New Investments Coming for “Growing Local, Equitable Foods and Education in Seattle Schools” Project

The City of Seattle is excited to announce that we are receiving a nearly $100,000 Farm to School grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)!

The project with Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and community organizations will work towards three goals:

1) Expand the capacity of SPS Culinary Services staff to purchase and use more fresh and local food in school meals, especially from underrepresented farmers and producers.

2) Increase student access to food systems education through partnerships with community educators.

3) Increase training and resources for school garden practitioners.

With this funding, the City will provide subgrants to SPS Culinary Services, SPS Native American Education, Nurturing Roots, and the Seattle School Learning Garden Network (SLGN) through Tilth Alliance to implement the project.

SPS Culinary Services will use the funding to provide culinary trainings and workshops to kitchen staff centered around prepping, incorporating, and presenting fresh, local foods in school meals. SPS Culinary Services will also create promotional content about the SPS Farm to School program to share with students, teachers, school staff, and parents, and get more ongoing student feedback on school meals. SPS hopes that the project will help increase student participation in the school meal program by providing even more meals that meet the needs and preferences of students, especially low-income and students of color, while supporting local farmers and food producers.

The grant will also support food justice, farm to table, and first foods education at SPS. Nurturing Roots will provide food justice and farm to table workshops at 8-10 Seattle schools. SPS Native American Education will provide professional development opportunities for SPS educators to learn about native plants and first foods and support native plant education at select school garden sites during the project.

To support school gardens at SPS, Tilth Alliance will work with the SLGN to provide 500-600 teachers, students, and school gardeners in the network with resources and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, such as quarterly workshops and events. The SLGN is dedicated to advancing equitable outdoor education for all SPS students.

On behalf of the City of Seattle and our community partners, we are honored and excited to receive this USDA Farm to School grant! This funding will help further OSE's Healthy Food in Schools partnership with Seattle Public Schools, which supports SPS to provide students with healthy, fresh, local, environmentally sustainable, equitably sourced, and culturally relevant foods.

The City of Seattle award comes alongside another great Seattle-area USDA Farm to School Grant award for a project led by Tilth Alliance. That project includes statewide work to support food producers' readiness to sell to school meal programs including SPS, providing Seattle students with hands-on education at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, and providing additional support for the Seattle School Learning Garden Network. We're excited about all the support and investments in farm to school in the Seattle area!

Beyond Seattle, this funding comes as part of a record $14.3 million in Farm to School grants will be allocated to 154 projects that provide nutritious foods in schools throughout the country. The USDA's investment will help feed an estimated 1.9 million children across 45 US states and territories. Funding for this investment comes from the Patrick Leahy Farm to School program, which was created in 2013 and has awarded over $98 million during its existence. Projects funded by the grant have helped feed an estimated 28 million students. 67,000 schools currently participate in the Farm to School program.

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