Photo: Salt Spring Elementary, Salt Spring ,BC
… with 33 new schools across the country!
Announcing the latest Farm to School Canada grant recipients
Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) and the Whole Kids Foundation (WKF) are thrilled to announce 33 successful recipients from the 2018 round of Farm to School Canada grants. Each of these schools will receive up to $10,000 each!
In November 2017 we announced this second cycle of Farm to School Canada grants as part of the pan-Canadian initiative Farm to School: Canada Digs in! which represents a scaling up of Farm to School funds from both NGO partners and the Government of Canada, bringing the total investment to more than $3.5 million, supporting more than 60 (K-12) schools and 14 campuses!
Over the course of this spring we had the pleasure of reviewing more than 70 proposals from schools from British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, a truly coast to coast initiative.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every school for their application – we were truly inspired by the quality of the proposals we received. While this made our reviewers’ job a tough one, it has been extremely rewarding to see the enthusiasm and exciting work underway that is helping the Farm to School movement take root across the country.
The significant impacts of Farm to School programs are becoming abundantly clear, as demonstrated in the report that we recently released with WKF and the Social Planning and Research Council of BC, entitled Raising the Bar: A look at the early impact of the Farm to School Canada Grant program. The report summarizes preliminary insights from the first round of funding that we provided in 2016, when F2CC and the WKF partnered to deliver 3-year grants to 21 schools in Ontario and 29 schools in British Columbia.
As shared by Lucerne School in New Denver, BC “Our staff noticed a difference in student behaviour and focus right away when our lunch program began.” Furthermore, a student at Norkam Secondary School in Kamloops, BC told us “Farm to School really helped me break out of my shell. It opened me up to new experiences and people I never would’ve met before.” It is these types of successes that have been the catalysts to bring additional investments to Canada’s Farm to School table.
By providing students with both quality nutrition in the cafeteria and hands-on food education in the classroom – while supporting the local food supply chain – Farm to School is a win for students, communities AND local farmers. Over the next two years, the 2018 round of grants will enable the 33 successful schools to engage their students in growing, harvesting, cooking, preserving, purchasing and serving healthy local food, where it will be enjoyed in regular salad bar meal services.
Thank you again to all who applied AND, importantly, to our dedicated and knowledgeable team of reviewers from across the country who helped score proposals. We’re excited to follow each school’s unique Farm to School journey, which will begin in September!
