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This Week in Farm to School
October 14, 2021
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Farm to school connects local agriculture, schools, and partners to benefit students, educators, farmers, families, and communities.
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New NC Crunch and Farm to School and Early Care and Education Month Resources!
We are celebrating Farm to School and Early Care and Education Month and the North Carolina Crunch! The #NCCrunch, co-hosted by the Farm to School Coalition of North Carolina and the NC Farm to Preschool Network, is designed to celebrate agriculture, nutrition, and farm to school. New resources, created to help with nutrition education and promotional outreach, are now available on the F2SCNC website!🎉
Resources include:
🍏 A photo frame for your social media news feed to let everyone know that you or your family, class or group crunched into North Carolina grown produce and you appreciate our North Carolina farm to school heroes.
🍏 Two general NC Crunch graphics as well as 14 graphics on seasonal produce grown in our state are available.
We hope these resources will be helpful to you as you celebrate National Farm to School Month. Please share on social media how you are celebrating the #NCCrunch and recognizing our #farmtoschool heroes. Tag the @F2SCoalitionNC and @NCFarmtoPreschool Network with your posts. We look forward to seeing your photos and activity posts!
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Shifting Towards the Next Generation: National Farm to School Network Movement Meeting
Today! October 14, 2021 // 1-2:30pm EST
Join the National Farm to School Network for a virtual Movement Meeting featuring young leaders of color working to transform their community, for deep conversation and action-oriented reflection on how the next generation is working to intersect the food movement with racial justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and other key justice-centered movements. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to attend this free event.
UC SAREP Racial Equity in Extension Webinar Series
Tomorrow! October 15, 2021 // 4:30pm EST
During this session, UC SAREP will explore how farmers of color have led the way in farming a sustainable landscape, and how their world views and cultures contribute to the way they tend the land.
School Nutrition Programs and School Gardens
October 20, 2021 // 2pm EST
The School Garden Support Organization Network is hosting a conversation about School Nutrition Program service and school gardens. Listen to how school gardens can be intertwined with the work of School Nutrition programs, including case studies related to School Nutrition service program funding and staffing support of school gardens!
Voices of Sustainable Agriculture
October 22, 2021 // 11am - 12:30pm EST
The Voices of Sustainable Agriculture is hosted by Michigan State University. What does on-farm sustainability look like? How can farmers implement practices that support their personal, community, and environmental well-being? In this special virtual speaker series, farmers and other participants will learn from farmers, researchers, and educators about healthy soil and water, successful farming practices, seed sovereignty, resilience, and more.
Non-Profit Boot Camp: Grant Writing for Federal Funding
November 9, 10, 11 // 2 - 3pm EST
Join Margaret Krome of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and Una Van Duvall for a 3-session, hour-long workshop to help you develop skills for designing and writing successful federal grant proposals. This workshop will strengthen your skills, ability, and confidence around applying for federal USDA funding for agricultural endeavors. The lessons will inform, direct, and coach attendees by utilizing real-life funding examples, peer-to-peer learning, and tips and suggestions on how to design sound projects, find funding and write successful grant proposals.
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Celebrate N.C. Crunch 2021! |
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October is National Farm to School Month! One way to celebrate is by participating in the N.C. Crunch, which is co-hosted by the Farm to School Coalition of North Carolina and N.C. Farm to Preschool Network. The N.C. Crunch is designed to celebrate agriculture, nutrition, and farm to school activities.
This year's N.C. Crunch is scheduled for next Wednesday, October 20, 2021 but you can plan to participate any time during October that works for you in celebration of Farm to School and Farm to Early Care and Education Month. Plan now for produce orders and educational activities and reach out to local partners who can help. Utilize this opportunity to recognize and thank our agriculture, education, and school and early care and education nutrition heroes who make farm to school activities possible!
Sign up now for the 2021 N.C. Crunch to receive a free guide with tips and resources so that you are ready to crunch this fall.
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Farm to School Resource Hub
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The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's Growing Garden Classroom Curriculum
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is excited to share their Growing School Gardens curriculum with K-5 teachers! This curriculum is designed to share garden responsibilities across elementary school grade levels and get every grade level engaged in the garden! The hope being, if each grade level does one lesson a month in the garden, then the garden will be well maintained while simultaneously giving students different outlets for applying what they learn in the classroom. Every lesson is 30 minutes or less, with state education standards highlighted to make it a little easier to transition from indoor classroom to outdoor learning environment. All lessons and related resources can be found in this google folder, which will be updated with each month's collection of lessons. If you try out the lessons, please lettuce know how it goes! Use this survey to share your feedback, or contact Ayn Corrigan, Agriculture Education Manager, ayn@foodshuttle.org.
How Supply Chain Challenges Are Affecting School Nutrition
Schools everywhere are struggling with supply chain disruptions, causing a scramble to feed kids. Smaller and more rural and tribal schools have been dealing with these issues for many years, and now many more schools are facing these issues head-on.
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Policy Campaign Grant
Tomorrow! Deadline: October 15, 2021
The American Heart Association wants to help fund advocacy campaigns supporting Voices for Healthy Kids policy priorities with a focus on health equity. They seek to support and drive local, state, and tribal policy change efforts that will dramatically improve the health of children with a focus on those experiencing the greatest health disparities including Black, Brown, and Native children from low-income families. They are particularly interested in providing funds to tribal nations including ones located in North Carolina.
John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize
Deadline: October 22, 2021
In memory of legendary organic pioneer and food sovereignty advocate, John Kinsman (who passed away in Jan. 2014), Family Farm Defenders has now awarded over a dozen prizes in his honor, and you can be part of this amazing celebration effort! Anyone can submit a beginning farmer nomination! To submit a nomination and/or inquire about sponsorship, please contact: familyfarmdefenders@yahoo.com or call 608-260-0900.
2022 Budding Botanist Grant
Deadline: October 29, 2021
The 2022 Budding Botanist grant is now open! In partnership with the @kloraneusa Botanical Foundation, Kids Gardening will award $1,000 to eighteen high schools across the United States to support their youth garden programs.
Pandemic Response and Safety Grants
Deadline: November 8, 2021
The Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program provides grants to food processors, distributors, farmers markets, and producers to respond to coronavirus, including for measures to protect workers against COVID-19.
EJ4Climate: Environmental Justice and Climate Resilience
Deadline: November 14, 2021
The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is launching a $2 million grant program, EJ4Climate, to support environmental justice and climate resilience for underserved, vulnerable communities, and Indigenous communities across North America. This program will provide funding directly to Indigenous communities and community-based organizations to prepare for climate-related impacts.
2021 HFFI Funding
Deadline: December 7, 2021
Reinvestment Fund is inviting applications for the 2021 round of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Targeted Small Grants program. The 2021 HFFI round is offering at least $4 million in grant funds for food retail and food enterprises working to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, to create and preserve quality jobs, and to revitalize low-income communities. Funding for HFFI is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), authorized by the Farm Bill and Reinvestment Fund, which serves as the national fund manager for the HFFI program at USDA. An informational webinar will be held Wednesday, October 13, 2021 from 2-3 pm EST.
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The National Farm to School Network |
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Be NFSN's Partner!
Announcing NFSN’s New Partnership Structure – Last year, the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) issued a bold, new Call to Action for ourselves and for the wider food system: By 2025, 100% of communities will hold power in a racially just food system. We share this Call to Action as a pressing need that none of us can reach alone. It’s going to take all of us, and it’s achievable if we each offer our time, talents, and resources to make it happen.
As part of our work to get us there, the National Farm to School Network is restructuring and broadening our network of partners to ensure that our organization reflects our commitment to shifting power and achieving a racially just food system. We seek Partner organizations from all 50 states, Washington D.C., the five U.S. territories, and Native nations to join us in moving on our Call to Action.
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National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program
Deadline: November 2
The School Meals Programs already requires schools to procure American grown and processed food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) is seeking feedback from a broad range of stakeholders about how the Buy American provision and guidance are currently implemented, changes FNS should make to current regulations, and on how FNS can better support schools and School Nutrition authorities as they strive to purchase domestic foods and food products. The feedback FNS receives will help to inform future rule making and guidance on Buy American requirements in the school meals programs.
School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study II
Deadline: November 15
U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is seeking comments on its planned data collection on the cost, nutrition standards, and operations of school meals. The first study of this information (2014-2015) provided key insight into the implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, and this new round of data will provide further info on the current successes and challenges of school meal programs. If you are involved with these activities, please note the opportunity to give "ground truth" feedback for USDA on who they will collect data from and how. Stakeholders have until November 15 to submit comments.
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Additional Racial Equity Resources
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), one of our Farm to School Coalition of NC partners, has created a document of current webinars as well as resources to facilitate engagement and learning around Racial Equity, both in general and especially as it relates to food systems and education.
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