Farm to School and Early Childhood

Connecting classrooms, cafeterias, kitchens, and communities for children from birth through grade 12

Children from birth through grade 12 benefit – physically and mentally – from eating nutritious, locally grown food and from learning hands-on about where food comes from and how to prepare it.

Vital Communities supports schools and childcare providers in these efforts in various ways, including: 

• Mini-grants for farm to schools projects 

• Exploring food procurement options for childcare providers 

• Emergency funding for food storage and preparation equipment for childcare programs 

• On-call technical assistance for schools and childcare providers 

• NEW! A resource hub to help educators of children from birth through grade 12 start and sustain farm to school programming.

We work in close partnership with partners including Shelburne Farms, Let’s Grow Kids, the Early Childhood Education Association, NOFA-Vt and -NH, VTFEED, the Vermont Farm To School Network, the VT and NH Farm to School and Farm to Early Childhood Education coalitions, and educators and caregivers, with funding from the Wellborn Foundation, UNH Extension, The Couch Family Foundation, The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Markets, and Farms, and numerous community donors.  

For questions relating to grades K-12, reach out to Anna Hubbard at ahubbard@vitalcommunties.org, and for pre-K, to Cameron Huftalen at cameron@vitalcommunities.org.

Farm to School & Early Childhood E-News