BCS PROGRAMS
Farm-to-School Education
In 2024, BCS was awarded a grant from Vermont FEED, an organization supported by NOFA-VT and Shelburne Farms. This grant will help fund our farm-to-school educational program at BCS, helping us access trainings and information for staff, activities and curricula for children, and community resources like local farms and gardens to support our food program. The Farm-to-School Committee at BCS, comprised of both teachers and administrators, is building an action plan to start implementing these changes in summer 2024!
Vermont FEED defines Farm to School and Early Childhood as a comprehensive strategy that connects learning and experiences in the Classroom, Cafeteria, and the Community (the 3 Cs). The goal is to help learners establish a lifelong positive relationship with food while supporting a more just food system. The strategies used to achieve this shift are: serving healthy local food, improving nutrition, providing hands-on food systems based learning opportunities, and developing meaningful relationships between community partners, educational settings and youth. Farm to school and early childhood supports youth in connecting the dots of where their food comes from and how their food choices impact their bodies, the environment, and their communities at large.
For more information on the 3Cs model for whole school change, visit Vermont FEED's website. "Connecting Classrooms, Cafeteria and Community: A Guide to Building Integrated Farm to School Programs" is a helpful resource for understanding our process of developing this program at BCS.
Farm-to-School Values Statement
The Burlington Children’s Space prioritizes Farm-to-School education as a way to embrace sustainability, community, and local ecology. We value access to healthy and nutritious foods that are responsive to the many diverse cultures represented in our community, as well as to the varying dietary needs and perspectives of food that they present. We believe in the importance of hands-on interactions with natural resources and extend this learning to our children. We are committed to doing our part to reduce food insecurity in our community, and continue to look for new ways to increase universal connection with one another.