To celebrate National Farm to School Month this October, the PA Farm to School Network (PFSN) is hosting a Farm to School (FTS) Storytelling Contest to encourage FTS practitioners to share their stories with their community using a variety of media. This could include a photo series, poetry, video, testimonials, art and more. We encourage you to get creative! Your story can highlight your entire program or focus on one aspect, such as a farm field trip, or an event that you held.
Below are some questions and examples to help you brainstorm:
- What farm to school programming are you doing? (e.g., educating students/kids about food and agriculture, engaging kids in gardening activities, procuring and serving local food products in school meals and snacks)
- Who is involved? Students, parents, faculty/staff, community members?
- Why is it meaningful to your community?
Check out the PFSN Success Stories webpage for more inspiration from people doing incredible farm to school work in Pennsylvania.
Check out this example of a story highlighting a producer-school connection:
Sharing with Community Members
We hope that by creating stories for this contest, you also have something you can share with members of your community to spread the word about your program and the importance of farm to school activities. Once you create your story, we encourage you to share it with community members, which could include getting published in your school newsletter or on social media, in local newspaper and/or in emails to parents. For every additional share, your program will receive an additional submission into the raffle. (Ex. 1 additional submission for sharing it in a newsletter, on Class Dojo, with a local newspaper, or on your school/program’s social media account.) You will also receive an additional submission into the raffle for every community member who shares your submission. (Ex. Your partner organization shared the story with another partner, your principal shared it with the school board, or a partner shared it on their social media account.)
Please Note: To receive the additional raffle submission, you must show proof of sharing. You can screenshot an email, upload a news article, etc. You will find a section to do so in the submission form. You may receive up to 5 additional submissions.
To assist you in reaching out to your community members and local media, check out this media toolkit, which includes sample social media posts to highlight your program and resources for contacting local media outlets. If you share your story on social media, you’re encouraged to include the hashtag #pafarmtoschool.
Submit your story by 11:59 pm on November 8, 2024, to be entered into a raffle to receive some excellent prizes. After a public voting process, winners will be announced and shared across the network.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Jamie Taylor, at jtaylor@thefoodtrust.org.
Submit Your Story
You can find a downloadable Photo Release Form here.