Live Healthy Nevada County
Farm Partnership
Farm partners play a key role in the success of Live Healthy Nevada County’s Farm to School program. By facilitating the connection between our school age kids and our local farming community we hope children gain enthusiasm for fresh fruits and vegetables, an appreciation for the natural world, curiosity about farming as a career, empowerment through the knowledge about where our food comes from and a sense of purpose by participating in meaningful work. We hope that through involvement with the schools; farmers will have the opportunity to share their passion, cultivate future customers, introduce young people to the wonders of farming and get juiced by the energy of the young people.
With the knowledge that farming is incredibly demanding and time consuming, Live Healthy Nevada County has structured its programs to facilitate ease, support and flexibility for our farm partners. We have created a menu of program elements that each farm partner can opt in or out of. These elements include;
Hosting field trips (Sept-Nov and/or May: 3hrs/field trip; 2-4 field trips/year).
● Fall Field trips will take place from 9-12pm in Sept –Nov each fall for each 3rd and 6th grade class of the partner school. Additional field trips can be added by mutual agreement of the school and farm partners.
● Field trips will be coordinated and lead by the school’s Farm to School Liaison.
● Farmers will be paid $100 per field trip. The Farm to School liaison will provide (and train volunteers to conduct) standards based curriculum and work with farmers to arrange activities based on the resources and needs of each particular farm. The farmer decides whether they or their crew will help lead the field trip activities or not.
● To host field trips, farms need; a place to park cars or a bus, an accessible bathroom or porta-potty and potable water, willingness to have little hands help with the work, and plenty of enthusiasm.
Providing produce for partner school’s produce stand for 8 weeks (Sept-Nov; 1hour/wk)
● Each school will have a produce stand where they sell fresh seasonal produce by donation. The farm partners produce will provide the core of what is put on the stand and will be supplemented with donations of excess produce from home gardens. Once a week the farm partner provides $25 worth of seasonal produce for the school produce stand, choosing vegetables that can tolerate heat and working with the school liaison to modify the offerings based on what is most popular. The farm to school liaison will coordinate pick up/delivery. The amount of food will vary depending how well it sells on the stand and how many home garden donations are received.
● Produce to be valued as close as possible to wholesale pricing
Donating plant starts (May)
● Provide a tax deductible donation of approximately 100 of veggie starts to be sold on the school produce stands and planted in the school gardens where applicable. These could be plugs to be potted up in to 6 packs by students and could include greens, broccoli, lettuce, flowers, or peppers, but realistically 80% tomatoes.
Visiting the school (Jan or Feb, 3hour time commitment: 4 classes; 30minute presentations)
● This could take many forms depending on each farmer’s style and comfort level. It could be a taste testing of veggies, a hand’s on gardening lesson, or an assembly presentation with pictures/video from the farm. Compensation is $75 per visit.
Benefits of being a farm partner:
● Supplemental income
● Publicity for the farm through the school produce stand
● Publicity on the Live Healthy Nevada County website (www.livehealthynevadacounty.org) and local media
● Being a community leader and change maker
Farmers interested in participating in the program can fill out the Farm Partner Agreement
Contacts at Live Healthy Nevada County:
Malaika Bishop Farm to School Director (530)265-9965
Amanda Thibodeau Program Coordinator (503) 867-7908
Live Healthy Nevada County
Farm Partner Agreement
2012-13 School Year
Name of Farm: ______Farm Contact: ______
Phone ______E-mail______
How did you hear about the Live Healthy Nevada County Farm to School program?
______
Why are you interested in having your farm participate?
______
Yes, I would like to be a farm partner for ______School.
My farm will participate in the following ways;
(check all that apply).
O Host Farm Field Trips
O Provide produce for the school produce stand
O Donate starts
O Visit the school
Signed by:
Farmer: ______
Date: ______
Return to: Live Healthy Nevada County
c/o SNMHF PO Box 1810
Grass Valley, CA 95945
1