Dear Friends -

Where I live, June means peonies, first cut hay, peas, and sweet strawberries. It's a time of fast growth and long days. We hope June is offering you hard work and rest, thriving soils and healthy grazing animals, and the first groups of kids arriving on your farm as campers, PYO customers, and visitors of all kinds.

For us, we're trying something new this June. We have our first student-led presentation! Cecelia Luce is finishing her freshman year of high school in Vermont, and is presenting on her experience participating in a unique, community-based learning program this past year: Regeneration Corps. Join Cecelia and the FBEN Saturday, 6/5 at noon ET / 9 am PT!

Hope to see you soon,

Vera Simon-Nobes
FBEN Coordinator
Upcoming Workshops with FBEN

Regeneration Corps Student Presentation by Cecelia Luce

June 5, 2021 | 12:00 - 1:00 ET / 9-10 PT

Regeneration Corps is a learning collaboration between high school-aged students in Vermont and leading organizations in resilience and agriculture. This partnership is supporting the academic needs of students while priming them for engagement with transitions through acute challenges of our time. Join high school freshman, Cecelia Luce, for her end-of-the-year presentation on her learning around the intersections of race, agriculture, environment, and climate change.

Summer Camp Call
June 4, 2021 | 11 - 12 ET, 8-9 PT
(ongoing monthly)

Join this informal space to hear what others are planning for the 2021 camp season and to share your thoughts and questions. June 4 will be an informal space guided
The Brooklyn Developmental Center Redevelopment Project in the Spring Creek section of East New York, Brooklyn will be a new 28-acre affordable housing community centered on health and wellness forged by Riseboro Community Partnership, Apex Building Company, L+M Development Partners, and Services for the UnderServed (the Development Team). An urban farm will be an integral part of this new community -- co-created by Riseboro’s Our Food team and Farm School NYC.  
Do you run a farmer training program?
The 2021 National FIELD School is seeking workshop proposals for their October conference. The mission of the conference is to strengthen farm sustainability, build stronger and more resilient local food systems and support long term profitability of farming and agri-entrepreneurs from start-ups to generational businesses. They are currently seeking proposals on a variety of topics, including "Farmer Training via Incubator and Apprenticeship Programs". Proposals are dur 6/18! More info... 
There's a new podcast in town! Tasty Little State is a podcast of the RELEAF Collective, (Racial Equity in Land, Environment, Agriculture and Foodways), a growing collective and network of, by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color living on unceded Indigenous Abenaki lands known as Vermont. This podcast will focus on uplifting the voices and stories of BIPOC foodies, food entrepreneurs and activists, and to disrupt the narrative of Vermont's cultural homogeneity. Visit us online on IG or at vtreleafcollective.org.
Welcome: Kids Garden Community!

Two green thumbs or just getting started? The Kids Garden Community is for you! Teachers using a school garden as a classroom, families growing herbs on a windowsill, Master Gardeners volunteering in an after school program, community garden organizers creating activities for kids - this community is for you!

Newly launched in May, The Kids Garden Community is a free community supporting individuals, families, and organizations with the skills, tools, and connections to garden with kids and scale transformative programs. The Kids Garden Community is administered by KidsGardening in collaboration with many organizations and individuals supporting youth gardening in schools, homes, and communities.
Fruit Trees for Your Community

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as community gardens, public schools, city/state parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis!
What Happens to School Gardens in the Summer?
Vermont journalist, Kathleen Kesson digs into this question in KidsVT. Families take weeding shifts, partner orgs pitch in, students earn credit through tending the gardens (and more)... These are just a few strategies for keeping a school garden bountiful!

Photo: Andy Duback
Agricultural Education: Anti-Racism Daily
Anti-Racism daily featured a post on agricultural education last month, quoting FBEN member and Farm to School Specialist with Baltimore City Schools, Laura Menyuk says, “It's not so much that we want to [just] teach about agriculture, but we want everybody to see and understand and feel the ways that food and agriculture and land are tied into every part of who we are and what we do and how we learn,”. Thanks Anti-Racism Daily!
Kiss the Ground Documentary

This new documentary is now available to educators to stream FREE and includes access to classroom-ready materials! Students will collect data on their own local soils and be able to demonstrate why soil conservation and regenerative practices work to save soils, sequester carbon, and increase biological productivity. Sign up today for Kiss the Ground Educators Access!