Watertown’s Director of Food Services Stephen Menyhart, has been enthusiastic about promoting local foods and nutrition education with Watertown students since he started working in the district in 2013. He recently partnered with ChopChop Kids, the non-profit publisher of ChopChop Magazine (based in Watertown), and the school’s Wellness Committee to create a cooking class for […]

Each fall and spring, participants from farm to school programs across the nation walk, ride, and bus their way to the farms that they have been learning about all year. Here in the heart of Massachusetts, students from Mass. Farm to School’s Worcester Kindergarten Initiative enjoy their spring field trip at Community Harvest Project, a […]

On Monday, May 12, representatives from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services Washington DC headquarters traveled up to Gloucester for an event that showcased the unique flavor of school meals in coastal Massachusetts. The gathering took place at The Open Door Food Pantry which, in addition to running a number of community based anti-hunger initiatives, […]

Recently Mass. Farm to School’s Lisa Damon and Simca Horwitz, spent four action-packed days in Austin, TX at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference. Hosted by the National Farm to School Network, the conference is a biennial event that brings together diverse stakeholders from across the country who are all working to source local food […]

On April 2nd, a group of approximately 20 Food Service Directors and school cafeteria staff gathered at the Maynard High School for a workshop of using local seafood in school meals. This workshop – the third in a series of local foods culinary workshops offered by Mass. Farm to School over the past year – […]

Even as the streets of Boston were covered in winter’s snow and ice, students at Boston University were enjoying farm fresh foods thanks to the creative chefs at BU Dining and Harvest of the Month, an initiative of Mass. Farm to School.  Harvest of the Month is a statewide local foods campaign encouraging schools and […]

Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), with support from Mass. Farm to School Project and Farm to Institution New England, has recently completed a 4-page handout titled, “Tools for Advocates: Increasing Local Food Procurement by State Agencies, Colleges, and Universities.”  Click here to read the document. The report summarizes research conducted over a two year […]

Fall in Massachusetts is peak harvest time: apples and pears are ripening in the orchards and vegetables are ready in the fields.  Students throughout the Commonwealth will be savoring these locally grown foods as part of Mass. Farm to School Project’s 7th annual Harvest for Students Week September 30 – October 4, 2013. During Harvest […]

It’s been a busy year at the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative! The initiative, which is facilitated by the Massachusetts Farm to School Project in conjunction with the Worcester Public Schools, is a multidisciplinary nutritional education program that aims to teach kindergarteners about healthy eating and local farms in a fun, hands-on way. Last week’s field trips […]

Last week Mass. Farm to School Project’s Farm to Cafeteria Director, Simca Horwitz, attended the annual conference of the National Farm to School Network in Omaha, Nebraska.  Mass. Farm to School is one of the founding members of the Network, which now has representation from all 50 states and Washington, DC.  The Network was founded […]

Here at Mass. Farm to School Project we are thrilled to welcome Lisa Damon to our staff. As the new Farm to Cafeteria Coordinator Lisa works with farmers, food service operators, food distributors, and farm to school advocates in central and western Mass. to assist in local food procurement efforts. Lisa grew up on a […]

2012 At Mass. Farm to School we see the work we do as part of a larger movement to build a vibrant local food system. A local food system is far stronger and more resilient than one that depends on long-distance travel and a lack of direct relationships between consumers and growers of food. The […]