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Volume 9, Issue 9, April 2023
Growing a School Garden with Perseverance and Community
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In New Mexico, Peñasco Independent School District (ISD) started with a 1.5-acre plot and was eager to begin their farm to school journey as a Fiscal Year 2021 Patrick Leahy Farm to School grantee. Peñasco ISD collaborated with community partners, including school garden coordinators and non-profit gardening programs, to create a farm to school program tailored to their 283 students’ and their community’s needs. A piece of their grant focused on establishing a school garden, which would serve the elementary, middle, and high school that encompasses Peñasco ISD. They planned to grow vegetables and grains native to the region that can thrive in the mountainous landscape and shorter growing season in Peñasco.
Peñasco ISD knew they may face challenges in implementing their program as the campus was closed for several weeks for COVID-19 precautions. When students were beginning to return to campus, a regional power outage left much of the campus without heat for many months, which led to more weeks of remote learning. Then, unfortunately, a wildfire spread through nearby towns and the school’s campus was closed in order to host evacuees and then was used as a resource for the Forest Service to fight the wildfire.
To say that Peñasco ISD saw their fair share of challenges would be an understatement. Despite the adversity they faced, the school and community continued to make progress on their school garden. Students in woodworking classes and after-school programs collaborated to build garden boxes and started outfitting a greenhouse. The school also connected with local farmers who shared blue corn and bolita bean seeds.
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Peñasco ISD’s campus officially re-opened in August 2022, just as the growing season was coming to an end. Their gardening instructor got creative preparing for autumn by planting spinach and lettuce and working with students to prep for the next growing season by building garden boxes, teaching planting techniques, making seed balls, and mapping out garden plots. In the mapped-out plots, the students decided to have native pumpkins, tomatillos, beans, and melons in their garden line-up!
Working together with local farmers and organizations and creating those community partnerships has helped Peñasco ISD’s school garden efforts. Michael Noll, Community Schools Coordinator for Peñasco ISD, expressed that cultivating relationships takes time and must be done on a personal level. He emphasized that everyone knows someone and those connections can be used as leverage. The relationships the school district established allowed them to partner with a local non-profit to build a seed bank, work with a local chef to create a culinary arts program, and collaborate with like-minded farmers, garden coordinators, and organizations to maximize their farm to school program’s impact.
The future is bright for Peñasco ISD! They plan to nurture their community relationships and expand their farm to school program. Currently, the school has 20 garden boxes and two greenhouses. On the horizon, there are plans to open a 14-acre farm in a neighboring community, with the goal of partnering with the school and creating a for-credit agricultural class for the students.
Peñasco ISD’s story shows that even when presented with challenges, it is possible to persevere and make the most of a situation, which is exactly what they did as they grew, and continue to grow, their farm to school program. If you are interested in starting a school garden, the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program has many available resources for you!
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USDA Secretary Vilsack Visits Greeley-Evans School District
On March 22, 2023, Secretary Vilsack visited Maplewood Elementary School in Greeley, Colorado. The Greeley-Evans School District is a former Farm to School grantee. During the visit, Secretary Vilsack toured Maplewood Elementary’s kitchen and cafeteria. He also participated with third grade students in a USDA MyPlate nutrition education lesson and culinary classroom project making vegetable skewers called “Salad on a Stick.” Secretary Vilsack praised the school and district for their comprehensive array of nutrition wellness programming, ranging from their nutrition education to their farm to school program efforts. The Greeley-Evans School District’s Farm to School Program includes robust local food procurement efforts, 12 school gardens, which provide fresh produce to the cafeterias, a food pantry for district families, and a seed depository to supply school gardens.
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Tampa YMCA Learning Garden
The Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA, a Fiscal Year 2021 Farm to School grantee, partnered with the Sulphur Springs K-8 Community School to provide students with the opportunity to feed their bodies and souls by planting, growing, and harvesting fruits and vegetables in their Learning Garden. The students had the opportunity to pick starfruit, harvest sweet potatoes, and propagate tomato plants. The gardening experience provides many valuable lessons for students involved, including patience, responsibility, and accountability.
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KidsGardening’s Seeds of Success Toolkit
KidsGardening.org, a Fiscal Year 2021 Farm to School grantee, has a mission to create opportunities for kids to play, learn, and grow through gardening, engaging their natural curiosity and wonder. KidsGardening developed their Seeds of Success School Garden Toolkit, which compiles a wealth of knowledge from school gardeners across the country on initiating and sustaining successful school food gardens. The toolkit, available in Spanish and English, contains seven chapters that encompass the benefits of youth gardens, funding your school garden, harvesting practices, and more!
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USDA Continues to Take Steps to Support Food Sovereignty through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) provides funding for State, tribal, and territorial governments to purchase local foods from local, regional, and underserved producers. Recently, AMS announced it has signed cooperative agreements with the Forest County Potawatomi Community (FCPC) and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin under the LFPA. FCPC’s project will work with an underserved food producer to distribute monthly food boxes within the tribal community. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin will use LFPA funds to coordinate the procurement of indigenous foods, including white fish, bison, wild rice, and apples, for the Tribal Elder Food Box program.
The USDA People’s Garden Registration
The USDA People’s Garden welcomes you to join the People’s Garden network by registering your school gardens, community gardens, urban farms, and small-scale agriculture projects as a People’s Garden. If your public garden benefits your local community, incorporates sustainable practices, educates the public, and collaborates with other organizations in your community, USDA would love for you to register your garden. Once you join, USDA will send you a sign to proudly mark your participation in the People’s Garden Initiative and remind you of upcoming People’s Garden news and events, like the new People’s Garden Webinar Series!
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USDA’s Proposed Updates to the School Nutrition Standards: Comment Period Extended
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New 2023 USDA Farm to School Census Partner Resources Page
In fall 2023, USDA will field the 2023 Farm to School Census, which requests information from school food authorities (SFAs) on their use of local food in school meals and other participation in farm to school activities in school year 2022-23. This nationwide survey is the largest of its kind, collecting information from more than 18,000 public, private, and charter SFAs who participate in the National School Lunch Program.
The new 2023 Farm to School Census Partner Resources page offers resources to help State agencies, SFAs, and their partners prepare for and complete the 2023 Census. Make sure to bookmark this page and come back for additional resources!
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New USDA Food and Agriculture Mapper and Explorer
The Food and Agriculture Mapper and Explorer (FAME), funded through a USDA Agricultural Marketing Service cooperative research agreement, brings together data from dozens of publicly available datasets to make it easy for food systems practitioners to search for and visualize information about U.S. local and regional food systems. This new open-access resource is designed to increase the accessibility of local and regional food systems data for federal grant applicants, farmers, food entrepreneurs, and researchers. To learn more about navigating this tool with case study examples, watch the recorded webinar here. If you don’t see yourself or other businesses in your community reflected in the tool, register them through the USDA Local Food Directories portal.
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EPA Know Before you Grow Guide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Know Before You Grow guide helps communities select and develop safe garden sites. It outlines steps to consider when selecting sites for urban agriculture and community gardens including soil testing, identifying where to plant, and how protect users accessing the site from exposure, if needed.
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Distinguishing Between Native Food Sovereignty and Native Food Security in Indian Country
The First Nations Development Institute has developed a three part series on Distinguishing Between Native Food Sovereignty and Native Food Security in Indian Country. It includes Perspectives on Native Food Sovereignty and Health Equity, Native Food Security from Lack to Abundance, and Serving Native Youth: A Dialogue on Native Food Sovereignty and Native Food Security. The series offers a glimpse into how four Native-led organizations pushing youth food and cultural education forward think about their approach to Native Food Sovereignty and Native Food Security.
School Garden Resources
In honor of National Garden Month, here are couple school garden resources to help you launch or expand your school gardening efforts:
- The Elementary Educators’ Guide to Container Gardening from Crescent Garden and KidsGardening teaches educators the basics of container gardening with kids, including container garden design, planting tips, and curriculum connections. The Guide also contains ten ideas for creating engaging themed container gardens for kids, from a Salsa Garden to a Tea Garden or Sensory Garden.
- The School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network Webinars and Recording Library provides information about registering for upcoming and watching past webinars in SGSO’s webinar series, which covers a broad array of school garden topics.
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Action for Healthy Kids Request for Applications: Healthy Meals Incentives Grants for Small and/or Rural School Food Authorities
As part of a cooperative agreement to develop and implement USDA Food and Nutrition Service’ Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, Action for Healthy Kids is offering competitive grants of up to $150,000 to small and/or rural School Food Authorities (SFAs) for efforts to improve the nutritional quality of their school meals. Eligible SFAs must participate in the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program and must meet the following definitions of small and/or rural:
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Small SFA: SFA with an enrollment of less than or equal to 5,000 students.
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Rural SFA: The majority of students within the SFA are enrolled in a rural school as defined by a locality code of 41, 42, or 43, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Applications are due May 26, 2023.
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USDA Cooperative Agreement for Compost and Food Waste Reduction
USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production announced the availability of up to $9.5 million for Compost and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) pilot projects for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The cooperative agreements support projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans. CFWR is part of USDA’s broader efforts to advance equity, support local and regional food systems, and encourage use of conservation and climate-smart practices. Applications are due June 15, 2023.
USDA Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program Produce Prescription Program
The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Produce Prescription Program provides grant funding for projects that demonstrate and evaluate the impact of: the improvement of dietary health through increased consumption of fruits and vegetables; the reduction of individual and household food insecurity; and the reduction in healthcare use and associated costs. Applications from eligible government agencies and non-profit organizations are due May 16, 2023.
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USDA Micro-Grants for Food Security Program
USDA recently announced $7.6 million in grant funding available to promote food security in Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories through the Micro-Grants for Food Security Program (MGFSP) Program. The program aims to increase the quantity and quality of locally grown food through small-scale gardening, herding, and livestock operations in food insecure communities in these States and territories. Applications are due June 6, 2023.
USDA Funding Opportunity to Expand Meat and Poultry Processing for Underserved Producers and Tribal Communities
USDA announced the availability of up to $125 million through two new grant programs that will create more options for meat and poultry farmers by investing in independent, local meat and poultry processing projects. The Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program will provide up to $50 million to improve Tribal Nations’ food and agricultural supply chain resiliency by developing and expanding value-added infrastructure related to meat from indigenous animals like bison, reindeer, or salmon. The Local Meat Capacity Grant Program will provide up to $75 million in grants to fund innovative projects designed to build resilience in the meat and poultry supply chain by providing producers with more local processing options and strengthening their market potential. Applications for both programs will be accepted through July 19, 2023.
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Native American Agriculture Fund Request for Applications
The Native American Agriculture Fund recently released their 2023 request for applications, making $11 million available for projects that support Native farmers and ranchers. This year there is a general and a youth application process. Click here for more information and to register for upcoming informational webinars. Applications are due June 1, 2023.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (866) 632-9992 (Toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (Local or Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users).
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