MA FRESH Grant Recipient Story: Rainbow Child Development Center

 Brittany Chloe Tope-Ojo, Mass. Farm to School’s Communications Assistant, sat down with Nancy Thibault of the Rainbow Child Development Center in Worcester to gain insight into how the MA FRESH grant played out at their early learning center.

Overview

Rainbow Child Development Center services 250 highly at-risk children daily from 6 weeks up to 13 years old. The Center’s three programs, namely, Family Child Care, Preschool and Extended Learning School Age Program, supported by community partners, provide proactive, innovative programs that ultimately transform the lives of children and their families. 

Prior to receiving the MA FRESH grant, Rainbow CDC had a program in place called the Nutrition Plus Healthy Lifestyles Initiative & Garden Gratitude. This program promotes children’s knowledge about nutritious, fresh foods and healthy lifestyle choices. The program is available to children and families attending the child development center, after-school program, and family child care programs. It includes in-class nutrition training, healthy cooking classes for families, parent cooking nights, hands-on gardening experience for kids, on-site farmers’ market, and field trips to urban farms. The MA FRESH grant enabled Rainbow CDC to expand their program in a variety of different ways. 

Programs and Activities

During Rainbow’s Nutrition Plus Healthy Lifestyle Initiatives & Garden Gratitude Program, preschool children and school age students received:

Nutrition Training Series

Rainbow had been conducting a four week nutrition education program with lessons facilitated by UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program (NEP). These lessons taught their preschoolers and after school program kids about MyPlate, the importance of eating a balanced diet, and exercising. This program originally lasted four weeks, but was able to extend to eight weeks thanks to MA FRESH grant funding.

Mini Farmers’ Market

Each child was able to select their own fruits and vegetables to take home from this mini farmer’s market held onsite at the preschool. They played a scavenger hunt game looking for produce of different colors and qualities, and were able to take all of their goodies home to share with their family members. 

Gardening Lessons

Gardens were installed at the Edward Street preschool location. Lessons in the gardens were facilitated by a Regional Environmental Council school garden coordinator who taught the kids how to plant vegetables, what to grow, how to care for their plants, when to harvest the produce, and how to winterize the beds. The preschoolers developed a sense of pride in knowing how to grow their own food. They learned self-sufficiency they were able to share with their parents as well. 

Field Trip

Preschool children attended a field trip at the Regional Environmental Council’s Urban Farm,  something many kids had never seen before, and this gave them a glimpse of the many different ways one can grow food, even if one lives in an urban area with limited space.

Parent Engagement

The center has been able to send home a bilingual, “Nutrition Bites,” newsletter (sample) from the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program containing activities and easy, low-cost recipes for families, gardening tips, and local food resources. They have also hosted parent-focused healthy cooking nights with Chef John Lawrence, formerly of Pepper’s Artful Events Catering. Parents are called the “changemakers,” at these events as they set the tone at home and have a lasting influence on their children. At these events, they learn to make healthy, budget-friendly, plant-based meals, and are sent home with a family-sized prepared meal, as well as ingredients to make a second meal. With MA FRESH great funds, they were able to buy high quality knives to use at these events.

Partnerships

Rainbow CDC has partnered with the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program to provide the nutrition and healthy living training to children at all of their sites. The children (both preschool & afterschool) have also received gardening lessons from the Regional Environmental Council. 

Advice

Nancy believes it is important to have a clear set of goals to accomplish when applying for and implementing the grant funds. Rainbow CDC’s  goals included: 

• Increasing seasonal fruit & vegetable consumption
• Increasing parent engagement
• “Food as Fuel” rather than “Food as Reward” mentality

For future applicants, she shared the advice that it is best to start small. For example, a small raised bed garden is easy to begin with and provides tangible produce that can be eaten on site or sent home. She also advises applicants to take advantage of available partnerships in their area as well as free state-wide resources like those provided by UMass Extension.

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The Massachusetts FRESH (Farming Reinforces Education and Student Health) Grant is a new statewide farm to school and farm to early care grant program. The program is administered by the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which has awarded $300,000 in funding for the  2023 fiscal year. The program is designed to support K-12 and early education and care centers to build capacity to grow or purchase locally grown and produced ingredients, prepare nutritious scratch-cooked meals and educate students about the food system. Funds for this year were available to be used to purchase kitchen equipment to prep fresh produce, meats, seafood, dairy, etc; to train kitchen staff in sourcing and preparing fresh local foods; to train school faculty and staff in implementing curriculum and lessons regarding the food system and nutrition; or to put in place infrastructure and programming- like school gardens or farm field trips- in furtherance of this education about agriculture and the food system.