Resources to expand food system education at your school

Many policy and programmatic changes will help to expand food system education across the state. In addition, there are many resources available to help districts, schools, and teachers that are interested in teaching food literacy. Using an existing food literacy curriculum may help to design a sequence of food lessons that build over time and that connect to the state standards. In addition, there are many lessons about various food topics that are available for free online. Teachers may learn more about the food system as well as ideas for how to integrate it into their classroom through professional development opportunities. And finally, there are several grants which fund professional development, materials, school gardens, and farm field trips. 

These resources are part of the Collaborative’s report on Food Literacy in Massachusetts.

Food literacy curricula

It is often helpful, or even required, for teachers to demonstrate how their lessons align to the state or district standards and frameworks. Several organizations offer resources that  demonstrate the connection between food system education and existing standards. 

• National Farm to School Network – this database has curricular resources submitted by organizations and schools across the country, including some that align with state frameworks.
• Life Lab Standards Database – all Life Lab lessons are searchable by the standards to which they connect.
• Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education – provides pathways and curriculum connections around animal science, plant science, etc.
• CitySprouts – Essential Plant and Design List – this lists the foods in school gardens with curriculum connection examples. 
• VT FEED – Farm to School and Big Ideas – lists overarching concepts to guide how food system education can be taught cohesively from K through 12. 
• National Agriculture Literacy Outcomes – lists many ways that food system education connects to standards in social studies, science, and health.

Food literacy lessons 

There are many lessons, workshop ideas, and reading lists that may help teachers to teach about food systems. These have not been evaluated and are organized by topic. 

Food Justice

• Grow NYC – Food Justice: In The Community – provides eight lessons for high school students while Grow NYC – Ample Table for Everyone is for middle school students. 
• Teaching the Food System – teaching modules developed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Livable Future will help high school students explore relationships between food, equity, public health and the environment.
• FoodSpan – a free, downloadable high school curriculum that highlights critical issues in the food system and empowers students to be food citizens.
• Cornell Cooperative Extension – Discovering our Food System – for high school students
• FoodShare – is based in Canada and provides food justice workshop ideas for middle school students.
• Seeds of Solidarity – Food for the SOL – a compilation of lessons for youth of all ages
• The Food Project – several lessons on the food system, hunger and homelessness, and sustainable agriculture.
• Soul Fire Farm – many resources for teaching youth about the food system.
• Swinomish and Oregon State University – a 13 Moons curriculum about first foods.
• First Nation – information about the intersection with farm to school curriculum.
• Bringing Tribal Foods And Traditions Into Cafeterias, Classrooms, and Gardens – a brief from USDA with some examples of food system lessons.
• A Culturally Responsive Hydroponics Curriculum Framework – a guide to teaching about hydroponics while incorporating students’ backgrounds.
• Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman – a book for middle school students about people from different backgrounds coming together around an urban garden.

Nutrition 

• The Pilot Light Food Education Center – includes materials for grade K-12 searchable by grade level and subject.
• FoodCorps – lessons for elementary school aged students.
• FreshFarm – Food Prints Curriculum – for elementary school students.
• USDA: Serving Up MyPlate: A Yummy Curriculum – classroom materials about MyPlate for elementary students.
• University of Missouri Extension – Show Me Nutrition Curriculum – used by UMass SNAP-Ed educators.
• Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health – Planet Health is aimed at middle school students.
• Center for Ecoliteracy – materials and lessons that focus on California food. 

Agriculture

• National Ag in the Classroom – provides a large database of lessons, many of which are connected to state specific standards.
• University of Wisconsin – Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems – Toward a Sustainable Agriculture – for high school students.
• Mass Ag in the Classroom – lessons about dairy for all ages.
• Slow Food USA Plant a Seed Program.
• Farm Journal Foundation – online videos and lessons about farming and farmers for middle and high school students

Seafood

• Gulf of Maine Research Institute – a resource hub of lessons about local seafood
• Maritime Gloucester – provides marine science lessons to elementary schools on Cape Ann. There are also field trips on the Schooner Adventure.
• Massachusetts Farm to School – resources to bring more local seafood into the cafeteria
• Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative – an apprenticeship program for students interested in a career in the fishing industry
• New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center – math and history lesson plans and a virtual tour of a scallop boat 
• One Fish Foundation – provides sustainable seafood lessons tailored to your classroom
• Teach ME about Food and Farms – a book, with many photos, about aquaculture
• The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance – 17 interdisciplinary lessons about shellfish for 3rd graders
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension – 12 activities that introduce elementary school students to marine science and the concept of aquaculture

Sustainability

• A People’s Curriculum For The Earth – Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis – this booklet focuses on sustainability and the food system.
• Boston Public Schools – Climate Curriculum – created in collaboration with students, for elementary through high school. 
• The Green Team – activities for schools to be more sustainable.
• USDA Climate Hubs – units about climate change topics.

School gardens

• Island Grown Foods – curriculum toolkit is thorough and well-organized for all ages. 
• The Edible Schoolyard Project – Resource Library includes materials for grade K-12 searchable by grade level and subject.
• Life Lab – science in the garden and school garden lesson plans.
• Collective School Garden Network – garden lessons, literature lists, and cooking projects.
• Kids Gardening – lesson plan database.
• Whole Kids Foundation and American Heart Association – school gardens activity guide.

STEM

• US FDA Science and Our Food Supply – middle school or high school level.
• FoodMASTER – a food-based science and math curriculum for grades 3 – 8. The curriculum was evaluated in counties in Ohio and North Carolina and found that it increased students’ and teachers’ understanding of math, science and food concepts. 
• National Geographic – Science and food lessons.

English / Language Arts

• Life Lab – several lists of relevant books.
• Growing Minds – a list of food-related books searchable by diverse characters and in Spanish.

Farm field trips

• To locate farms in MA that offer school tours, go to MDAR’s map. Click search and under crops and activities, select school tours. 
• Mass Farm to School has guides and a webinar about doing field trips on farms. 
• The Farm Based Education Network has resources for farms that welcome school trips. 
• Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm hosts many school field trips and can focus on farming and agriculture. 

Professional development opportunities

There are many professional development options for teachers who are interested in learning more about the food system and how to integrate food system concepts into their classrooms. Here is a list of some food system professional development options. 

• Exploring Food from the Ground Up, John Stalker Institute 

The John Stalker Institute at Framingham State University offers many four-week online graduate courses for educators and school professionals that are focused on promoting school wellness. One such class is “Exploring Food from the Ground Up” which provides participants with examples of schools that are teaching about food, shows them how to connect those lessons to the curriculum, and lists grant opportunities to help support the lessons. 

• The Massachusetts Farm to School Institute, Mass Farm to School 

The Massachusetts Farm to School Institute is a year-long professional learning opportunity for school teams from across the state. During a fall retreat, participants develop a comprehensive school-wide Farm to School Action Plan that includes curriculum, local procurement, utilizing outdoor learning spaces, and cultivating family and community connections.

• Backyard Growers

Backyard Growers offers consulting and professional development for teachers that would like to offer more school garden-based education. 

• Grow Education 

Grow Education offers consulting services for new and existing community garden and cross-cultural outreach programs.

• Northeast Farm to School Institute, Vermont FEED

Vermont FEED organizes this year-long institute for educators to build relationships, skills, and a collaborative action plan to increase farm to school activities in their classrooms, cafeterias and communities. Participants must apply with a team from their school or district, including classroom teachers, food service staff, and administrators. In person events take place in Shelburne, Vermont. A guide to building a whole school program is here. 

• Sustainable Schools Project, Shelburne Farms

The Sustainable Schools Project is a whole-school professional learning model designed to help schools use sustainability as an integrating context for curriculum, community partnerships, and campus practices. 

• Food Education Fellowship, Pilot Light Chef

Pilot Light Chef is a nonprofit based in Chicago. They offer a year-long course for teachers who are interested in using food education as a tool in their classrooms which includes monthly, virtual professional development. They also offer stand-alone professional development opportunities. 

• Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education

CASE is an initiative of the National Council for Agricultural Education and offers an institute as well as many other courses about teaching agriculture, food, and natural resources.

Grant opportunities

Grants are available to implement school gardens, purchase other materials for teaching about agriculture and nutrition, and for professional development opportunities.

• USDA
  • These are two general resources from USDA – for educators and about funding. 
  • Farm to School Grant Program – Provides funding to many aspects of farm to school programming. One priority is for the program to, “Incorporate experiential nutrition education activities in curriculum planning that encourage the participation of school children in farm and garden-based agricultural education activities.” USDA Farm to School Grant fact sheet
  • Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Education and Workforce Development – Provides funding for, among other things, “professional development opportunities for K-14 educational professionals.” See past grantees here. 
  • Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program – Provides funding to, among other things, “Increase capacity for food, garden, and nutrition education within host organizations or entities and school cafeterias and in the classroom.” See past grantees here. 

• The Kendall Foundation – This private foundation focuses on a sustainable and resilient food system in New England; one priority is farm to school programs. 
• Mass Ag in the Classroom – Provides mini-grants to teachers for supplies to teach about agriculture. 

• MA Skills Capital Grant Program – Awards grants for equipment to support vocational and technical training.
• MA Farming Reinforces Education and Student Health (FRESH) – supports food literacy activities and more scratch cooking in schools
• NOAA New England Bay Watershed Education and Training Program – provides funding for students and teachers to learn more about local watersheds
• New England Dairy – Offers grants to schools that are providing lessons that include dairy. 
• Whole Kids Foundation – Grants available for school gardens, education about bees, entrepreneurship skills, as well as a free healthy teachers program.
• Budding Botanist Grant – Has a small grant to support garden education. 
• The EOS Foundation – Has offered support for farm to school research and programming. 
• Shaws Nourishing Neighbors – Provides funding for youth, education, and nutrition.
• National Science Foundation – Provides grants for teachers around various science topics. 
• The School Garden Support Organization Network – Offers many ideas for funding school gardens.

To read the full report, click here.

For more information, please reach out to Brittany Peats at [email protected].