USDA Funds Mass Farm to School Project’s Expanding Reach!

We were thrilled to learn last week that the Mass. Farm to School Project was among the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program recipients.  MFTS will receive two grants; one for $50,000 for our project “Digging Deeper: More Specialty Crops In More Cafeterias for More Of The Year” and $24,000 for the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative’s “Focusing Parents and Students on Local Specialty Crop Farmer Connections.”

Bolstered by the general “buy local” enthusiasm and the success of farm to school efforts throughout the state, our task now is to “dig deeper;” to help those institutions that have yet to source local foods and to increase year round consumption in those that currently buy local.  We’ll be offering innovative trainings for farmers and food service professionals as well as launching our statewide Harvest of the Month Campaign. HOTM is a framework already used successfully in other states that highlights a specialty crop each month with promotional materials and education.   Through celebrating a seasonal crop each month, schools, farms and the greater community connect around eating local, healthy food. This year, the Island Grown Initiative of Martha’s Vineyard launched HOTM for Island schools.  Next year, we’ll be offering HOTM for schools throughout Massachusetts.  We are looking forward to it!

Continuing those community and farm connections, the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative will expand its holistic nutrition education program to students.  Now in its third year, the KI uses Massachusetts’ specialty crop snacks and take-home packages, cooking demonstrations, and farm visits to teach young students about healthy eating and where their food comes from. This year, with USDA funding the KI will emphasize staff mentoring and parent involvement as well as adding in-class farmer visits and a mobile farmers market (see last week’s news post here).   The KI has been fun, rewarding, and very well received; we hope to bring the Initiative to more schools in the coming years.

The USDA announced a total of $101 million in “grants to support America’s specialty crops producers, who provide the fruits, vegetables, nuts and other nutritious foods for millions of healthy American meals each day.”  In Massachusetts, a total of 18 projects were awarded nearly half a million dollars in funding.  The Massachusetts Department for Agricultural Resources administers the grants.  Along with the Mass. Farm to School Project, other recipients include Nuestras Raices of Holyoke, Mass. Agriculture in the Classroom, CISA, NOFA, UMass Amherst and the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project.

It’s amazing that just eight short years ago, the Mass. Farm to School project began as a pilot project on a tiny budget.  We are so grateful to our public and private funders, individual donors, as well as our regional partners that ensure our continued growth.  Every penny counts!  If you would like to support the Mass. Farm to School Project, please click here.  Thank you!

Poster image courtesy of Island Grown Initiative.  Painting by Ashley Chase, design by Hayes Design Studios.