If you missed the March virtual open house, you can watch the recording below!

The featured topic during this open house was Connecting schools and ECE programs to farmers.

The following panelists spoke about how they connect schools and ECE programs with farms in their work and shared some helpful resources and information on the topic:

• Kathryn Barr: Outreach Specialist for The Common Market in the Mid-Atlantic region
• Erica Lewis: Food Services Director at The Caring Center in Philadelphia
• Nichole Hockenberry: Executive Director of the PA Beef Council

Lauren Rosse, Program Manager of the PA Farm to School Network, shared some ways that schools and ECEs can connect with farmers including serving local food in school meals, inviting a farmer to your school for a school farm stand or to speak in the classroom, or taking students to a farm for a farm field trip. She also shared resources and programs that are available in PA including:

• Wholesaling to Institutions Workshop: A workshop for farmers, growers, and producers to learn how to sell their products to institutions like schools presented by the PA Department of Agriculture.
• Pennsylvania Harvest of the Month: A program created by the PA Department of Education and Project PA to promote a local agricultural product each month through schools, child and adult care centers/day care homes, and summer feeding sites.
• Pasa Foodshed Mapping Project: A shareable, digital database of key players in the PA food system created to facilitate new opportunities for connections between farmers, growers, producers and markets, institutions, wholesalers, and consumers.

Lauren also shared several resources for finding farmers in your area and places where schools and ECEs can purchase local products for their school nutrition programs, including:

• The Common Market: A nonprofit regional wholesale food distributor serving the Mid-Atlantic Region.
• Zone 7: NJ-based local food hub serving schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.
• Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op: An organic farmer co-op representing over 100 farmers in Lancaster County serving wholesale customers across the Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern U.S.
• Delivered Fresh: A group of over 50 farmers and food makers delivering local products in northeastern PA.
• Three Rivers Grown: A local food aggregator connecting regional producers with Pittsburgh buyers.
• PA Prefered: Created by the Department of Agriculture, PA Prefered is a resource for finding locally grown and processed agricultural products from across Pennsylvania.
• Local Harvest: A resource to locate farmers markets, family farms, CSAs, farm stands, and u-pick produce in your neighborhood.

Mindy Steffey, a farm to school educator from The Food Trust shared how she facilitates farmer connections with the schools she serves in Reading, PA. Mindy shared how she invited a local farmer to visit several classrooms, took her kindergarten students on a field trip, and facilitated school farm stands at her schools. Mindy also spoke about the importance of cultivating a relationship with the farmers she works with in the Reading area.

We also shared some upcoming opportunities including:

• Farm to Child Nutrition Summit: On June 18th, at Eden Hall in Gibsonia, PA, The PA Department of Education and Project Pa are hosting the Farm to Child Nutrition Summit for individuals interested in learning more about farm to child nutrition topics
• PA Educator’s Agriculture Institute: From June 23-28, the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation is hosting The Educator’s Ag Institute at Penn State University. The institute provides a unique learning experience for PreK-12^th grade formal educators, pre-service teachers and informal community educators to learn more about agriculture from those working in the field.
• PA Farm to School Institute: A year long farm to school learning opportunity for teams from schools, districts or ECE programs to develop their farm to school programs. Team applications are due Thursday, March 28th

Don’t miss the next virtual open house planned for June 6, register here!