Farm to School BC Framework
– Three Core Elements –
F2S programs differ by school,
but include the following core elements:
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Healthy, Local Food
Schools source local food in a variety of ways, including through direct farmer relationships, food distributors, schoolyard farms, or the harvesting of wild or traditional foods. When local food arrives in schools it is often served in the form of a salad bar, hot lunch program, tasting activity, fundraiser, or community celebration.
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Hands-on Learning
Food literacy is a critically important component of a F2S program. Step into any school offering a F2S program and you will find students learning about food in the school garden, greenhouse, kitchen, lunchroom or classroom. They may also be getting ready for field trips to local farms, forests and shores. Schools access a plethora of resources available to them through provincial and regional partners.
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School & Community Connectedness
The most sucessful and sustainable F2S programs are built upon strong relationships.Schools establish relationships with farmers, community members, and support organizations, tapping into local knowledge passion,skill and resources.
What makes the F2S framework unique is that it is not a one size fits all program – communities develop models that are unique, appropriate and applicable to their own interests, needs, opportunities and community resources.
Farm to School BC Goals
1.
Support the development of sustainable regional food systems in BC by bringing more healthy, local, and sustainable food into BC schools.
2.
Promote healthy eating in BC schools by supporting the development of healthy school food environments.
3.
Advance experiential hands-on learning opportunities related to food systems and the development of student food literacy in BC schools.
4.
Enhance school and community connectedness in BC.
5.
Develop promising Farm to School practice models that are sustainable, self-financing, eco- friendly and have the potential to be implemented elsewhere.
Growing Farm to School in BC
In 2014 the Public Health Association of BC received funding from the Province of British Columbia to implement a two year project that would see continued provincial coordination of the F2SBC network, the funding of 48 new F2S programs across the province and the establishment of three F2S Regional Hubs. The three Regional Hubs were created in the Vancouver, Kamloops and Capital Regions of the province.
The development of three F2S Regional Hubs fostered collaboration and collective impact around F2S at the regional level. The F2S Regional Hub Community Animators, part-time F2SBC team members who live in the Hub regions, enabled capacity-building and F2S resilience within communities and sowed the seeds for long-term F2S success. The Animators became agents of change in the community: building relationships and developing new partnerships.
Vancouver Area Hub
– Highlights and Outcomes –
Schools in Vancouver have grown, prepared and served local food with students for many years. These efforts have been supported by a wide variety of local organizations including the Think&EatGreen@School initiative (2010-2015), which was a collaborative project between the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, the Vancouver School District and many local non-profit organizations. Over the last five years, a network of school food practitioners and leaders have come together within both the Vancouver School Food Network and the Vancouver Area F2S Steering Committee with the aim of collaboration.
With seed funding from F2SBC, the Vancouver Area F2S Steering Committee was able to increase their capacity dramatically through the hiring of a F2S Community Animator and the funding of eight new F2S programs. The Vancouver Area F2S Regional Hub was born and the existing Steering Committee was further enhanced with additional key stakeholders and a Community Advisory Committee was struck including the members of the Vancouver School Food Network to advise on Hub direction and focus. Vancouver Coastal Health remains a key champion of F2S work in the region, providing ongoing support to Hub functions.
The Vancouver Area F2S Regional Hub has been working with the Vancouver School District to move towards local food purchasing for a couple of years and is currently in the process of bringing together local community organizations who have a stake in school food projects in the region to develop a collaborative teacher professional development plan which will support teacher training related to F2S.
The Vancouver Area F2S Regional Hub has also successfully published two beautiful resources in the form of a F2S promotional video and F2S Guide for the region that supports schools in sourcing local food for their F2S programs and connecting schools to the resources available through various community partners.
The Vancouver region is brimming with F2S innovation, with school-yard farms and student food skill development taking front and centre through the excellent work of organizations such as Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society and the Edible Garden Project who are managing working market gardens run by farmers on school board land and organizations such as Project CHEF and Growing Chefs who are bringing innovative cooking initiatives to Vancouver schools.
This spring marked the 5th annual F2S networking, learning and celebration event hosted by the F2S Regional Hub Steering Committee. This year’s event saw a diverse group of F2S stakeholders including teachers, parents, students, administrators, community organizations, health authority partners and the school district come together to share a communal meal, celebrate their F2S success and learn from local F2S partners and experts.
Schools and community organizations in Vancouver are sure to continue to inspire as they innovate and work towards collective impact in their F2S efforts.
Capital Region Hub
– Highlights and Outcomes –
Grassroots school food activity is alive and thriving in the Capital Region of Vancouver Island. Several local non-profit organizations such as LifeCyles Project and the Growing Young Farmers Society are working hard to support schools in their F2S related activities. The Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR), a local non-profit organization focused on supporting the development of sustainable regional food systems and the health of communities in the Capital Region, is the key stakeholder partner in the development of the Capital Region F2S Regional Hub. Working closely with F2SBC and the F2S Community Animator for the Capital Region, the CRFAIR has embedded the F2S framework within their Collective Impact Strategy, working to secure long term F2S Hub sustainability. The Capital Region F2S Community Animator has successfully developed a strong F2S Steering Committee composed of key local stakeholders including the Victoria School District, Island Health and the City of Victoria among many others, who gave direction and guidance for the further development of F2S in the region.
One of the most exciting outcomes of the work of the Capital Region F2S Hub is progress towards support for a Victoria School District Food and Garden Policy. The policy will support the growing, cooking and eating of local food in schools as well as provide direction for the use of school grounds as food growing resource lands for school and urban agriculture production.
One of the most fruitful relationships built to date is with local urban farms including City Harvest Co-op and Mason Street Farms. City Harvest is working with a number of local schools within a unique model where City Harvest supports schools to get their school gardens up and running and then partners with the schools to utilize those garden spaces for food production over the summer months. The F2S Community Animator and City Harvest are also working with the Victoria School District to create an opportunity for high school students to gain leadership credits for their work with the school gardens/farms which could then be transferred to Camosun College.
The CRFAIR hosts a number of roundtables every year as part of their community engagement work, and is using that same model within the F2S Regional Hub to host multiple F2S roundtables each school year. This spring marked the inaugural roundtable held at Reynolds Secondary School, home to a long standing successful F2S program. The event consisted of a shared salad bar meal prepared by the Reynolds Secondary School students along with presentations from multiple community partners and a tour of the Reynolds school garden.
Another important piece of work by the CRFAIR and the Capital Region F2S Hub was the writing of the Fresh & Local: Exploring Opportunities for Fresh and Local Food in Schools report. This report summarizes findings of a survey that was delivered to a number of local F2S schools to better understand their successes and challenges faced when purchasing local food for their F2S programs.
This Hub is brimming with possibilities around F2S collaboration and is poised to take large steps towards building healthy and sustainable food systems for the students within the region.
Kamloops Hub
– Highlights and Outcomes –
The Kamloops region of BC has been a leader in the development of projects related to sustainable regional food systems and food security for many years under the leadership of the Kamloops Food Policy Council (KFPC) and Interior Health. In the 2014-2015 school year F2SBC, the KFPC, Interior Health and the Kamloops School District came together as a core Steering Committee to guide the development of the Kamloops Region F2S Hub, in addition to a broader F2S Community Advisory composed of key local stakeholders who give direction and guidance to the F2S Community Animator.
The F2S Community Animator has been instrumental in having the Kamloops F2S Regional Hub included as a stakeholder partner in the Kamloops Food and Urban Agriculture Plan as well as being identified as a core program of the KFPC Community Food Action Team. Rather than recreate the wheel, the Animator worked within existing organizational structures to leverage F2S opportunities. By bringing together large stakeholder partners, F2S gained legitimacy and a stronger focus within the region.
As in each of the Hub regions, the Kamloops Region received eight F2SBC Start-up Grants for schools in their region. It is noteworthy that the first four schools who received F2S Start-up Grants in the 2014-2015 school year were from rural communities within the Kamloops School District (Logan Lake, Barriere, Clearwater and Skeetchestn Reserve), with the following four schools located in Kamloops. The Kamloops F2S Hub is poised to gain the benefits of building F2S programs within small rural communities with strong community networks and the ability to utilize the capacity and resources that can be found in larger urban centres, making their Hub context unique.
By way of the KFPC, teachers and administrators at F2S schools have been able to make connections with local farmers in order to source local food and have helped organize farm tours and growing advice for schools. There is a plan shaping up in the region that will see the local F2S schools visit the Kamloops Farmers’ Market Wednesday markets in the fall of 2016.
Being located north of the Okanagan Valley, the Kamloops Region is brimming with produce and fruit during the summer months in backyards and gardens throughout the region. The Gleaning Abundance Project helps to collect excess produce in the region by leveraging the hard work of harvesting volunteers and sharing the bounty with community organizations that could benefit from the donations. As projects of the Kamloops Community Food Action Team, the Gleaning Abundance Project and the F2S Regional Hub are finding ways to include students and schools in this process and linking the many volunteers between the Gleaning Abundance project and F2S schools.
As a collaboration between the Kamloops F2S Regional Hub, the Kamloops School District, Interior Health and many local non-profit organizations, this region hosted their first F2S Regional Hub networking, learning and celebration event. Staff and students from the eight new F2S programs as well as community partners came together to celebrate their progress to date, learn, and be inspired by a series of excellent speakers and have the opportunity to experience 10 maker stations hosted by local food related initiatives.
Kamloops has hit the ground running and is poised to continue to grow and expand their F2S success to date.
— By the Numbers —
Farm to School BC
Start-up Grants 2014-2016
48 New F2S Programs
As part of the Growing Farm to School in BC project, F2SBC has funded the development of 48 new F2S programs across the province, bringing the total number of schools funded with F2S grants to over 120.
15,000 + Students Participating
With over 15,000 students participating, major impacts on school food environments across the province have been seen. Within the communities that these schools reside in, many important stakeholders have come to the table to help make these programs a great success – including regional health authorities, municipalities, farmers, non-profit organizations, elders, food distributors and community volunteers. BC schools are transforming the school food environments that our students learn in.
Province-wide Success
Half of the 48 schools were funded within the three F2SBC Regional Hub locations, with the other half allocated across the rest of the province. We have been inspired by the vision, commitment and passion that schools and communities have put forward in developing their F2S programs. We had a large number of schools apply for the Start-up Grants, with the successful schools receiving a $500 Planning Grant, followed by a $3500 Implementation Grant.
A Catalysts to Ignite Change
This small investment in schools has provided the catalyst to ignite movement in schools who were primed and eager to engage with the local food system and to provide students with positive hands-on learning experiences at school, enhancing their food literacy and allowing for healthy habits to take root in an engaging, fun and spirited way.
Stories from the Field
As part of their grant reporting process, grantee schools were requested to write a story highlighting the process and progress to date in building their F2S programs. Below you will find short summaries of a handful of the amazing stories generated by our grantee schools.