Farm-to-School Resources for Educators

Farm-to-School Resources for Educators

Check out our *new* Farm-to-School Resource Guide for Educators containing all of the information below in an easy printable format!

Includes:

  1. Funding for Food-Related Projects
  2. Food Programs and Purchasing Resources
  3. Ideas for Guest Speakers
  4. Sample Discussion Topics
  5. Sustainable Food Curriculum Guides, Hands-On Activities & Workshop Outlines
  6. Upcoming Community Events Related to Sustainable Food
  7. Inspirational Farm-to-School Programs & Networks

Funding for Food-Related Projects

We’ve created a listing of grants available for a variety of food-related projects.  We recommend the Hellmann’s Real Food Grants and Metro Green Apple Grants to schools because the application processes for both are quite easy to fill out.

Food Programs and Purchasing Resources

  • Connecting You to Local Food: All Things Food can connect you to local producers in the area to purchase local food for breakfast, snack and lunch meals.  E-mail us if you’d like to incorporate more local food into your food programs or hospitality classes!
  • How to Begin a Salad Bar Program in Your School: Foodshare Toronto’s Salad Bars: A Fresh Approach to Lunch is a great manual on how to begin a salad bar program in your school.
  • Sourcing Salad Bar Equipment: Russell Food Equipment sells salad bar equipment, with 14 locations across Canada.  Sample salad bar kit contents to feed 150, a set up diagram and a salad bar unit quote can be found on the BC Farm-to-School Website under Resources/School Equipment.

Ideas for Guest Speakers

  • All Things Food can present on sustainable food systems to your students!   The presentation, intended for a class of 10-30 students, includes a discussion on sustainable food systems and viewing of the DVD Nourish or Fresh (presentation can be adapted to suit different lengths of time).
  • Local Chefs
  • Local Farmer’s Market Organizer
  • Local Producers and Processors
  • Organic Gardeners
  • Vermicomposting Experts: (e.g. Cathy’s Crawly Composters)

Sample Discussion Topics

This is just a sampling of discussion topics – there are many topics that you can cover on sustainable food!  See the Nourish Curriculum guide or Great Meals for a Change (below) for additional ideas.

Sustainable Food Curriculum Guides, Hands-On Activities & Workshop Outlines

Curriculum Guides

Hands-On Activities

  • Build an Aquaponics System: Find great how-to resources at  http://theaquaponicsource.com.  For inspiration, check out 10 great examples of aquaponics in education!
  • Building a Worm Hotel (Vermicomposting): Teach your classes about vermicomposting with our Vermicomposting in the Classroom PowerPoint presentations (English) or (French).  All Things Food will also be funding worm hotels through a TD Friends of the Environment Grant in Winter 2011.  Contact us if you’re interested today!
  • Educational Farm Visit & Local Food Tasting: If you’d like to organize an educational farm visit and local food tasting, please contact us!  We partner with Growing Up Organic to provide educational farm visits, and we can also help schools to arrange a local food tasting after the visit.
  • Great Meals for a Change: Cook a tasty meal from a choice of seasonal recipes provided as part of the program and facilitate simple educational activities across the meal.
  • Participate in the Green Food Box Program: Students can help pack and distribute boxes on one of the monthly Green Food Box days by contacting their closest Green Food Box program.
  • Start an organic garden at the school, designed for a spring and fall harvest (and host 2 separate harvest parties!). Learn more about how Growing Up Organic supports garden-based education in SDG by clicking here. Container gardening is also a great option to teach students to growing their own food.
  • Show food-related films to your class.  We’ve created a food-related films listing arranged by different food topics.  The list include the titles of the films, descriptions, length of film, and recommended audiences.  Click here to access the listing.
  • Familiarize students with food policy.  Click here for a list of current food bills & policies.
  • Take a trip to your local Farmer’s Market, or invite a Farmer’s Market Organizer to come in and speak with students.  Click here for a list of SDG Farmer’s Markets.
  • Preserve the Harvest: Can, dehydrate, blanch, freeze the harvest!  You can also show students different types of root cellars and how easy it is to build one.
  • Seed Saving: Show students how to dry seeds from mature vegetables and fruit in the fall, and save them to plant in your school garden the following spring.
  • Visit a community garden!  For a full listing of community gardens in SDG, click here.

Workshop Outlines

Upcoming Community Events Related to Sustainable Food

Check out our Events Calendar for upcoming events related to sustainable food in our community!

Inspirational Farm-to-School Programs & Networks

Programs

Networks

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