CDFA Awards $25.5 Million for Farm to School Projects Across California
This project will help Sonoma County schools support experiences for locally grown food to enrich the campus, families, farms and youth of Sonoma County. This grant will support Farm to School in 4 ways; 1) expand a school garden technical assistance and capacity building program, 2) provide farm field trip experiences for schools not able to offer school garden programs, 3) offer a harvest of the month program with culturally relevant and climate smart produce, sourced from small to midsize food producers, veteran food producers, socially disadvantaged food producers, and/or limited-resource farm households in California; and 4) identify barriers to and opportunities for the sustainable implementation of farm to school procurement relevant to districts countywide and regionally.
Led by Sonoma County’s two Resource Conservation Districts, the School Garden Network, Conservation Works, and school district partners, this project is the culmination of years of research, experience, and conversation with dozens of schools, businesses, farmers, parents, students, teachers, non-profits, and local governments to define the most needed actions to support Farm to School programs in Sonoma County. We believe that the combination of implementation and planning to support Farm to School programs will make farm to lunch programs the norm instead of the exception and will have long lasting effects by building capacity for school districts to continue programming without grant support. This project will advance child well-being, economic growth, environmental resilience, and racial equity through farm to school systems that connect children to locally sourced whole foods and produce in cafeterias, classrooms, and gardens.
The Gold Ridge RCD will serve as an integral member of the project partnership, performing several key roles in project implementation: coordinating and conducting farm field trips for school groups in conjunction with its neighboring Sonoma RCD, hosting an AmeriCorps Fellow to provide technical assistance to school garden programs, and participating in local efforts to expand Farm To School programming, including the Coalition strategic planning proposed here and the broader county Food Systems Alliance. This funding will be essential to expand the RCD’s roles in both supporting our local small-scale farming community and promoting urban agriculture and food systems awareness. Read the full article for more information here!
The Resource Conservation Network gathers and shares the stories and ideas from its partners and colleagues. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the RCDs managing this publication.
