The Regional Environmental Council (REC) has been building and supporting school gardens in Worcester, Massachusetts since 2008. They support 25 school gardens in the city ranging from Head Start sites to adult learning centers. REC was awarded a 2020 Farm to School Implementation Grant to build and support place-based partnerships at three schools in their network. They have spent the past academic year of 2020-2021 meeting with school and community partners, working on garden construction, and creating online curriculum offerings since schools were closed for the majority of the year.

In 2020, REC partnered with Worcester’s only nature and science museum, the EcoTarium, to pilot a new school garden internship program at North High School in the Worcester Public School District. This summer, their Gardens Coordinator, Eliza Lawrence, and Naturalist Program Coordinator at the EcoTarium, Jake Dziejma, worked together to facilitate a paid internship for six students. Twice a week staff and students met up to plant new trees, fruits, and vegetables, maintain the garden, and learn about various topics including ponding, mushrooms and fungus, bird identification, animal care, greenhouse gases, and soil composition. These activities have spurred conversations around food justice, culturally appropriate foods, food preparation, and the importance of pollinator plants.

The North High School garden is now producing a bounty of eggplant, okra, tomatoes, peppers, collards, kale, zucchini, and cucumbers. The gardening students are also proud of their herb garden full of lemongrass, sage, thyme, tulsi, oregano, and cilantro; a pollinator garden; and a small orchard with blueberries, gooseberries, currants, elderberry, raspberries, peaches and pears. The students are also working with another community partner SAORI Worcester, a local weaving association. They have planted marigolds, indigo, and Hopi Dye Sunflowers for a fall workshop on plant-based dying techniques. 

Another benefit of this partnership is that students have been taking home the produce they have grown to their families and the surplus is given to school staff, summer school students, or donated to the Worcester Free Fridge network. Nancy, one of the student interns, noted how much she’s enjoyed working at the garden:  

“This internship has been a great opportunity to give back to my school and also help out the local community!”

The School Garden Internship has been so successful that the students are eager to continue their work in the garden during the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. The students also want to expand their gardening expertise to the school’s gardening club in the hopes of encouraging their peers to join in. The interns have expressed their interest in continued learning on how to grow a garden year-round, and have plans to plant for fall, seed save, support their pollinator garden, and continue to grow their orchard. 

Jake from the EcoTarium noted, “the garden space is flourishing and productive—and I think it will only get better with more time and love. These young people have really built a special space in their community.”

We are excited to announce the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Office of Community Food Systems (OCFS) has updated and released four fact sheets! These fact sheets, geared towards various farm to school stakeholders, provide updated guidance and resources, examples from Farm to School Grantees and more. Check them out today!

Integrating Local Foods into Child Nutrition Programs 

Effective Strategies States Can Use to Support Community Food Systems 

Farm to School Grant Program 

School Gardens: School Gardens: Using Gardens to Grow Healthy Habits in Cafeterias, Classrooms and Communities

AmpleHarvest.org is a nationwide non-profit that uses technology to end food waste and hunger, reduce malnutrition, and help the environment by educating and empowering millions of home and community gardeners to easily find a local food pantry eager for their surplus garden bounty. Local pantries across the country can register their food banks on AmpleHarvest.org, allowing local gardeners to find a pantry that is close to their home where they can donate their surplus produce. Any gardener overwhelmed with a bountiful harvest can go to AmpleHarvest.org to Find a Pantry.

The USDA Climate Hubs develop and deliver science-based information and technologies to natural resource and agricultural mangers to support climate-informed decision making, reduce agricultural risk, and build resilience to climate change. The Hubs leverage USDA investments to increase adoption of climate-smart adaptation strategies through education and outreach, technology development, and synthesis products. The Hubs ensure USDA agencies and their partners, farmers, ranchers, and forest managers will have useful and usable information about climate change and its impacts.

Check out their website for local, State, and region-specific resources on climate change and impacts including climate change education units for middle and high school students and virtual field tours to experience adaptation actions as if you were there.

You can also sign up for their newsletters here, and check out their Twitter for the latest.

The National Farm to School Network and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School are pleased to announce the release of the updated State Farm to School Policy Handbook: 2002-2020! The Handbook summarizes and analyzes all 546 farm to school bills and resolutions introduced between 2002 and 2020 from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. It enables readers to search bills by both jurisdiction and topic, and includes analysis of state policy trends, case studies, advocacy resources and more.  

In addition to highlighting policies that support the three core elements of farm to school and early childhood education (ECE) – local procurement, school gardens, and food and agriculture education – this edition of the Handbook also spotlights policy opportunities for supporting universal school meals, supporting BIPOC producers, and those that supported farm to school responses to COVID-19. Read more about this new resource in the National Farm to School Network blog, and dig in to start exploring the opportunities! 

The Child Nutrition Sharing Site (CNSS) has added a Farm to School topic area to the Resource Hub! In collaboration with the Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN), the USDA FNS Office of Community Food Systems (OCFS) is building the Farm to School Database and welcomes YOUR farm to school resource submissions! As farm to school continues to grow across the country, it is important for stakeholders to have the opportunity to share and access farm to school resources. The ICN CNSS Resource Hub is a one-stop-shop for Farm to School grantees, State agencies, and other partner organizations to host and promote these resources. 

To submit resources to the Farm to School topic category in the CNSS Resource Hub, visit the Submission Form and under “Type of Program”, choose Farm to School and complete the form. OCFS will be choosing new resources to feature in upcoming issues of the Dirt, so submit today!