Success Stories

Nichole Taylor works to make fruits and vegetables more appealing to students at Chichester School District. “We can’t function if we don’t eat,” Nichole says. “If a child has to worry about where their next meal is coming from, their upcoming math test is not going to be on their mind. This is why I do what I do.”

Students at Cheder Menachem visited the Wilkes Barre Farmers Market in Luzerne County this past fall to purchase and enjoy fresh produce. The field trip took place before the weeklong Jewish holiday Sukkot, which celebrates the fall harvest.

Ayanna Jones started Sankofa Village Community Farms in 2015. The farm’s mission is to eradicate food apartheid in the Black community through education and the distribution of culturally relevant food.

Crystal Davis is committed to bringing her family farm into the cafeterias of the Bloomsburg Area School District. Crystal is passionate about getting high-quality, local foods in schools and has been working with the Bloomsburg school district to do so since the beginning of the 2023 school year.

The Healthy Bodies Project focuses on guiding teachers, children and families on ways to improve healthy eating, increase active play, and help children develop healthy behaviors.

Hayday Farms brought farm-fresh produce to John Welsh Elementary School’s Back to School Night this past September. The father and son duo, Farmers Hank and Peter Whittenberg, brought an abundance of fruits and vegetables that families purchased with Food Bucks.

The Erie City School District has a robust farm to school program with 14 school gardens throughout the district. Doreen Petri is the Project Director of Erie Farm to School and has established the theme BELONG within the program: Becoming Empowered by Living Our Natural Gifts.

Chipping Hill Micro Farms (CHMF) is a nonprofit organization bringing the farm to Philadelphia-region PreK and Head Start classrooms. CHMF uses mobile greenhouse facilities for PreK Counts PA, teaching three classes daily, five days a week.

The Union County Public Library grows vegetables, flowers and herbs each summer as part of its Summer Reading Program.

As General Manager for Whitson’s Culinary Group at Southern York County School District, it is Helen Heidler’s job to bring the freshest fruit and produce to her students and staff.

Green Trees Early Learning Center Inc. is a nonprofit center for early childhood education in Pike County. It is currently busy working on engaging children and the local community in a school garden.

Sarah Kulling, an elementary school teacher at Central Elementary School in Venango County, has been incorporating farm to school practices and activities into her classroom for the past 9 years.

Curwensville Area Junior/Senior High School students tasted fresh ears of sweet corn thanks to their classmate, senior Dylan Henry. Dylan, also known as “The Corn Man,” took over the family business, Henry’s Sweet Corn, after his grandfather passed away in 2019.

Happy Valley Meat Co. connects small Pennsylvania family farms with public schools across the state so students are served high-quality PA beef during lunch while supporting small family farms in Pennsylvania.

Sarah “Sally” Runkle is a kindergarten teacher at Hansel and Gretel Early Learning Center, located in Dauphin County, and has established and maintained two small gardens at the center.

In late summer 2022, Tonya Fisher, Director of Busy Bees Natural Learning Center in Centre County, brought in several dozen ears of corn for her students to shuck. “To my surprise, the children were engrossed in the sensory of every ear,” Tonya says.

This past summer, as part of Erie County’s St. James School’s summer care program, teacher Kelley Damore spent a week discussing agriculture with her students in fifth through eighth grade.

Students at Hamilton School in West Philadelphia engaged in nutrition and gardening lessons this past school year through a partnership between The Food Trust, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Play Space.

“When we create [as many opportunities as possible to connect students to their local food systems], in our classrooms, cafeterias, and communities for students to see where their food comes from, we cultivate a real-life understanding of the food growing process,” says Tamara O’Brien, Director of the nonprofit Plant It Further.

Students attending the summer program at The Common Place in Southwest Philadelphia connected their classroom nutrition lessons with hands-on gardening this past summer.

Lindsey Brown, director of Brown’s Family Childcare in Venango County, PA, has been incorporating farm to ECE practices and activities into her classroom for over 11 years.