By Lihlani Skipper, Seed Change Program Associate

On a warm day in late September, teachers, school food service staff, administrators, and parents from across Kentucky gathered outside Boyle County High School for a special day of education.

The students: Teams from Seed Change grantee schools hoping to jumpstart farm to school activities in their own communities.

The trainers: Ag-science teachers, University of Kentucky extensions agents, school nutrition staff and high schools students eager to share their passion for connecting kids to local food and farms.

The subject: All things farm to school.

With a packed schedule, these trainees spent the day learning about greenhouse hydroponics, high tunnel production and maintenance of raised bed gardens. They also met with the Food Service Director Judy Ellis, who highlighted the garden program and explained how garden produce is incorporated into school meals. In the afternoon, the trainees talked with University of Kentucky Horticultural experts and Cooperative Extension agents, who have been instrumental in helping Boyle County HS develop their program, choose appropriate equipment, and consider important issues of sustainability.

The training at Boyle County HS is just one component of the National Farm to School Network’s new Seed Change initiative in Kentucky, which aims to rapidly scale up farm to school activities across the state by connecting hundreds of farm to school advocates to share best practices, build community engagement and bring more local food into schools. It is one of several school-based initiatives across the country supported by the Walmart Foundation, which has as focus of improving child nutrition through school meal programs and access to nutrition education.

This peer-learning model is bringing people together – some new to farm to school, some veterans – but all are learning from each other. As Toni Myers, Agricultural Science teacher and FFA advisor explained, “These trainings are a two-way street. In fact, I’ll be changing some of our own practices in the greenhouse and gardens because of ideas shared by the trainees!”

Kara Shelton, a senior at Boyle County HS, is one of Toni’s “Garden Girls,” a group of FFA students that led a tour of the raised bed gardens and greenhouse hydroponic system at the Seed Change training. Not only are these students practicing their public speaking skills, building confidence and strengthening their job skills, but they’re also sharing their passions for working in the school garden and inspiring visiting teachers and school staff.

“Before I worked in the garden, my idea of community service was limited. But now, I see that there are more ways to help in my community than I thought,” said Kara. “Last summer, I had the opportunity to deliver fresh produce we had grown in the school gardens to a weekend backpack program, which helps provide food for young students and families in need. This made working in our gardens a more personal experience for me. Before I was introduced to the families, all I could see when I went to the garden was twelve 8’x4’ raised beds, but now I’m able to connect the gardens to a person, and see the effect it had on other people. Seeing a little girl run up to me and hug my leg and say ‘Thank you so much for all my food!’ definitely added more fuel to my fire. It made me want to see the gardens grow. I wanted to produce as much as I could to feed this little girl and her family.”

The schools that are part of Seed Change are empowering students to be better eaters, to be farmers, teachers, and leaders in their communities. These same students are, in turn, inspiring other schools and communities to build their own farm to school programs.

The training at Boyle County School District was the first of 15 Seed Change trainings that will take place at six demonstration sites across Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Louisiana this fall and early winter. Seed Change grantees will use these trainings to help implement their projects and catalyze school gardens, take farm field trips, host local food tastings, and integrate experiential nutrition and agriculture education into school curriculum.


Seed Change in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania is made possible by a generous grant from the Walmart Foundation, which shares the National Farm to School Network’s commitment to improving child and community healthy through innovative partnerships. Learn more about Seed Change here.

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By Lacy Stephens, Farm to Preschool Associate

Photo credit: Hot Springs Community Learning Center

As the farm to school movement grows, so does the work to connect our littlest eaters to healthy food and nutrition education in preschool and early education settings. Farm to preschool is a natural fit for the 0-5 set, as activities like taste tests, time spent in the garden, and lessons in simple food preparation can help young children form taste preferences and healthy eating habits that will impact their wellbeing for a lifetime.  

In celebrating farm to school this October, we also celebrate farm to preschool and the multitude of ways that children in preschool and early childcare settings are connecting with healthy, local food. We’re also recognizing the movers and shakers who are helping bring more farm to preschool to more young children around the country. Here are three innovative approaches to farm to preschool that are growing the movement and paving the way for a generation of healthy eaters:

Reaching for the Stars with Farm to Preschool
At Hot Spring Community Learning Center in Hot Springs, North Carolina, farm to preschool is a way of life. Children harvest herbs and vegetables from the school garden for snacks and help prepare lunch by shucking corn and snapping green beans grown by local farmers. Students spend much of their day enjoying the garden and open yard, where a visiting herd of sheep is not an uncommon site. According to Co-director and Program Coordinator, Deborah DeLisle, farm to preschool activities not only provide delight and valuable educational opportunities to children, but these activities have also helped the center achieve a five-star rating under North Carolina’s star-rated licensing system. These stars indicate high quality child care programming and are achieved by meeting specific indicators related to areas such as learning environment, variety and quality of activities offered and parent engagement. Many states are moving towards rating systems like the one in North Carolina and, according to DeLisle, there is great opportunity for farm to preschool initiatives to contribute to achieving star-rating standards while providing abundant benefits to children, families and communities.  

Sharing Farm to Child Care Success with Peer Learning Groups
Renewing the Countryside is in its second year of providing Farm to Child Care trainings across the state of Minnesota. This year, they have piloted small learning groups during the growing season as an innovative approach to providing

ongoing technical support and much-desired peer learning opportunities to early care and education providers. Grace Brogan, Program and Communications Manager, cites these peer learning groups as an engaging way to enhance behavior change. Following an initial Farm to Child Care training, participants met throughout the summer to discuss ideas about connecting children with fresh foods from farms, gardens, and farmers markets. According to Brogan, it has been a great way to share recipes, gardening tips, and learning activities like this “Eat the Rainbow” activity from Kate Ziola's Heart to Heart Child Care. Participants also had the opportunity to visit nearby farms and child care gardens to gain inspiration and see best practices in action.

Growing Farm to Preschool through Research
To identify best practices in farm to preschool and demonstrate the potential benefits to a wider audience, research and evaluation are a vital part of promoting innovation and growing the farm to preschool movement. Dr. Betty T. Izumi of Portland State University is an important leader in farm to preschool research. Following recent publication in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, results of Dr. Izumi’s Harvest for Healthy Kids Pilot Study evaluation have garnered national attention. Dr. Izumi’s research evaluated the impact of food service changes – that is, offering increased amounts of fruits and vegetables – and implementation of the Harvest for Healthy Kids nutrition education curricula in Head Start centers in Portland, Oregon. Researchers found that students exposed to both food service changes and nutrition education were more likely to try new target foods, like carrots, cabbage, beets, and berries, and were also more likely to report liking those new foods. This important research adds even more support for farm to preschool initiatives and establishes Harvest for Healthy Kids as an impactful, evidence-based nutrition education resource that can be used by a wide variety of early child care and education setting.  

These examples of engaging educational opportunities, innovative trainings, and research and evaluation of best farm to preschool practices demonstrate that the movement continues to expand in exciting and impactful ways. Interested in bringing these innovations to your early child care program? Learn more about farm to preschool and access tips and tools by searching our resource library under the Preschool/Early Care setting. From shucking corn to eating the rainbow, there are hundreds of ways to connect our littlest eaters to healthy food, and keep this movement growing.

By Miguel Villarreal, Novato Unified School District

Photo Credit: Camp Cauliflower

With more than 32 years of experience in school food service, I’ve seen thousands of kids benefit from healthy food experiences in the cafeteria. It’s one of the perks of my job as Novato Unified School District’s (Calif.) food and nutrition director – I have the opportunity to teach kids about healthy eating by encouraging them to try new foods. While we work hard to educate our students about nutrition and wellness, we know that sometimes the best way to learn isn’t from teachers at all – but rather, from one’s own peers.  

In 2014, 16 year-old Elena Dennis approached me with a proposal along these lines. Inspired by a passion for cooking and interest in healthy eating, Elena had a vision to lead a free cooking camp during the summer to teach elementary students about the basics of healthy meal preparation. I didn’t hesitate in telling her that I would be glad to support her efforts. After all, her goal of inspiring kids to enjoy nutritious eating was my goal. With her passion for education and our schools’ commitment to healthy, local food in cafeterias, our combined efforts could be a winning combination for creating a culture of health and wellness in our schools.

With our district’s Food and Nutritional Services kitchen secured as the camp location and a name selected, Camp Cauliflower took root. Elena began planning recipes, placing food orders, and arranging field trips to local farms. To keep the cost of participation free, Elena secured food donations from local grocery stores and organized a fundraising event. She also recruited two of her high school friends – Michala and Dani Cohen – to assist her as volunteers.

Once the tentative schedule was in place, Elena worked with three Novato elementary schools principles to recruit participants. While only five students – all 8 year-old girls – signed up that first year, Camp Cauliflower was a big hit. The campers spent the week exercising their culinary skills in a professional kitchen, cooking delicious meals from scratch and learning about the importance of a healthy, balanced diet. Elena sourced local, organic products for the campers to make homemade ravioli, salads, pizza, tostadas, guacamole, salsa, agua fresca and many more delicious recipes.

The campers harvested some of the ingredients to make these tasty meals when they visited the College of Marin's Indian Valley Campus organic farm and garden. When they weren’t cooking or harvesting vegetables, the campers learned about nutrition through activities like blind taste tests and by learning to read food package labels. Every day, the campers widened their knowledge of healthful eating and expanded their appetites for delicious, nutritious food.    

As I watched over the first year of Camp Cauliflower, my excitement and belief in a future generation of passionate, healthy eaters was strengthened. Elena and her fellow high school volunteers were an inspiration to watch as they interacted with younger students. This experience of peer education not only provided these high school students an opportunity to exercise their leadership skills, but a vehicle through which they were able to become active, motivated stakeholders in our work to create a healthier environment in our schools and community. They’ve shown us that adults aren’t the only ones shaping the food movement – students are also providing vision, ideas, and leading the way.  

This past summer, Camp Cauliflower was in full swing again – this time with 2 sessions and 30 participants – where Elena continued to educate and inspire even more of her younger schoolmates. If the campers’ excitement was any indication, we have many budding peer educators in our community who will be passing on their food knowledge to their classmates. Youth to youth, our students are inspiring each other, and cultivating a community of healthy habits and wellness throughout our schools.    

By Simca Horwitz, Massachusetts Farm to School

Photo credit: North Coast Sedfood

At school districts around the country, farm to school programs are looking beyond the field and out to sea. From coastal New England to the Alaskan shores, schools are incorporating locally caught seafood into school meal programs as a healthy protein whose purchase strengthens coastal communities.

In Massachusetts, expanding school food procurement to include locally caught fish is a sensible opportunity – after all, our state is home to many of the country’s oldest fishing communities. The fishing industry has faced significant hardship in recent years though, with strict catch limits imposed on some of the most popular species of fish.  While fishermen are making strong efforts to fish sustainably, catching only abundant species, most consumers are unfamiliar and uninterested in these available seafood options. Schools provide the perfect outlet for these underutilized fish, offering a new market for struggling fishermen and an affordable protein alternative in the lunchroom.  

The partnership between Gloucester Public School District and a local Community Supported Fishery is a shining example of sea to school success. A small city north of Boston, Gloucester has been an important center of the fishing industry for hundreds of years. So when Food Service Director Phil Padulsky joined the school district and saw Alaskan Pollock fish sticks on the menu, he knew their had to be a better fresh and local alternative.

Thanks to a few introductions from community partners, Padulsky was able to form a relationship with nearby Cape Ann Fresh Catch (CAFC), a local non-profit and the country’s largest Community Supported Fishery. Together, they’re bringing fresh seafood that’s landed in small fishing boats off Gloucester straight into the cafeteria. But the partnership is more than just procurement oriented. CAFC also conducts fish preparing trainings for school food service staff, hosts student taste tests and offers extensive promotional materials for the district to use.

And the efforts and perseverance have paid off: Gloucester now offers locally caught fish at its high school every other Friday, and is aiming to expand the program to the district’s elementary schools.

Photo Credit: North Coast Seafood

Gloucester and Cape Ann Fresh Catch aren’t the only sea to school partnership in Massachusetts. North Coast Seafoods, a local seafood distributor, is working with dozens of school districts to help identify and procure appropriate species of fish for the school setting. For example, underutilized species such as Acadian Redfish and New England Sole are abundantly available and sustainably fished in waters around Massachusetts, making these affordable for schools at under 75 cents per serving.

Another economical seafood option is the odd sized pieces of fish generated from the mechanized filleting process. These special cuts can be used to make dishes like fish burgers, fish tacos, Coconut Crusted Acadian Redfish and “Fish-in-Chips” (wild caught Gulf of Maine Redfish in a low-fat Cape Cod Potato Chip crumb). What was once a wasted food product is now a healthy, delicious meal that’s easy on the wallet and has students coming back for more.

Chicopee Public Schools knows this is true. With 65% of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals, Chicopee found that regional seafood was one of the most economical protein options for its cafeterias.  So, it recently became the first school district to source 100% sustainably harvested seafood from the nearby Gulf of Maine, giving its 7,800 students regular access to affordable, sustainable and nutritious meals. There are over 30 districts like Chicopee in Massachusetts now serving fresh, sustainable and regional seafood.

With effective partnerships, a transparent supply chain, and a little creativity and perseverance, these sea to school efforts are bringing fresh, local foods to thousands of students, and providing robust economic opportunities for the sustainable fishing industry throughout the New England region. From Gloucester to Nantucket, this is the next exciting wave of our Massachusetts farm to school story.

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By Stacey Malstrom, Communications Director

National Farm to School Month has arrived! And there couldn’t be a better time to lift up the connections students are making to local food and farmers across the country. This annual celebration of food education, school gardens and lunch trays filled with healthy, local ingredients was brought to life by Congress in 2010 in order to raise awareness of the importance of farm to school as a means to improve child nutrition, support local economies and educate communities about the origin of their food.

Since 2010, Farm to School Month has brought together thousands of kids, teachers, parents, farmers, food enthusiasts, business owners, school lunch professionals and advocates from diverse sectors who believe in the power of farm to school to benefit people, planet and profit.

What do these people have in common? They know that farm to school works to improve child nutrition and solve many of the challenges schools face in the lunchroom, while at the same time creating economic opportunities for farmers and communities. Students who are properly introduced to new foods through farm to school are more likely to adopt long-term healthy eating habits, participate in their school’s meal plan and are less likely to waste food, which results in a better bottom line for schools and healthier kids.

This year, Farm to School Month is more than just a celebration – it is a time for action. Yesterday, Congress missed its deadline to pass a new version of the Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization (CNR), the bill that funds the USDA Farm to School Program and many other important programs for kids. Now more than ever, Congress needs to hear from you about why farm to school is important to your kids, your farmers and your community to ensure that these federal programs can meet the needs of schools and farmers nationwide.

Throughout October, join us on our blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as we celebrate stories of farm to school success and innovation across the country. With your help, we can elevate the conversation around farm to school and demonstrate that this is the path to a healthier next generation. Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Spread the word: Share your farm to school stories with friends and neighbors; post our Farm to School Month graphics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; use the hashtags #farmtoschool and #F2SMonth on social media; alert local media to what’s happening in your area. Farm to school has grown from a few schools in the 1990s to more than 40,000 today because of people like you educating their communities and policymakers. For more ideas on how you can raise your voice, explore our Communications Toolkit.

2. Join our Big Day of Action: Pledge to make yourself heard on Oct. 22. It’s time for Congress to finish CNR and strengthen the USDA Farm to School Program. Call your legislator, tweet a photo of your school garden or local lunch, and use the hashtag #moreF2SinCNR to show your support for the Farm to School Act of 2015. Sign on today!

3. Become a member: Join our network of 12,000+ farm to school advocates to stay up-to-date on the latest stories, best practices, learning opportunities and policy actions to continue the growth of farm to school nationwide. Already a member? Submit a farm to school story or tell us why farm to school is important to your community using our Share Form. Check back soon to learn about our Farm to School Month sweepstakes for new members and storytellers.

New to farm to school? Join us on Tuesday, Oct. 13 from 12-12:30pm CT for an introduction to the movement in our Farm to School 101 webinar. Helen Dombalis, National Farm to School Network's Director of Programs, and Andrea Northup, Farm to School Coordinator at Minneapolis Public Schools, will discuss the three core elements of farm to school - procurement, education and school gardens - and how the movement is working to connect children in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. to healthy food. You can register for the webinar here.

Whatever you do this month, take a moment to appreciate the harvest, thank a farmer, and smile about the more than 23.5 million students who are engaging with local food through taste tests and school gardens, connecting with their community and neighbors on farm field trips, and growing up to be informed eaters.

Thank you to our Farm to School Month sponsors Organic Valley, Chartwells, Mamma Chia and Stand2Learn, as well as the hundreds of Outreach Partners who are helping us spread the word about farm to school throughout October. And, thanks to you for being a farm to school champion all year.  

Happy National Farm to School Month!

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By Lea Howe, Farm to School Director, DC Greens

(All photos courtesy of DC Greens)

A few months ago, summer school 6th graders at Walker Jones Education Campus excitedly shuffled through the gates of the K Street Farm in Washington, D.C. It was a special day, as two local chefs – Jeremiah and Chris – would be joining the students in the garden. It may seem odd that this encounter did not take place in the school's new state-of-the-art food lab. After all, what were these chefs doing on an urban farm and not in the kitchen?

But farms like K Street are exactly where you'll find Jeremiah Langhorne, executive chef and owner of The Dabney, most afternoons. As he prepares to open his first restaurant this fall, Jeremiah has visited dozens of local farms and urban gardens from which he will source almost 100% of the ingredients needed for his seasonal menus. From heritage breed animals to West Virginia salt, he's taking farm to table to the next level and giving his diners an authentic taste of the Mid-Atlantic.

Today his line cooks were 6th graders. The students led Jeremiah and his sous chef, Chris, around the farm, where together they harvested armfuls of herbs and veggies: basil, mint, swiss chard, collard greens, shiso, garlic, onions, squash, tomatoes and peppers. They hauled their bounty up one block to the Walker Jones Education Campus where in the food lab, students watched with awe as the chefs finely minced the freshly harvested produce. But the chefs weren’t the only ones cooking. The 6th graders helped pluck, chop, peel, mix, and – of course – sample along the way. Their final dish: a Johnnycake with smokey pimento cheese sauce and K Street Farm relish.

This was the first time most of theses students had experienced the full cycle of farm to plate – harvesting raw ingredients in the garden, preparing a meal from scratch and eating it together with friends. Yet, the power of gardens and food education to teach life skills, share culture and bring people together was obvious from the start of the day’s activities.

Our mission at DC Greens is to use the power of partnerships to support food education, food access, and food policy so that all students can have these kinds of experiences. As part of our effort to build an equitable, sustainable food system, we believe in putting food education on the menu in every District classroom. That’s why we deploy our Cooking Corps of healthy eating instructors to DC schools with mobile cooking carts and hands-on lesson plans. To expand our reach, we train DC teachers how to incorporate school gardens and food system knowledge into their curricula year-round. And, we help District youth develop entrepreneurial skills by running School Garden Markets that sell affordable local produce to nearby households. We also operate three thriving urban agriculture sites across DC - including the K Street Farm – and work to unite food-focused organizations in our community to promote smart food policy, identify solutions, and make the most of our shared resources.

We know that the more opportunities young people have to positively engage with fresh fruits and vegetables, the more likely they are to adopt healthy habits that will last a lifetime. That's why programs that connect students with chefs can be so important: it provides an opportunity to introduce students to knowledge, skills and desire to become healthier eaters. We look forward to expanding upon and deepening these opportunities with ongoing chef visits, cooking demonstrations and taste tests throughout the school year, because it’s experiences like these that can spark a child's appreciation of good food and healthy eating for a lifetime.

“Farm to school partnerships have a proven track record of encouraging kids to eat more healthy foods and creating new market opportunities for the farmers that grow them.”               –Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Photo credit: USDA Farm to School Program

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new report that provides an in-depth look at the first three years of the USDA’s Farm to School Grant Program. The report shows the program has helped 12,300 schools improve healthful meal options with local ingredients, and that this increase in local food procurement has expanded market opportunities for food producers around the country.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 tasked USDA with supporting farm to school efforts through grants, training, technical assistance and research. To date, the USDA Farm to School Grant Program has funded 221 farm to school projects in 49 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Here are a few exciting highlights about these awards:

• Millions of students benefit: 12,3000 schools and 6.9 million students are estimated to have been reached through activities funded by USDA Farm to School grants.

• Healthier food in cafeterias: 50 percent of funded projects included expanding healthy meal options offered in the cafeteria.

• More agriculture and nutrition-based education: A majority of grantee proposals (65 percent) included activities related to teaching kids about nutrition, agriculture and where their food comes from.

• Rural and urban impact: 40 percent of schools or districts impacted by a USDA Farm to School Grant were considered rural, and 56 percent were considered urban. 38 percent of grants were distributed in StrikeForce states and territories to address challenges associated with rural poverty.

• Focus on children eligible for free or reduced-price meals: 78 percent of awards went to support schools or districts with free or reduced-price meal eligibility rated great than 50 percent.

• Demand is 5x higher than available funding: To date, a total of 1,067 applicants have requested $78.4 million in grant funds. 221 applicants have received $15.1 million – an overall award rate of 21 percent.

“These numbers underscore why it is important that Congress increase access to the USDA Farm to School Grant Program through the Child Nutrition Reauthorization this fall,” says Anupama Joshi, National Farm to School Network’s Executive Director and Co-Founder. “As demonstrated by this report, farm to school strategies enable school districts to comply with the new nutrition standards and help engage students in learning healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.”  

Together with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and our network of supporters across the country, we are calling on Congress to continue its support for the highly successful USDA Farm to School Grant Program by fully incorporating the Farm to School Act of 2015 into the upcoming Child Nutrition Act reauthorization package. The bipartisan Farm to School Act of 2015 would strengthen the grant program by fully including preschools, summer food service sites, after school programs, and tribal schools and producers. The proposed legislation also aims to improve program participation from beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Join us in asking Congress to continue and expand upon the success of farm to school by adding your name to our citizen and organizational sign-on letters. Already signed on? Consider writing a letter to the editor of your newspaper, inviting your representative to lunch at your child’s school, or calling your federal legislators to let them know how farm to school is positively impacting your community.

Communities know that farm to school is growing healthier kids, supporting farmers and building vibrant communities. Now is the time to make sure our legislators know that farm to school works, too.

By Sara Tedeschi, Seed Change Program Manager

Seed Change Program Manager Sara Tedeschi and Program Associate Lihlani Skipper recently visited Seed Change demonstration sites in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Louisiana.

Some days at work are just better than others, no question.

The day we hit “send” to award $.5 million in mini grants directly to schools to build and expand farm to school activities was a really good day at work.

This fall, 100 schools in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania will each receive $5,000 Seed Change mini grants to fund a wide variety of farm to school activities, including building new school gardens, leading farm field trips and hosting community dinners featuring farm fresh food and local farmers. Direct funding at this level is a first for the National Farm to School Network, and as the mini grant projects take off with the start of the new school year, we’re taking a moment to recognize the impact this new initiative will have.  

Indeed, Seed Change is a new and exciting initiative for the National Farm to School Network. It is the first time we have received a grant (in this case, a generous donation by the Walmart Foundation) and re-granted funds directly at the local level to stimulate state-wide networking and jumpstart school and community participation in farm to school. Sharing in our excitement for this new initiative are our Seed Change state coordinator and partners: Kentucky Department of Agriculture (Ky.), Marketumbrella.org (La.), and The Food Trust (Pa.).  In addition to conducting outreach and training activities, these partners led the state committees that reviewed 185 grant applications in order to select the 100 mini grantees.

You might be wondering about the 85 applicants who, instead of receiving good news on this day, learned that we were unable to fund their proposals. Was our really good day hampered by the blow of also hitting send on these less-than-exciting emails? It was not, and here’s why: the large number of applications we received is great validation for the future of Seed Change and the farm to school movement. These applicants have shown us that schools are excited and ready to start connecting children to local food, and that’s good news as we continue to build partnerships and expand models for seeding change at the local level.

In addition to awarding mini grants, the Seed Change model in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania incorporates six “demonstration site” school districts, two in each state. Selected for their experience in farm to school leadership, these sites will serve as training hubs for the mini grantees, offering half-day farm to school tours and trainings this fall semester. In addition to modeling successful farm to school programs, these trainings will offer resources and provide opportunities for mini grantees to meet and learn from their colleagues across the state.

Having recently visited all six demonstration sites, I can heartily report that these school districts and their staff are beyond inspirational. Each site is distinctly unique in its farm to school programming and innovations, facilities, and the champions who help make these programs grow. But there is one consistent thread: everyone expressed a sense of commitment to and excitement about their role in helping farm to school thrive. In other words, these folks were having good days, too! Their contagious passion for farm to school and their “can do” entrepreneurial spirits will surely inspire the mini grantees soon to arrive on their campuses.

So, as you can see, our really good day at work did not end when we hit “send” on the mini grant award email. In fact, that was only the beginning of Seed Change, with the most exciting parts yet to unfold. Stay tuned for more good days to come.