The PA Farm to School (FTS) Institute is a unique year-long learning opportunity for selected school, district or early childhood and education (ECE) program teams from Pennsylvania. 

During a two-day summer retreat, teams develop relationships, skills and a collaborative action plan to enhance farm to school activities including starting and maintaining school gardens, serving PA-grown produce in school meals and snacks and providing educational experiences for kids to learn about food and agriculture. With the ongoing guidance of a coach, a financial award, additional professional development and peer networking opportunities, teams put their plans into action over the course of a year while strengthening their capacity to integrate farm to school activities in the classroom, cafeteria and community.

The PA FTS Institute goes beyond learning the basics of implementing farm to school activities. We help teams build the relationships, skills, and connections they need to implement robust farm to school programs that align with their school’s priorities.

• Collaborative multi-sector teams: Forge strong cross-departmental relationships that enable classroom teachers, administrators, school food service directors/child nutrition staff and community partners to build shared leadership and create lasting change.
• Farm to School Action Planning: Develop a values-based, holistic Farm to School Action Plan that integrates experiential learning, local procurement, youth voice, and family and community connections.
• Coaching: Your team is paired with an experienced coach from Pennsylvania’s network of farm to school practitioners. You’ll collaborate with your coach throughout the school year to implement and adapt your action plan to meet your school’s emerging needs.
• Skill building: Engage in hands-on, role-specific workshops during the summer retreat and on virtual webinars throughout the year to provide tips and guidance on how to implement your action plan.
• Peer networking: Build valuable connections with experienced practitioners, other Institute team members, and like-minded community partners who can provide support, resources, and inspiration.
• Financial award and sustainability: Each team will receive a $7,000 award to support expenses associated with participating in the Institute in-person retreat and to carry out their Farm to School Action Plan. Teams will also be made aware of additional funding opportunities to sustain farm to school programming after the Institute

Due to this year’s funding sources for the Institute, the majority of teams selected will be schools, districts or ECE programs operating in southeastern PA counties (i.e., Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Philadelphia, or Northampton) and one selected team will be a school, district or ECE program operating in any PA county.

Teams selected for the Institute are given support for an entire year. Starting with a summer retreat, teams are joined by an experienced coach that will guide them in crafting an action plan inspired by workshops, presentations, and learning about the work of other school communities. During the school year, team members implement and adapt their plans with the support of their coach. Throughout the year, participants network and learn with peers during virtual quarterly Institute all-team convenings. Teams are also awarded a financial award to cover costs associated with the retreat and implementing their action plans.

Any school, district or Early Care and Education (ECE) program in Pennsylvania can form a multi-disciplinary team of 4-7 people from their school/ECE community and apply to participate in the Institute. See “who should be on a team” for more details.

The Institute is designed for schools, districts and ECEs with farm to school programs that are in the early stages of development and are ready to take their programming to the next level. Up to 7 teams will be selected to participate in the 2024-2025 Institute.

The best way to assess whether your school, district or ECE is a good fit for this program is to start by identifying your team members and confirm their level of commitment to the program requirements. If you can confirm the 4-7 people from various constituencies who represent the “team makeup requirements” for the Institute then you are a great fit!

Another way to assess your current program’s “readiness” for this type of program is to use the Farm to School Program Assessment Tool. This tool is designed to help a team of people from a school, school district or ECE program assess the current status of their farm to school efforts and inform the creation of an action plan to enhance and sustain their farm to school programming. If you and your team rank your FTS programming as mostly “emerging” and “developing” you are a good fit for this Institute. If you rank mostly in the “deepening” and “thriving” level you may be overqualified for this Institute program - though an individual from your community could participate in the Institute as a coach, workshop leader or presenter. Reach out to sgibb@thefoodtrust.org if you fit into this category!

Due to this year’s funding sources for the Institute, the majority of teams selected will be schools, districts or ECE programs operating in southeastern PA counties (i.e., Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Philadelphia, or Northampton) and one selected team will be a school, district or ECE program operating in any PA county.

If the FTS Institute doesn’t seem like the right fit at the moment, you and individuals from your community are encouraged to participate in one of the other farm to school related professional development opportunities happening this year:

• June 18th - Farm to Child Nutrition Summit - a one-day professional development opportunity hosted by the PA Department of Education and Project PA, designed for individuals interested in learning more about farm to school topics. Registration coming soon!
• June 23rd - 28th - PA Educator’s Agriculture Institute - Hosted by the PA Friends of Agriculture Foundation, this is an engaging, multi-day learning experience all about agricultural education designed for preK-12th formal educators, pre-service teachers, and informal community educators. Learn more and register here.

Farm to school (FTS) efforts are most successful and long-lasting when teams take the time to build commitment from and capacity of a diverse set of stakeholders. These stakeholders should include nutrition/food service staff, teachers, administrators, family members, students (middle and high school), nurses, farmers and community partners. We encourage teams to include a combination of people from different roles and who bring a diverse set of skills, backgrounds and perspectives. Teams for the Institute’s summer retreat are typically composed of 4-7 members, but the number of community members contributing to a team’s FTS efforts may be larger during the school year. 

Consider inviting people who are already FTS champions as well as key decision-makers and implementers who have yet to become involved but can    provide valuable insights or connections when it comes time to implement your action plan. Your school may already have a group that has been working on FTS or wellness, or there might be a committee that has worked on these efforts in the past but possibly needs a “refresh” with some planning and perspective from new team members.

There are four different types of teams that will be considered for the Institute: Teams representing a school, a school district, an Early Care and Education (ECE) program, or two ECE programs (“ECE peer support team”).

• For school teams: Teams must be composed of 4–6 individuals representing various constituencies in the school and community. Teams must have representation from the three following roles: administration, teachers/educators, school nutrition/food service. Additional members can include: family members/caregivers, farmers, community partners, school nurse and other staff, school board, etc.
• For school district teams: Teams must be composed of 5–7 individuals representing various constituencies in the school and community. Teams must have representation from the three following roles: district-level administration, teachers/educators, school nutrition/food service. Additional team members can include: school-level administration, family members/caregivers, farmers, community partners, school nurse and other staff, school board, etc. In your application, you will be asked to identify one or two particular schools in your district to focus on implementing your Farm to School Action Plan that can serve as an example for other schools within the district. Focusing on one or two schools has been found to be the most successful way to guide district teams through the planning process.
• For Early Care and Education (ECE) teams: Teams must be composed of 4-6 individuals representing various constituencies involved with the ECE program from any of the following roles: administrator/owner, educator/teacher, food service staff, parent, community partner, ELRC coach, or intermediate unit representative. ECE programs that have limited staff capacity are allowed to pair up with another ECE program of similar staff capacity to form a “ECE peer support team”. If proposing an “ECE peer support team” each ECE program must bring at least two individuals representing different roles from the list above.

Thanks to funding from United Healthcare, Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we are able to cover most of the costs associated with the programming provided to teams for the year-long Institute, including food during the two day in-person summer retreat and a $50 per person lodging stipend to help partially cover the cost of accommodation during the summer retreat. Travel costs to the summer retreat and incidentals are the responsibility of teams.

Each team will be required  to pay a $500 registration fee at the time of registration in April 2024. Upon completion of the in-person summer retreat, each team  will receive a $7,000 financial award to carry out their Farm to School Action Plans. For “ECE peer support teams”, the two ECE programs are encouraged to split the $500 registration fee and the $7,000 award will be split evenly between the two programs. The financial award is meant to support teams in implementing their Farm to School Action Plan developed during the in-person summer retreat. 

The fee is not meant to be a barrier to any team interested in or selected to participate. Please contact Sam Gibb sgibb@thefoodtrust.org with any questions or concerns related to the fee.

Each team’s Institute award can be used for various purposes to cover the costs of implementing the action plans developed during the Institute training days. Specifically, the funds can be used to procure local foods for taste tests and meals, educational activities, growing supplies, travel for farm-related field trips, promoting local foods, resources for families and staff time directly related to your Farm to School Action Plan activities. 

Costs that cannot be covered by the Institute award include large playground equipment, multimedia equipment (TVs, video playback devices, video game consoles, computers), large-scale farm equipment and components of student meals that are not local food.

The application is used to gain an understanding of each applicant’s school community, existing farm to school efforts, future farm to school aspirations and what resources may be needed to achieve future goals. We aim to build a diverse cohort of teams that have both similarities and opportunities to share lessons learned with others. We are looking for schools that prioritize making their farm to school program inclusive of diverse students and community members, equitable and holistic in the approach - incorporating farm to school activities in the classroom, cafeteria and community.

We use the following criteria to evaluate all applications:

• Team composition: The team meets the “team makeup requirements” outlined for their school, district, ECE or “ECE Peer Support” team.
• Team readiness: The team demonstrates some experience in “Farm to School” (FTS) and is in a suitable phase to receive support and grow. Use the Farm to School/Early Care and Education Program Assessment Tool to evaluate your current programming. Your program is at an appropriate level for the Institute if your self-assessment results are mostly “emerging” and “developing”.
• 3Cs mindset: The team has a good understanding of the 3Cs (classroom, cafeteria, and community) and intends to use an integrated, holistic approach to bring the three components together.
• Equity and inclusivity: The team has clear goals for centering equity and inclusion in their FTS work, and demonstrates how the Institute will benefit their equity work.
• Staying power: The team has a clear commitment to FTS, and has demonstrated commitment to FTS in the past by identifying/securing funding or resources to sustain their FTS work.
• The “why”: The team has a clear “why” for their FTS work and can explain how their goals align with the Institute's vision.
• Impact for underserved kids and families: We prioritize teams with greater student diversity and consider metrics such as the percentage of students participating in free and reduced-priced meals, ethnicity composition of the student body, school location (rural/urban) and other demographic information (e.g. income level and ethnicity composition of the geographic region).  For early childhood programs not enrolled in CACFP, the percentage of children/families receiving state subsidized child care support can replace free/reduced meal data.

The Institute is a year-long program kicking off with an in-person summer retreat in June 2024 and wrapping up in June 2025. Teams will collaboratively create a Farm to School Action Plan during the retreat and then work to implement that plan during the 2024-2025 school year with the support of a coach.

• April - June 2024: All selected team members register for the in-person retreat and complete program onboarding prior to arriving at the retreat. Onboarding includes meeting together at least once with your assigned coach to complete the Farm to School Program Assessment Tool.
• June 26th-28th 2024: All team members attend the in-person 2-day summer  retreat at Heritage Creek Farm Camp to develop your Farm to School Action Plan, build relationships between your team members, network with peers, and engage in hands-on learning through workshops and presentations.
• Fall 2024 - Winter 2025: Meet regularly throughout the school year with your coach (monthly is recommended) as you implement your action plan; participate in virtual quarterly Institute all-team convenings to network with peers and continue gaining skills and technical assistance; and provide feedback through data collection, evaluation and storytelling to support program growth and improvement.
• Spring 2025: Prepare a year two action plan with your coach and regather with other Institute teams in-person (regionally) or virtually to share successes and lessons learned from your experience.
• Post Institute: All Institute team members are invited to stay involved with the Pennsylvania Farm to School Network to continue gaining skills, learning about additional resources and professional development opportunities and  networking with peers!

What: Two days of professional learning, networking, planning and fun!

Who: The in-person and overnight retreat is attended by all members of the selected teams.

When: Between June 26th and 28th, though the full Institute program continues through June 2025.

Where: The retreat takes place at Heritage Creek Farm Camp, a small-scale vegetable farm that offers a variety of agriculturally-based programs for children and families. 

For the 2024-2025 Institute, the summer retreat will take place at Heritage Creek Farm Camp between June 26th and 28th. During the summer retreat, teams get inspired by and learn from leaders in farm to school, build relationships across their own team, gain new skills, and develop a year-long action plan for farm to school programming. The PA Farm to School Network (PFSN), a collaborative of individuals and farm to school practitioners representing a variety of sectors, facilitates the retreat. Workshop facilitators, presenters and team coaches are PFSN members or partners who have professional or lived experiences implementing and supporting farm to school programs. 

The summer retreat is just the beginning of the full Institute experience. During the year, as each team implements their action plan, they work with their coach to assess and adapt to successes and challenges and are invited to participate in additional Institute all-team convenings and additional workshops coordinated by the PFSN.

Once a final draft of the action plan is ready, teams share their Action Plan with members of their school or program’s administration and any other stakeholders. Institute schools are expected to commit to implementing their “Farm to School Action Plan” and establishing systems to track progress throughout the year. 

With the support of a coach, teams spend the school year putting their plans into action and strengthening their capacity to impact classrooms, cafeterias and communities with change that lasts. Coaches meet with all the team members virtually or in-person on a regular basis (monthly is recommended) to check in on progress, help trouble-shoot challenges, and provide updates about additional resources and opportunities to support teams with implementing their plans. 

Participants are invited to join virtual quarterly Institute all-team convenings and additional workshops and peer networking opportunities coordinated by the PA Farm to School Network. In the spring, teams regather with other Institute teams in-person (regionally) or virtually to share successes, how they adapted to challenges and to begin planning for future years of farm to school programming.

At the end of the Institute, teams will also have a final opportunity to work with their coach to create an updated action plan and rubric for the following year.

Every team participating in the Institute will be matched with a designated coach based on their geography and/or specific needs. Coaches are financially and professionally supported by the PA Farm to School Institute and PA Farm to School Network, equipping them with the skills and resources to provide teams with the best support possible during the summer retreat and throughout the year. Coaches facilitate the development of the action plan and identify resources and technical assistance opportunities to complement implementation. Coaches keep teams informed of learning opportunities and professional development that can strengthen their plans and programs. They can help infuse creativity into the planning and implementation process by offering insights, suggestions and feedback regularly. Most of all, coaches guide their team, rather than do things for them—they listen, reflect, evaluate, rethink and support the implementation of the Action Plan.

The PA Farm to School Network (PFSN), coordinated by The Food Trust, is a collaborative that works to advance farm to school strategies and policies across Pennsylvania. The PFSN was selected to participate in Vermont FEED’s Farm to School Institute Adaptation Program - an opportunity for farm to school leaders across the country to adapt the Institute model to their region and grow farm to school in their state. Vermont FEED has hosted Farm to School Institutes since 2010, building upon decades of experience in supporting schools, communities, and farms - developing a proven professional learning model for growing robust farm to school programs that last.

Here in Pennsylvania, a planning committee made up of 10 multi-sector individuals and active members of the PFSN, with input from a stakeholder advisory group of farm to school practitioners, are steering the decisions related to the 2024-2025 PA Farm to School Institute.

Visit Institute website for more information about the Institute and other resources. Questions? Email pafarmtoschool@thefoodtrust.org.