plan support, and one one-on-one coaching. They will also be awarding 12 mini-grants of $2,500 each to runners-up. 

Learn more and apply.

USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) Announces Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP)

Deadline: May 14, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) announced the availability of approximately $26 million for the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) to help local and regional food entities develop, coordinate, and expand producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets, and local food enterprises. Additionally, AMS has added to the suite of resources available to support communities and practitioners in local and regional food systems development.

Learn more and apply. 

Food Justice for Kids Prize by Newman’s Own Foundation

Deadline: June 11, 2024

Is your organization working towards food justice for kids in the United States? If so, this is your chance to receive up to $100,000 in grant funding over the next 2 years and deepen your impact! Apply by June 11, 2024, at one of the links below. They welcome applications from all eligible organizations, and in particular seek to be inclusive of organizations led by and/or representing historically marginalized and under-represented groups, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The Newman’s Own Foundation is seeking applications from organizations working in two priority program areas: 

(1) Indigenous Food Justice (Apply here) and

(2) Nutrition Education and School Food (Apply here)

$6.2 million in Funding Available Through NCDA&CS to Bolster the Food Supply Chain

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is offering $6.2 million in funding through a new grant program geared toward small agribusinesses and designed to strengthen the middle of the food supply chain. Applications are being accepted May 1 through June 15. 

Learn more.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Farm Bill Baseline, Explained

Once or twice a year, the CBO releases a Budget and Economic Outlook, which includes updated economic projections of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) mandatory farm and nutrition assistance programs. These economic projections – commonly referred to as “baseline projections” or simply “baseline” – rarely grab headlines, but are nevertheless major determinants of federal agriculture policy, and in particular the farm bill.

Learn more.