What is Growing Minds Farm to School Program?

As part of a national farm to school initiative, Growing Minds is the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s (ASAP) farm to school program. Growing Minds strives to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships between farms and schools that create dynamic, wellness-focused learning environments for our children. We do this by working with farmers, educators, and communities to serve local food in schools, while expanding opportunities for farm field trips, experiential nutrition education and school gardens. Currently at least one of these four components is being implemented in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey County, as well as Asheville City Schools.

Read about Growing Minds in the News!

ASAP on the radio - Listen in on ASAP and Growing Minds staff "in the field" with local elementary school students from Susan Shillcock's class at Isaac Dickson. 16 minutes of pure agri-tainment. Listen to the MP3 audio file.

***NEW***Upstate SC School Garden Workshop - January 29th, Anderson. SC.

***NEW*** 2009 National Farm to Cafeteria Conference - March 19-21st, Portland, OR

***NEW*** Best practices for using produce from school gardens

***NEW*** Farm to School: From the Grassroots - workshop resource notebook

--Under Construction--National Farm to School Network - Southeast --

As part of a small non-profit (ASAP), the Growing Minds program is primarily grant funded and concentrates on specific projects each year.

2008

• Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School Network
• Experiential Nutrition Education -Chefs in the classroom, 31 Days of Nutrition
• Facilitate a regional farm to school committee
• Ongoing support of school gardens
• Providing resources through the web
• Building connections to serve local food in area schools
• SSARE R&E Farm to School market research
• UPS - Farm to School Distribution
• Partnership with the Council on Aging - Project Emma

2007

• Head Start- Implement the four components of farm to school at a head start center in Henderson County.
• Farm Field Trip Workshop and test trips
• Creating an action plan for farm to school in Henderson County
• Providing resources through the web
• Chef training
• Facilitate a regional farm to school committee
• Ongoing support of school gardens, experiential nutrition education
• Building connections to serve local food in area schools
• SSARE R&E – Farm to School market research
• UPS - Farm to School Distribution
• Partnership with the Council on Aging
• Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School Network

If you are interested in implementing Growing Minds programming at your school we would be happy to provide community and/or curriculum resources to help you move forward.

Past Events

Farm to School: From the Grassroots - Peaceful Valley Farm, October 16th, 2008

Southeast Regional Farm to School Conference - Isaac Dickson Elementary, July 17th, 2008

Chef Fest - Vance Elementary, October 4th, 2007

Henderson County Farm to School Action Plan Meeting - Bruce Drysdale Elementary, August 7th 4-6pm, 2007

Farm Field Trips - May 10th and June 7th, 2007

Henderson County Head Start Hendersonville, March 26th, 2007

Mitchell County Farm to School Festival- Bakersville, September 13th,2006

Asheville Cafeteria Mangers get a taste of local produce on farm tour - Full Sun Farm, August 7th, 2006

Farm to school teacher workshop - Asheville, July 24th, 2006