REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

National Farm to School Network is excited to announce the 10th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference on June 3-6, 2025 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Are you interested in creating a poster, leading a workshop, or planning a lightning talk? We invite you to submit a proposal! 

The Request for Proposals (RFP) for conference workshops and posters is open now through February 15, 2025.

We are looking for proposals from individuals and organizations working to improve our food system, strengthen community health, empower youth, advance equity, and increase opportunities for farmers.

Submission deadline: February 15, 2025

Goals

We acknowledge that inequities in our food system affect certain communities more profoundly. This year’s conference aims to highlight, include, and positively impact the following:

• Farms, producers, and food businesses: With an emphasis on those historically excluded from funding, resources, and decision-making. This includes BIPOC-led organizations, Tribal and Indigenous-led food initiatives, and immigrant- and refugee-led food businesses.
• Communities and eaters dependent on institutional food systems: Especially those facing systemic barriers, with a focus on dismantling food apartheid and promoting culturally relevant nutrition.
• School food directors and institutional food and health leaders: Those working to transform school food, institutional meal programs, and community health initiatives into equitable, culturally relevant, and community-centered movements.

Audience

The National Farm to Cafeteria Conference has grown into a powerful gathering place where diverse communities come together to transform food systems into models of justice and sustainability across the nation and territories. Our network spans all 50 states, Washington, D.C., the five U.S. Territories, and Sovereign Nations and includes:

• Communities most impacted by institutional food systems and decisions
• Leaders leveraging the power of cafeterias, schools, and other institutions to drive systemic change in the food system
• Those with resources and decision-making power within institutional value chains and food systems

This year we are gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico—therefore, we particularly want to uplift our local partnerships in New Mexico and surrounding states including Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Potential Topic Areas

We welcome a wide range of topics in our request for proposals—this is your opportunity to share your or your organization's expertise and/or experience. Sample topics may include:

• Community-building and partnerships
• Local and sustainable procurement
• Farmers, food hubs, and supply chains
• School gardens and on-site farms + school food forests 
• Education, training, and professional development
• Connecting organizations within the farm to cafeteria (F2C) and farm to institution (F2I) movements
• Policy / coalition-building 
• Measuring impact, fundraising, and reporting
• Farm to early care and education (ECE)
• Food and nutrition education
• Cafeteria
• Innovation
• Youth leadership and/or engagement 
• Native and Indigenous foods in schools and programs

Help Us Recruit Presenters

Please share this opportunity widely with your networks. If you’d like to learn more about how you can help promote the conference, email passion@farmtoschool.org.