Hello everyone,

Here are some updates. This information is also archived on our blog:

Grants & Funding

1. Whole Kids Foundation School Garden Grant Program

Created in partnership with FoodCorps, the Whole Kids Foundation School Garden Grant program provides a $2,000 monetary grant to a K-12 school, or a nonprofit working in partnership with a K-12 school, to support a new or existing edible garden on school grounds. Applications for the 2016 Garden Grant Program are now open, and close on October 31. Visit theWhole Kids Foundation websitefor complete program guidelines, FAQ, and the online application form.

Webinars & Events

1. Webinar: National Farm to School Network

Farm to School 101

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 12-12:30pm CT

Mark your calendar for our Farm to School 101 webinar! On Tuesday, October 13 we’ll discuss the basics of the farm to school movement, its core elements, and how it is working to connect 23.5 million children to local food in schools all over the country. tRegister here.

2. Webinars: Barnraiser, Crowdfunding 101

Crowdfunding for Good Food & Healthy Living

Every Thursday, 10am PT

Calling all farm to school advocates, farmers, producers, and school gardeners. Join Barnraiser's weekly webinars to learn the 5 keys to successful crowdfunding on Barnraiser. Hear the stories of successful campaigns, as well as tips, tricks and insider knowledge from the Barnriaser team to get your farm to school project successfully funded. Register for the webinar here.

3. Webinar: edWeb.net

Next Generation Science in the Garden

Monday, Sep. 28, 4-5pm ET

In this webinar, Life Lab will share how to use a garden as a meaningful context in which students can engage in next generation science and engineering practices to examine disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts. Where better to explore ecological interdependence, growth and development of organisms, structure and function, adaptation, and the environmental impact of human activity than in an outdoor garden classroom? Formal and informal educators interested in using a garden to enrich science learning and connect to the new Next Generation Science Standards in grades K-5 will benefit from this live, interactive webinar. Register here.

4. Webinar: Exploring Innovation

Food Entrepreneurship: A Proven Approach to Build Your Local Economy and Jobs

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2-3:15pm CT

This discussion will highlights the economic impacts of local food systems and how food entrepreneurship can assist a community’s efforts to build a thriving economy and create jobs. Register here.

5. Yale Food Systems Symposium, Oct 30-31, New Haven, CT

The Yale Food Systems Symposium (YFSS) is a student led, interdisciplinary conference initiated by students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The aim of the YFSS is to provide a space where researchers, practitioners, theorists, and eaters can come together to answer the pragmatic question: how can we get from here, to a just, sustainable food system? An effort by students, for students (in a broad sense of the word), the YFSS privileges new ideas that push the conventional boundaries of food systems thinking, and as such seeks to highlight emerging researchers, innovative projects, truly interdisciplinary thinking, and non-traditional collaboration. Learn more here.

6. Register for the Food Day Apple Crunch on Oct. 22, 2015

On and aroundFood Day 2015(Oct. 24, 2015), millions of people around the country will crunch into an apple in a unifying action to raise awareness about eating better diets for our health and the environment, access and affordability of fruits and vegetables, and supporting local farmers. Hundreds of thousands of school students will crunch into an apple at lunch time, joined by Americans at public Food Day events, in corporate cafeterias and at home. Because Food Day falls on a Saturday this year, most schools will be participating in the Apple Crunch on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. Start planning now to join the Food Day Apple Crunch and register your event at the link below.

Click here to watch the Food Day 2015 Apple Crunch video

Click here to register for the Food Day 2015 Apple Crunch!

7. Canada's first national school food conference, Montreal, Nov. 12 -14

Changing the Menu, the first-ever Canadian national school food conference aims to advance activities to get more healthy, local and sustainable food into the minds and onto the plates of students. The event will bring together a diverse group of participants from various sectors including health, education, food service, recreation, agriculture, policy and research. Some 400 people from coast to coast including members of indigenous communities are expected to attend the Montreal event.Find more information and register here.

8. Save the Date: 2016 National Farm to Cafeteria Conference

Save the date for the 2016National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, to be heldJune 1-4, 2016inMadison, Wisconsin. The National Farm to Cafeteria Conference is a biennial event that convenes a diverse group of stakeholders from across the farm to cafeteria movement who are working to source local food for institutional cafeterias and foster a culture of food and agricultural literacy across America. The conference is hosted by the National Farm to School Network, in partnership with local host organizations. More information to come soon.

Resources & Research

1. New USDA Farm to School Grant Program Report

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the release of anew reportthat shows that USDA’s Farm to School Grant Program, established and funded through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, has helped 12,300 schools improve nutritious meal options made with local ingredients for 6.9 million students, while expanding market opportunities for family farmers and ranchers in their communities. Through its Farm to School Grant Program, USDA has awarded 221 grants in 49 States, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands over the past three years. Fifty percent of funded projects included expanding healthy menu options offered in the cafeteria; 46 percent included training for food service staff about menu planning, meal preparation, and cooking with local and regional foods; and 65 percent included nutrition education activities.Read the full report here.

Policy & Action

1. Tell Congress you support the Farm to School Act of 2015

Tell Congress you support the Farm to School Act of 2015 bysigning a letter of support as an individualor on behalf of yourorganization. TheFarm to School Act of 2015builds on the success of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 by proposing an increase in funding from $5 million to $15 million for theUSDA Farm to School Grant Program. The bill would also ensure that the grant program fully includes preschools, summer food service sites, after school programs, and tribal schools and producers while improving program participation from beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. To learn more, download thisfact sheetor visitfarmtoschool.org/cnr2015.

Jobs & Opportunities

1. Farm to School Coordinator, Georgia Organics

Georgia Organics is a dynamic nonprofit working to connect organic food from Georgia farms to Georgia families. The organization is currently seeking a full-time Farm to School Coordinator to work at its office in Atlanta. The Farm to School Coordinator will work directly with and provide key support to the Farm to School Director to strengthen and expand farm to school programming in Georgia in Pre-K-12 grades. Visit the Georgia Organics website for more information about this position and application instruction.

2. Farm & Food Policy Analyst, Cornucopia Institute

The Cornucopia Institute is seeking an employee to join its team conducting research and investigations into organic and sustainable food and farming production practices with an emphasis on livestock and livestock-based food products. Get details here.

Farm to school in the news

What Happens When You Teach Math in the Garden?

In garden-based education, the core curriculum helps frame the work of growing food and vice versa. Read how garden-based math lessons are working in Massachusetts. Civil Eats

School greenhouse about to sprout

The new greenhouse at Mount Desert Elementary School will contain much more than plants; it will hold what school officials see as almost limitless opportunities for learning and developing life skills. Mount Desert Islander

Students harvest vegetable, learning for the garden

"We see kids struggle in the classroom to pay attention, stay focused, and behave. They need a lot of assistance. But, when they get out into the garden, they don't have those problems. They are on an equal playing field, and they literally see the fruit of their labor blooming and growing." MassLive

School nutrition leader sees produce mandate as essential-shoutout to NFSN Advisory Board member, Bertrand Weber!

Bertrand Weber, director of the Minneapolis Public School Culinary and Nutrition Services, discusses howstudentsin Minneapolis have come to love fruits & vegetables. Spurred by salad bars and the farmto school program, he says the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the Minneapolis district has more than quadrupled in three years.The Packer

Fighting food insecurity in Detroit

How are programs in Michigan working to combat food insecurity & ensuring our youngest eaters have healthy food to eat? Farm to school and farm to preschool practices play a large part.Model D Media

Preston Elementary showcases local produce

Maryland kicked off the eighth annual Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week with a Farm to School celebration at Preston Elementary School Thursday, Sept. 10. From locally sourced lunches to taste tests and farm visits, see how schools will be celebrating local food all week.My Eastern Shore MD

Best,

Stacey

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Stacey Sobell | Food & Farms Director | Ecotrust

721 NW 9th Avenue, Suite 200 • Portland, OR 97209

T (503) 467.0751 | F (503) 222.1517 |

*Please note that I work Monday through Thursday

Western Regional Leadfor theNational Farm to School Network