Farm to School
Farm-to-school initiatives enrich the connection communities have with healthy and local food by influencing how schools and early care and education sites buy food, serve food, and educate students about food. Farm-to-school activities differ by location but generally include serving local foods in cafeterias, building and maintaining school gardens, and integrating agriculture into school curriculum.
Throughout the community engagement process for the Kent County Food System Plan, we heard from community members about the importance of education about the food system. Key topics were the need to educate future generations of farmers, to help residents learn how to grow/process/prepare foods, and the importance of starting this education at a young age.
Given the significant community input on this topic, we’ve called out farm to school as a key topic area in the Kent County Food System Plan. While farm-to-school efforts in Kent County vary across the region, we believe that these actions in the plan can help students in Kent County to gain access to healthy, local foods as well as education opportunities such as school gardens, cooking lessons, and farm field trips.
Goal 1: Objective 3: Action 3.3
- Expand and promote opportunities to learn skills that support food literacy for all, such as basic gardening, cooking, canning/fermentation, and meal planning skills, and access to relevant resources and supplies
Goal 2: Objective 2: Action 2.1
- Adopt local food purchasing preferences into city, county, and school district procurement policies, prioritizing the purchase of locally grown foods
Goal 2: Objective 4: Actions 4.2 and 4.3
- Fund educational programs that cultivate the next generation of agricultural producers
- Support educational programs that prepare students for careers in agriculture and food businesses through collaborations with high schools, technical colleges, and universities
Goal 3: Objective 3: Action 3.5
- Advocating for school-based composting and vermicomposting programs and incorporating composting education in schools
Goal 4: Objective 2: Action 2.1
- Expand awareness of farming practices that reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity
Goal 5: Objective 2: Actions 2.1 and 2.2
- Support coordination with school districts across Kent County to support farm-to-school efforts in K-12 schools. Facilitate collaboration between these entities to inform nutrition curriculum, healthcare, school gardens, school wellness policies and procurement of local foods
- Support existing education programs on food systems topics, especially nutrition, cooking, and gardening programs that educate consumers about how and why to eat local foods
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