Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24
Outputs Target Audience:Community Food Initiatives: In the 2023-24 academic year, all first-grade classrooms at East and Morrison Gordon Elementary Schools in Athens City School District (ACSD) and Amesville Elementary in Federal Hocking School District (FHSD) participated in Sprouts School Garden programming run by Community Food Initiatives (CFI) staff, service members, and volunteers. This program served 207 students in 10 classrooms. All of these students also attended Sprouts farm field trips in the spring and fall. East Elementary - 84 children in 4 classrooms (52% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch as of Oct 2023) Morrison Gordon Elementary - 90 children in 4 classrooms (51% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch as of Oct 2023) Amesville Elementary - 33 children in 2 classrooms (63% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch as of Oct 2023) An additional 153 students in grades preK-3 in ACSD participated in "assisted garden time" activities where COMCorps members helped teachers engage students in the school garden through hands-on activities. At The Plains Intermediate School, 10 5th grade students participated in an after school Garden Club organized by science teachers and CFI staff. Summer garden lessons included 25 students from Beacon School (for developmental disabilities) hosted at the Morrison Gordon school garden; 26 students at the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery Summer Camp session; 20 students at The Plains Discovery Camp; 30 community members at the Rising Appalachia Summer Camp; and 36 students at the Community Center Summer Camp. An additional 27 students at other local preK classes also participated in gardening activities led by CFI (Athens Community Center PreK and Blooming View Montessori PreK). In June 2024, CFI hosted their inaugural Sprouts summer camp, engaging 21 students from ACSD. CFI staff were invited to lead a session at a Columbus City Schools "Summer Experience" where they taught 180 students about the importance of pollinators in our food system. Finally, Nourishing Networks workshops engaged 49 community members in food insecure communities through workshops in two areas. Rural Action: The Rural Action (RA) high school internship program provided 10 high school students with a hands-on internship placed at four farm or ag-related businesses, including two regional farmers markets, a high school cafeteria, and with our partner CFI's youth garden programs. As of August five of these internships were completed and five will be completed by the fall of 2024. Apple Crunch Day 2023 reached 8,567 students from pre-K to 12th grade in Morgan, Meigs, and Athens County, reaching a total of 23 separate schools. For ten weeks in the summer of 2024 RA prepared fresh, local vegetables and fruits into 750 individual servings weekly for the Council on Appalachian Community Development's USDA Summer Feeding Program. RA prepared 1,000 servings of butternut squash in November 2023 for Harvest of the Month events at Athens City Schools reaching four schools ages pre-K to 12th grade. Local purchases of greens and asparagus were also facilitated for ACSD's Harvest of the Month in April and May 2024. RA's Live Healthy Kids (LHK) program was taught in 23 second grade classrooms, serving 460 second grade students in Athens County. At the end of last school year, LHK celebrated the program with our Live Healthy Kids Night, which brought 80 LHK students and family members to the event. LHK also built a partnership with Beacon Schools, a special educational service provider through the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities to have LHK programming in their school this past summer for one month. This served roughly 20 kids weekly at Beacon school. Fort Frye School District: The Fort Frye School District serves 974 students with a free and reduced lunch rate of approximately 52%. This project specifically impacted students in 2nd grade (64 students) and 7th grade (97 students) during the 2023-2024 school year who attended the CPA School Days in the spring. This project also funded fruits and vegetables that were prepared by the 6th-12th grade multi-handicapped unit as an educational program, which serves 6 to 10 students. The project supported a Junior Farmers Market hosted by the Washington County Extension Office serving the 4th grade students in the district (64 students). The project also impacted 2 high school students, who were given paid internships through this grant, in order to support the Beverly Waterford Farmers Market Youth Booth. The booth reached several children from the Beverly and Waterford area during the 2024 market season. Changes/Problems:Our region experienced a significant drought this year which resulted in less fruits and veggies harvested and more resources used to maintain the school gardens. This also affected the procurement of foods for future programming and took a toll on the availability and enthusiasm of farmers in the area to support Farm to School initiatives. Our programming has faced challenges with school administration and staff. Staffing changes and staff that are unwilling to introduce Farm to School activities have both been encountered. At Federal Hocking School District the staffing changes included the cafeteria staff now being managed by an outside company. This has caused barriers to their participation in programming. For this reason RA will be shifting funding to other local schools to complete Farm to School activities with a wider variety of sites. Both CFI and RA have COMCorps members that assist in our programming, however the gap in service members takes place in July/August which is one of the busiest times for our programming and this remains a challenge. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?RA staff attended the Ohio Food Policy Network summit where they engaged with local, state and national food system leaders on a range of policy topics. RA staff was ServSafe Manager trained by ACEnet's Director of Operations in order to maintain food safety standards while food processing. RA engaged 17 COMCorps and AmeriCorps members in volunteering to lead and support curriculum at the School Day for the CPA field trips. Live Healthy Kids trained 22 Americorps members, 2 Ohio University student interns, 4 Dietetic Interns and 3 Ohio University student volunteers in delivering the Live Healthy Kids programming in 4 school districts. CFI and RA staff attended the OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association) annual conference, attending workshops aimed at both supporting on-farm learning and the local food system. CFI trained an additional 7 COMCorps members and 2 OHIO farm interns as Sprouts Garden Educators. They also engaged 25 service members and volunteers to support fall field trips and 22 to support spring field trips by assisting with student engagement, facilitation, and activities with students on farms. CFI staff presented on their work at the end of year ACSD Board of Education meeting in May 2024; approx 40 teachers, school staff, admin and community members in attendance How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? CFI staff presented at the School Gardens of Ohio Conference in Oct 2023 about the Sprouts program which included hands-on activities for teachers and other adults wanting to learn more about educating kids on the importance of pollinators All 816 second and seventh grade students who attended the School Day at the CPA field trips through RA went home with a healthy recipe, a local food such as an apple, a pepper seedling and a seed potato as well as agricultural education information. In November, April, and May Harvest of the Month newsletters were sent home with all ACSD students. These newsletters contained healthy eating info and updates from the LHK and Sprouts programs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period RA will host three or more interns at food and farm businesses in Southeast Ohio. Intern facilitation paperwork will continue to improve with feedback from host sites. LHK and Sprouts programming will continue through the end of the school year. RA will hold Apple Crunch Day during Farm to School month in October and continue working with ACSD on getting local foods onto cafeteria trays. Due to staff changes at our Federal Hocking School District partner site Rural Action has been unable to complete as many activities with that school district as previously planned. Therefore we will be shifting funding for other local schools to complete farm to school activities with a wider variety of sites.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Expand school-based curriculum and experiential learning for local food and farming education Sprouts School Garden Programming: Response to CFI-led garden programming with first graders was overwhelmingly positive on surveys in May 2024. 100% of teachers reported they want this program to continue. When asked about the Sprouts program, one parent reported,"I like that he has the opportunity to be engaged about plants and the environment around him. I like that he is interested in being healthy and enjoying trying new vegetables and fruits." In partnership with local art teachers and 15 community volunteers, CFI facilitated "garden murals" on both Athens City School District (ACSD) elementary school garden sheds, beautifying the spaces and raising garden awareness. The Plains Intermediate School garden received improvements including compost, trellis and fencing materials, educational signage, tools, learning supplies, a garden bench, hoses, watering cans, and native trees and berry bushes. These materials enabled the after school Garden Club to excel and we expect garden engagement to grow due to these improvements. Teachers were excited to bring their preK-3 students to the garden and for CFI's support in facilitating garden-based lessons. This has positively impacted school culture and changed how teachers think about the learning opportunities of school gardens. Farm Field Trips: In October 2023, CFI took 207 first graders from 3 elementary schools to the OHIO Student Farm. Students rotated through stations including vegetable harvesting, herb ID, and compost exploration. In May 2024, first graders visited Blackberry Sage Farm or Solid Ground Farm.Students practiced team building through obstacle courses and field games, made wildflower seed balls with clay they harvested, planted and harvested greens, interacted with farm animals, tasted local foods, studied ponds, and did an insect survey. Sprouts Summer Camp: In June 2024, CFI hosted the first Sprouts summer camp where 21 students from ACSD participated in a week of hands-on learning in school gardens, designed to engage them outside of the academic year. This included guest farmers, taste testing local foods, and a family tour to the OHIO Student Farm. Taste Tests: CFI partnered with Food Services to provide multiple "garden fresh taste tests" where all students could try freshly harvested produce from the school gardens. School Day at the CPA: In Spring 2024, Rural Action (RA) hosted a field trip to the Chesterhill Produce Auction where 539 second graders and 277 seventh graders learned about the local food system, how to identify and plant seeds, composting, pollinators, making a healthy salad, and bidding on fresh produce. RA created curriculums for 2nd and 7th grades this year in line with state standards. Apple Crunch Day 2023: During Farm to School month in October, RA facilitated Apple Crunch Day by sourcing 75 bushels of apples from Fuhrmann Orchards and Wagner's Fruit Farm and distributing these to 8,567 students in Morgan, Meigs, and Athens County. An educational flier was created by a COMCorps member at Athens County Health Department that was sent to schools for dissemination among student families. Local food processing and delivery to schools: RA rinsed and packed apples for Apple Crunch Day at ACEnet's certified kitchen. RA facilitated the purchase, processing, and distribution of butternut squash, local greens, and asparagus for Harvest of the Month events at ACSD. For ten weeks in the summer, RA processed fresh, local vegetables and fruits into 750 individual servings weekly for the Council on Appalachian Community Development's USDA Summer Feeding Program. Informational fliers about the local food and family activity suggestions were included four times. High school Interns: RA placed 10 interns at 4 food and farm related businesses to gain hands-on experience. Five interns were placed with Nelsonville-York High School cafeteria, in partnership with their career readiness programs. Career Coach at Nelsonville-York, Jennifer L'Heureux, said "The initial dynamics for students and cafeteria workers showed how important having basic skills, hygiene, and motivation are in employment. Providing in-school work-based learning opportunities provided hands-on valuable training without transportation issues." Live Healthy Kids: During the 2023-24 school year LHK taught in 23 second grade classrooms, serving 460 second grade students in Athens County. They also reached student families as children brought the skills and recipes from the lessons home to their families and through events like Live Healthy Kids Night. LHK had 23 food educators from our COMCorps program who helped educate all 23 classrooms. These AmeriCorps members received an intensive 2 day trainings. We engaged 30 total adult volunteers who helped the lessons run smoothly. Fort Frye Field Trips: The county extension office hosted a Junior Farmers Market for 4th grade students in the district. The market had a variety of stations that included local farmers and agricultural education. Goal 2: Engage parents and community members within food system CFI held two end-of-year garden parties at ACSD with 300 family and community member attendees. On the last day of Sprouts summer camp, families joined students at the OHIO Student Farm for a tour and a locally sourced lunch. 15 community members volunteered with CFI over the summer. CFI established a 'School Garden Advisory Council' composed of teachers, stakeholders, partner organizations, board members that meets semi-annually. CFI's Nourishing Networks program engaged 49 community members in the Frontier Local School District and Federal Hocking School District. A new partnership was established with Frontier High School FFA to grow produce for Newport Food pantry. Participants reported that their familiarity with strategies for accessing healthy food doubled due to the program. In the Federal Hocking District 100% of post-survey respondents said they were moderately or extremely familiar with food access strategies vs 46% in the pre-survey. For the Federal Hocking District CFI provided free childcare. Four food and farm businesses hosted high school interns that were managed by RA. Seven community members volunteered to lead and support stations at the School Day for the CPA field trips. In RA's LHK programming all students got a take-home family packet at the beginning of the year that explained the program and what their students would experience. Students and families took a pre and post survey to assess the knowledge they gained through the 22 weeks. LHK celebrated the program's conclusion with Live Healthy Kids Night, which engaged 80 LHK students and family members. Goal 3: Facilitate stakeholder engagement / collaborate on region-wide local food initiatives. RA held 3 Farm to School Strategic Visioning meetings with 14 stakeholders from 4 school districts and 2 organizations. The meetings addressed planning for Farm to School initiatives and sharing of collaborative ideas to increase participation. RA staff participated in the Statewide Farm to School Network and the Farm to Early Childhood Education Network which engaged 30 participants from across the state through monthly meetings to share ideas and program activities. RA, CFI, and ACEnet met weekly as the Appalachian Accessible Food Network (AAFN) to share updates and work collaboratively on food issues facing Southeast Ohio. The relationship building and partnership among organizations that this grant cultivated has led to deeper collaborative work, as evidenced by the new USDA program selecting RA as the lead among 17 partner organizations on the Appalachia Regional Food Business Center. This gives us the opportunity to work across Central Appalachia to develop the regional supply of and infrastructure for local food. ?
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Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23
Outputs Target Audience: This project has directly served elementary and high school students in 9 school districts across 4 counties in southeast Ohio through classroom programs, school-wide activities, field trip experiences, and community-based internships. These districts include Fort Frye Local School District, Eastern Meigs Local School District, Trimble Local School District, Athens City School District, Federal Hocking Local School District, Nelsonville-York Local School District, Alexander Local School District, Morgan Local School District, and Tri-County Career Center. The project has also partnered with 12 farmers and agricultural professionals in educational programming for youth through on-farm internships, Farm Focus Speakers, Sprouts Field Trips, School Day at the Chesterhill Produce Auction field trips and Apple Crunch Day. It has also served to support area farmers as a marketing conduit to families via the students. Community Food Initiatives: During the 2022-23 academic year, all first-grade classrooms at East and Morrison Gordon Elementary Schools (Athens City School District) and Amesville Elementary (Federal Hocking School District) participated in Sprouts School Garden programming run by Community Food Initiatives (CFI) staff, service members, and volunteers. This program served a total of 220 students in 10 classrooms. East Elementary - 89 children in 4 classrooms (44% of East Elementary students are eligible for free or reduced lunch as of October 2022) Morrison Gordon Elementary 95 children in 4 classrooms (42% of MoGo Elementary students are eligible for free or reduced lunch as of October 2022) Amesville 36 children in 3 classrooms (66% of Amesville Elementary students are eligible for free or reduced lunch as of October 2022) An additional 239 Students in grades K-3 in Athens City Schools (East and Morrison Gordon) participated in "assisted garden time" activities where COMCorps AmeriCorps members helped teachers engage students in the school garden in hands-on agriculture activities. An additional 214 students in grades PK-6 at Amesville Elementary participated in a school wide Cherry Tomato Taste Test with CFI. 85 PreK Students in Athens City school participated in gardening activities led by CFI staff and volunteers. An additional 24 students at other local prek classes also participated in gardening activities led by CFI (Athens Community Center PreK and Blooming View Montessori PreK). Nourishing Networks workshops engaged 62 community members in food insecure communities. Rural Action: During this grant period, Rural Action's Live Healthy Kids (LHK) program has reached many students' lives. During the 2022-23 school year we taught in 20 second grade classrooms. This year we teach in 23 classrooms across six Athens County Schools, serving 460 second grade students in Athens County. Last school year, we served 415 students. We also reach student families as children bring the skills and recipes from our lessons home to their families and through our family-engagement events like Live Healthy Kids Night. We have 23 food educators from our COMCorps program who help educate all 23 classrooms. These AmeriCorps members receive an intensive 2 day training prior to their weekly classroom lessons. We also engage 15 adult volunteers who help the lessons run smoothly. At the end of last school year, we celebrated the program with our Live Healthy Kids Night, which brought 80 LHK students and family members to the event. We also have built a partnership with Beacon Schools, a special educational service provider through the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities, for the five local school districts in Athens County, to have LHK programming in their school. This past summer, from June 8th until July 6th. This served roughly 20 kids weekly at Beacon school. Finally, Rural Action's high school internship program has provided 19 high school students a hands-on internship within the field of food and agriculture, placed at 12 farm or ag-related businesses, including a few produce farms, an orchard, medicinal plant conservatory, livestock ranches, Boys and Girls club teaching ag education, and a veterinary clinic. Fort Frye School District: This project has directly served students of varying grade levels in the Fort Frye Local School district. Fort Frye currently serves 1044 enrolled students, of which 53% are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The project has also engaged 6 farmers. Changes/Problems:One month ago Rural Action hired a Farm to Institution Manager to increase our capacity to facilitate Farm to School initiatives across many school districts in the region and to strategize with school personnel about the procurement of local foods into cafeterias. We are thrilled to have a dedicated staff member leading our work to connect the local food system with institutions in the area, such as K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and healthcare providers. Due to organizational and fiscal challenges, the Board of Directors of Live Healthy Appalachia, the original parent organization of grant participant Live Healthy Kids, decided to dissolve their non-profit corporation. In May 2023, Live Healthy Kids became a project of Rural Action's Sustainable Agriculture program. Despite the change in fiscal and fiduciary responsibility from Live Healthy Appalachia to Rural Action, all activities as outlined in this project have and will continue. We are also looking forward to expanding the farm to school related elements of the Live Healthy Kids program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?CFI participated in the annual School Gardens of Ohio Conference in October 2022, sharing best practices for experiential outdoor garden education with young students with 25 workshop participants. CFI also trained 6 COMCorps members as Sprouts lesson leaders or lesson assistants, and engaged 36 service members and volunteers to support spring field trips by being present with students on farms. Rural Action's Senior Director of Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Tom Redfern, attended the National Farm to Early Childhood Education Conference in Washington DC in December 2022. Live Healthy Kids trained 22 Americorps members, and 5 Ohio University Student interns in delivering the Live Healthy Kid programming in 5 School Districts. Rural Action engaged 10 Americorps members in supporting the School Day at the CPA programming for 700 elementary school students. 19 high school interns learned on farm specific skills as well as general workplace soft skills. Forty Frye Student interns learned curriculum presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community Food Initiatives: Each school that participated in Sprouts had an "End of the Year Garden Party" in which families came together to see the spaces. Enthusiasm and attendance were high, and at these parties PTOs were able to raise some funds for future garden needs. Under the guidance of Athens City Schools School Nurse Heidi Shaw, "Garden Guardian Teams" have been established at both Athens City elementary schools, consisting of teachers, staff, and administrators that get regular updates on Sprouts and other agricultural and garden related learning opportunities, and work together to brainstorm garden ideas, needs, and care. In 2022, the Garden Guardian Teams identified a 'pollinator area' and 'sensory garden area' to be their top requests, and we were able to begin installing those with students during the 2022-2023 school year. All Sprouts families (220) also received beginning of year information about the program, a mid-year newsletter, and a request to provide feedback about the program via a survey. Rural Action: Schools participating were invited to Live Healthy Kids Night, information from all lessons presented are sent home with the students on a weekly basis during the 12 weeks of the program. All 700 second grade and middle school students who attended the School Day at the CPA field trip go home with a healthy recipe, a local food such as an apple, and a garden plant such as a pepper or tomato seedling. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Community Food Initiatives: This coming academic year we are hoping to increase teacher engagement through Sprouts, while offering more garden programming opportunities for multiple grades. We are partnering with the OU Student Farm to do an additional Sprouts field trip in the fall, as well as exploring the idea of offering a CFI-led summer camp or after-school program in the school garden spaces. ACEnet: A community art exhibit led by Appalachian Center for Entrepreneurial Networks (ACEnet) will feature photos and stories from this reporting period on farm and food education activities, which is scheduled for November 2023. Large matted photos will be displayed at the Athens Community Center for the public to view and learn about the great farm to school programming happening in our region. This is a well-used center operated by the City of Athens Recreation Department, which hosts events for all ages, including a Senior Center, the twice weekly Athens Farmers Market, an Early Childhood Education Center, after school programming and a range of other events. As such this will be an opportunity for a high level of exposure for this project. Rural Action: We have already scheduled a convening in November of Farm to School "champions" in the area to gather in-person to strategize about the coming school year and plans for the next growing season to process and preserve as much local food as possible. We have plans to host additional food safety and knife skills trainings for school personnel and community volunteers in the 2023 school year. This week in Live Healthy Kids, October 30th to November 3rd, students are making a bean dip recipe. We are partnering with a local food business, Shagbark Seed & Mill, who makes tortilla chips which will be used for the lesson. The week of November 13th -16th, Live Healthy Kids students will be making a recipe called Three Sisters Rice. For this recipe, we will be using butternut squash as one of our main ingredients. Our butternut squash is coming from local farmers who sell to the Chesterhill Produce Auction. Additionally, parents will receive a Live Healthy Kids Newsletter to recap what their kids have learned in this fall semester. The parents also receive the weekly recipes from our weekly lessons. Live Healthy Kids restarts our spring semester on January 8th. Students will be "traveling" the world through their weekly meals. Each week they will be learning about a different country, the language spoken there, as well as the history and traditions celebrated.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
GOAL 1: During this period, project partners delivered a wide range of educational experiences in and outside of the classroom, including... School Day at the CPA: In spring 2023, Rural Action (RA) hosted a field trip to the Chesterhill Produce Auction where second graders and middle schoolers learned about the local food system, planted potatoes, learned about worms and composting, made a healthy salad, and practiced bidding for fresh produce. Apple Crunch Day 2022: Held during National Farm to School month in October, RA facilitated Apple Crunch Day by sourcing 86 bushels of apples from Wagner's Fruit Farm and distributing to 8,652 students in Morgan and Athens County. We also hosted a field trip for a middle school classroom at Federal Hocking to visit the orchard and pick fresh apples. Local food processing and delivery to schools: RA rinsed and packaged apples for Apple Crunch Day at ACEnet certified kitchen, under Ohio Department of Agriculture certification. RA prepared butternut squash, strawberries, and blueberries for Harvest of the Month events at Athens City Schools. RA prepared fresh, local cucumbers, green peppers, peaches, and cherry tomatoes into individual servings for 500 students weekly through a partnership with the Council on Appalachian Community Development's USDA Summer Feeding Program. Processing included a workforce development high school student learning culinary processing through a partnership with Hocking Athens Community Action Program. Farm Focus Speakers: Fort Frye Schools hosted three farmers to present to both elementary and high school students about their farm and the food they produce. Fort Frye Field Trips: The county extension office hosted a Junior Farmers Market for 4th grade students. The market had a variety of stations that included local farmers and agricultural education. During the summer 2023 FFA State Convention, Fort Frye FFA members toured Tamarack Farms Dairy in Newark, Ohio. High school Interns: Rural Action placed 19 interns at 12 farm or ag-related businesses to gain hands-on experience in a field of their interest. Interns reported that the internship encouraged them to select classes related to their career goals, listed the internship on their resume, and gave them professional contacts they could reach out to for help if needed. One intern shared, "I was interested before, but I believe even more now that I am interested in exploring scientific research involving plants and/or fungi, and that I want to, in the meantime, try out hands-on projects with those topics in mind." And another intern who was placed with a veterinary clinic expressed, "The internship helped me realize the medical field is exactly what I want to do." Two Fort Frye high school students interned with the Boys & Girls club to teach farm and food lessons and activities to after school programs in two school districts. These students help with marketing the Fort Frye school district's local farmers market on social media and running a "youth booth" for children who sell their homegrown produce. The two have been so exceptional in their internships that they won the Rural Action Sustainable Youth Award last year. These students went into the internship knowing they want to become teachers, but now both know they want to become ag teachers. Live Healthy Kids: We delivered cooking lessons to 23 second grade classrooms, serving 459 students, in Athens County, providing hands-on learning to children in order to inspire them to cook and eat healthy foods. Sprouts Farm Field Trips: In May 2023, we took first graders from Amesville Elementary to Blackberry Sage farm and all first grade students in the Athens City School District to Solid Ground Farm.Students practiced team building skills through obstacle courses and field games, made wildflower seed balls with clay they harvested, planted and harvested greens, interacted with farm animals, tasted local foods, studied ponds, and did an insect survey. Assisted Gardening: We offered time slots for classes to sign up for facilitated garden activites. This allowed every grade preK-3 the opportunity to grow these new school gardens. Teachers were excited to bring their students out to the garden and to have support for garden-based learning. The work we've done to integrate school gardens through first grade programming has positively impacted school culture and changed the way teachers think about the learning opportunities of school gardens. Sprouts School Garden Programming: The response to this year's CFI-led garden programming with first grades was overwhelmingly positive on our end of year surveys in May 2023. 100% of teachers we worked with reported they would like this programming to continue next year. One parent reported, "My child loves Sprouts so much and I love that he has the opportunity to be involved in such a wonderful program. I can tell it gave him a deeper understanding of where food comes from and how humans and the environment come together to create food that nourishes us." CFI expanded school garden lessons from 1st grade to include all preschool classes at two schools. Preschoolers enjoyed using their five senses and both fine and gross motor skills to explore nature in their school gardens. CFI added a "compost kitchen" space at Morrison Gordon, a drip irrigation system designed by OU's Engineering Team at East, and welcoming educational signage at both gardens to support independent learning through self-guided tours, sensory exploration, and plant identification. A total of 26 community and school volunteers and families signed up to help with summer care of school gardens. Taste Tests & Snacks: CFI worked with the East PTO to purchase local apples for students to have a healthy snack. We partnered with Food Services to provide multiple "garden fresh taste tests" where all students could try freshly harvested produce. CFI is a partner for the "Harvest of the Month," helping offer consistent samples, recipe ideas, and nutrition information for families about seasonal produce. GOAL 2: Project partners engaged 62 families through Live Healthy Kids programming, 92 community members who volunteered in school gardens, field trips and Live Healthy Kids lessons, 11 farmers who gave school presentations or hosted field trips, and 12 farm / ag businesses that hosted high school interns. Nourishing Networks workshops engaged 54 community members in Athens County in discussions of food and locally available agricultural resources in Hope Drive Apartments and in Stewart Ohio (Federal Hocking School District) and an additional 8 residents of Marietta, Ohio (Marietta City School District). One or more parents of school children who attend a participating school were present at all discussions. GOAL 3: Rural Action participated in the Statewide Farm to School and Farm to Early Childhood Education network which engaged 27 participants representing all areas of the state through monthly virtual convenings in sharing ideas and program activities happening across the region. Additionally, in October 2022 Community Food Initiatives staff presented on the Nourishing Networks model of addressing food insecurity at the Fair Food Systems virtual summit, hosted by the Central Appalachian Network and co-hosted by NIFA staff from the USDA. A Fair Food System was a six-part summit series that discussed scalable solutions to creating community food systems in which hundreds of people attended virtually from across Central Appalachia. Over 40 people attended live and 28 people viewed the recording on Youtube. ?
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