Farm to School Resources

Interested in starting a farm to school program near you—or improving an existing one? This page contains some resources to help you get started.

Click here to download a pdf of this list.

One of the first sites we suggest you visit is the National Farm To School Program’s: www.farmtoschool.org. Please contact us if you find any errors or know of another resource that would be helpful here.

HAWAI’I-BASED PROGRAMS:

CULTURAL LEARNING CENTER AT KA’ALA – The Cultural Learning Center at Ka’ala, located in the beautiful uplands of Wai’anae Valley, offers elementary and intermediate school students cultural immersion experience that engages all their senses. Students learn by doing- by touching, tasting, pulling, pounding in the taro patches. Kumu, the teachers, teach the students how to make poi, basics of kapa such as dyes, utensils and stamping. The curriculum covers nutrition, biology, archeology, resource conservation and economics from a Hawaiian perspective. www.k12.hi.us/~waianaeh/HawaiianStudies/kaala.html

FOOD: “JUST GROW IT” - is an agricultural project by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Cooperative Extension Services. It promotes optimal personal and consumer health, mental and emotional health, healthy nutrition and physical activity, and concern for the environment through agriculture-related activities. Health and wellness through physical activity is incorporated into the program through the physical labor involved with gardening. The project offers training for school teams, learning gardens on each island, and resources and technical support in organic/sustainable agriculture, nutrition, food safety, horticulture therapy and service learning. http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/new/fjgi/

HOA ‘AINA O MAKAHA/KE ALA-THE LEARNING CENTER - Located adjacent to Makaha Elementary School, Ke Ala-The Learning Center is an outreach program of Hoa ‘Aina O Makaha and Na Keiki O Ka ‘Aina. The Learning Center is a classroom without walls that provides over 4,000 O’ahu students a year with hands-on learning activities that teach respect for the land and awareness of the delicate relationship between humans and the environment. www.hoa-aina.org

JUST ADD WATER and MALA LAULIMA – Located in Waimanalo on O’ahu, Just Add Water provides organic produce from our gardens and community supported farms in Hawaii. They distribute weekly boxes of organic produce to individuals, health food stores and restaurants on Oahu. Just Add Water’s children’s garden program, Mala Laulima, is a hands-on after school program teaching children about Native Hawaiian values and the ahupua’a. www.just-add-water.biz; (808) 259-5635

MALA’AI: THE CULINARY GARDENS OF WAIMEA SCHOOL – A Hawai’i Island program, Mala’ai, The Culinary Gardens of Waimea School, is a non-profit food based educational program modeled after the successful Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California. Students collaborate to grow high-quality organic produce to prepare and enjoy together. Mala’ai’s mission is to transform Waimea Middle School students’ relationship with food by creating and sustaining an organic garden and kitchen classroom that engages them in all aspects of growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing nourishing, healthy food. Ultimately, they intend for all food served at the school to be wholesome, fresh, and delicious. http://ahualoa.net/mala’ai

MALA ‘AI ‘OPIO (MA’O) YOUTH ORGANIC FARM – MA’O is a 5-acre organic garden located in the Puhawai ahupua’a of Lualualei, in the moku of Wai’anae , on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i. MA’O is a community based economic development project designed to nurture, train, and re-invest in the creative talents of the Wai’anae youth and their families to increase economic self-sufficiency for the Wai’anae community. MA’O provides diverse edu-cultural-work experiences, with the term “organic�? the metaphor for an experience which is ‘aina-based, diverse in education and mentorship, appreciative of links, connections, and systems, and works for a just and sustainable future. www.waianaeorganic.com

NORTH SHORE COUNTRY MARKET - The North Shore Country Market was formed in 1994 as a non-profit organization, to provide north shore O’ahu neighborhoods with a direct community source of produce, farm goods, and local art and crafts. NSCM leads courses in organic gardening and volunteers also worked to restart Sunset Elementary School’s garden in partnership with the A+ after-school program. www.northshorecountrymarket.com

U.S. PROGRAMS:

THE EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD – Located at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, CA, ESY has been recognized around the world for its organic garden, landscape, and kitchen, which are wholly integrated into the school’s curriculum. Its goals are grounded in ecological concepts developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy. www.edibleschoolyard.org

FOOD FOR THOUGHT – Food for Thought, the Ojai Healthy Schools Program, was created by parents and professionals in the Ojai community to improve childhood nutrition in our schools while supporting local farmers. Food for Thought is a grassroots, community-driven effort, working in partnership with the local school district to bring nutrition education, locally grown foods, and agricultural literacy to the children of the Ojai Unified School District. Healthy minds, bodies and environment are the objectives that guide every aspect of the Food For Thought program for the children of Ojai’s public schools. www.foodforthoughtojai.org

THE FOOD PROJECT- An innovative Boston-based urban youth gardening program that has been a launching pad for new ideas about youth and adults partnering to create social change through sustainable agriculture. www.thefoodproject.org

GROWING GREAT – GrowingGreat is a nonprofit nutrition education organization dedicated to inspiring children and adults to adopt healthy eating habits. Founded by concerned parents and professionals in 1999, GrowingGreat currently reaches over 7,000 children and adults a year with its collaborative gardening and nutrition education programs in schools, at home and in the communities of Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Ojai, California. www.growinggreat.org

NATIONAL FARM TO SCHOOL – Networks with all of the farm to school programs that are popping all over the US. These programs connect schools to local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing health and nutrition education opportunities that will last a lifetime, and supporting local small farmers. www.farmtoschool.org

OTHER RESOURCES:

THE CALIFORNIA FOUNDATION FOR AGRICULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM - has all sorts of great information about gardening with kids. Classroom projects include ways to continue the explorations at home. www.cfaitc.org

THE CENTER FOR ECOLITERACY - Located in Berkeley, a leader in school gardens and school food service reform. Their website has a number of good publications you can either download or order, including a nice introduction to The Edible Schoolyard, a good school garden curriculum, a report “Rethinking School Lunch” on the Berkeley School Food Systems, and their new “Wellness Policy Guide�? that was co-written by Slow Food USA and the Chez Panisse Foundation. www.ecoliteracy.org

CHEZ PANISSE FOUNDATION - A publicly supported foundation associated with Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley. Committed to transforming public education by using food traditions to teach, nurture, and empower young people, the foundation has been the primary funder of The Edible Schoolyard and is a leading partner in the School Lunch Initiative with the Berkeley Unified School District.  www.chezpanisse.com

COMMUNITY ALLIANCE WITH FAMILY FARMERS - a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice. www.caff.org

COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY COALITION - CFSC is dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. www.foodsecurity.org

FOOD AND SOCIETY INITIATIVE - Located at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, FAS supports the creation and expansion of community-based food systems that are locally owned and controlled, environmentally sound and health promoting. It focuses on three primary areas: market-based change, institutional support, and public policy. www.wkkf.org

FOOD ROUTES NETWORK - FRN is a national nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding local, community-based food systems and to “reintroducing Americans to their food, the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry it from the fields to our tables.�? FRN works to help local organizations mount information and marketing campaigns. www.foodroutes.org

FOOD SHARE – Based in Toronto, Canada, FoodShare works on food issues “from field to table” - focusing on the entire system that puts food on our tables: from the growing, processing and distribution of food to its purchasing, cooking and consumption. FoodShare operates several innovative grassroots projects that promote healthy eating, teach food preparation and cultivation, develop community capacity and create non-market-based forms of food distribution. www.foodshare.net

THE FOOD TIMELINE - Morris County, New Jersey librarians created the Food Timeline as a way to help students, parents, and teachers locate food history and period recipes. It is not one single website, but a collection of related web pages. www.foodtimeline.org

HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCH CAMPAIGN - Sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the Healthy School Lunch Campaign is dedicated to improving the food served to children in schools by educating government and school officials, food service workers, parents, and others about the food choices best able to promote children’s current and long-term health. The campaign’s key message: Foods served in schools should promote the health of all children. This site has a great list of Resources for Parents and Schools interested in starting a healthy lunch program. www.healthyschoollunches.org

KIDS GARDENING - a subsidiary of the National Gardening Association, provides information, resources, and supplies for children, parents, and teachers who are interesting in gardening. www.kidsgardening.com

KIDS REGEN - The Rodale Institute’s site has great info on school gardens, farming, food & nutrition along with curriculum for teachers, a kids page and more. www.kidsregen.org

kinderGARDEN - provides an introduction to the many ways that children can interact with plants and the outdoors. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/kinder.htm

LIFE LAB - through its curricula and programs, Life Lab helps schools develop gardens where children can create “living laboratories” for the study of the natural world. www.lifelab.org

NUTRITION IN THE GARDEN - Texas A&M’s nutrition in the school garden site includes lesson plans, research, and more. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/nutrition/index/index.html

SCHOOL GARDEN WIZARD - A step-by-step how to site on starting a school garden and keeping it going. Also has a good list of curriculum integration ideas. www.schoolgardenwizard.org

THE SCHOOL LUNCH INITIATIVE - The School Lunch Initiative is a project to design and implement curriculum and food service innovations across a public school district. This project is a partnership of the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Berkeley Unified School District, in collaboration with the Center for Ecoliteracy and Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. www.schoollunchinitiative.org

SLOW FOOD USA and SLOW FOOD IN SCHOOLS - Slow Food USA is dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America. Slow Food in Schools is a national program of garden-to-table projects created to cultivate children’s senses while teaching an ecological approach to food. Slow Food in Schools seeks to help children develop an appreciation for real, wholesome food and an understanding of land stewardship and sustainable food practices. The Slow Food In Schools website contains a list of resources as well as a downloadable version of “How to Start a Slow Food in Schools Project.” www.slowfoodusa.org/education/index.html

SPOONS ACROSS AMERICA - The source for children’s culinary education, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating children, teachers, and families about the benefits of nutritious, healthy eating and the important traditions of supporting local farmers and sharing meals around the family table. www.spoonsacrossamerica.org

STONYFIELD FARMS’ MENU FOR CHANGE – This yogurt company has set out to improve the food being offered to students in our nation’s schools. Their program includes replacing junk food vending machines with machines filled with student-approved natural and organic snacks, a before-school breakfast and exercise program, a 10-step parent action kit to change your school’s menu, as well as a list of success stories and a list of resources to change the menu. www.stonyfield.com/menuforchange

WASTE FREE LUNCHES – This site has great info on how to reduce the waste of school lunches. www.wastefreelunches.org

(updated 1/23/06)