Farm to School

Field to Family brings the farm to school

Field to Family supports school gardens, procures local food for school lunch menus and brings the “farm to the school” in order to help kids learn where their food comes from, connect farmers to schools and encourage healthy food habits.

Please visit our Farm to Classroom Resource Portal to access videos, handouts and more.

Farm to Classroom Resource Portal Logo

Local For Lunch

Field to Family procures fresh, locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey, mushrooms, meat and dairy for school lunch menus and other partners to promote healthy eating, expand access to local foods grown by Iowa producers.

Field to Family has been procuring local food for Iowa City Community School District since 2011.  Since 2018, our Food Hub expanded local food procurement to other school districts, private schools and early care centers. In 2020, F2F’s K-12 local food procurement grew 54% over the previous year, with over 42,000 pounds of food distributed to six school customers. In Fall of 2022, Field to Family began sourcing to 36 school districts, 29 new to Field to Family and new to sourcing local foods for lunch!

 

 

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Farmer Fairs

Field to Family Farmer Fairs are in-school field trips where students rotate through five to six hands-on learning activities, meet local farmers, taste freshly harvested foods and more! The goals of these events are to help kids understand where food comes from, increase the amount of healthy food they consume and connect local farmers to schools.

During the 2018-2019 school year, Field to Family held Farmer Fairs at Lakeview Elementary in Solon, Van Allen Elementary in North Liberty,  Grant Wood Elementary in Cedar Rapids and Kenwood Learning Academy in Cedar Rapids. Field to Family had planned several Farmer Fairs for spring of 2020, which were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several Farmer Fair videos and other similar resources are included in our Farm to Classroom Resource Portal. Visit these links to learn more.

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Visit Portal
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Support for School Gardens

Prior to 2020, Field to Family held an annual free workshop to support school gardeners.

Several videos for school gardeners and other similar resources are included in our Farm to Classroom Resource Portal. Visit these links to learn more.

Farm to Classroom Resource Portal Logo
Visit Portal

How You Can Support Farm to School

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Field to Family envisions a region where people eat with the seasons, where farmers make a living, and our ecosystem is diverse, abundant, and healthy. We know many Iowans share our vision, but getting there requires a lot of education: getting every eater on board essential.

Field to Family grows knowledge about the power of local foods to transform our community food system. With your support, we can continue and improve our offerings. Consider becoming a Friend to Field to Family today .

Support our Work

History of Field to Family’s Farm to School Program

Field to Family established a Farm to School program initially to support the state application for an official state chapter at the Iowa City Community School District. The ICCSD Farm to School chapter was established August 2010. In 2018, Field to Family’s Farm to School program expanded and began supporting Cedar Rapids Community School District, Clear Creak Amana School District and Solon Community School District. As of the end of 2019, Field to Family has organized 13 Farmer Fairs, 7 school garden workshops and procured over 80,000 pound of local foods for school lunch.

Field to Family’s Farm to School program has been supported by partnerships with: