Between September 2016 and June 2020, 86 schools and 10 campuses participated in the Canada Digs In! initiative. Schools received grants of up to $10,000 to deliver farm to school salad bar programs. Students ate local and healthy food, participated in hands-on food literacy activities and connected with local food providers, growers, chefs, knowledge keepers, public...Read More

As September rolls around, the age-old concept of “back-to-school” just doesn’t have the same ring as past years.  According to a recently released United Nations policy brief, education as we know it will be fundamentally different, not just today but into the future.  Rather than going “back to school,“, we need different and forward-thinking approaches. One that is...Read More

George Brown College has released 2 new resources as a result of a 3-year partnership with Farm to Cafeteria Canada, Sustain Ontario and Ecosource:  A research paper entitled Generating Success for Farm to School, written by Gary Hoyer and Chinh Do. This paper explores the many benefits of the farm to school approach and illustrates...Read More

St. Luke Catholic Elementary School Oakville, Ontario 2018-2019 (Grant Year 2) St. Luke School in Oakville has just finished its second full school year offering the Crunch Cafe Salad Bar to its students.    First introduced in the fall of 2018, the Crunch Cafe provides students with a variety of fresh vegetables, fruit, protein and...Read More

Photos: At Loughborough Public School near Kingston, Ontario – a Legacy School identified by the Downie Wenjak Foundation for their work towards Truth and Reconciliation – students are learning how to grow and prepare their own food, while connecting with the land and their community. Through experiential learning, students are immersed in projects that bring...Read More

Photo by Alyson McPhee on Unsplash While COVID-19 calls for physical distancing, more than ever the world is socially connected, and a hot topic of conversation is food. The pandemic has ramped-up a growing movement in civil society to rediscover and reclaim food systems. Institutions like schools are front and centre because of the essential role they...Read More

Open Roads Public School, Dryden, ON 2017-2018 (Year 2) The Open Roads salad bar cart is up and rolling again.  This year we’re looking at using our “famous” homemade salad dressing as a fundraiser to support our goal to make the salad bar accessible to all.  As of yet unnamed, our salad dressing is the...Read More

2016-1017 (Year 1) Lord Roberts Elementary School is a diverse, urban school in the West End of the Downtown Vancouver Peninsula. With support from Farm to Cafeteria Canada and in partnership with Growing Chefs and Fresh Roots, two innovative charities that have been supporting schools to grow and cook in the Vancouver School Board and...Read More

Walter E. Harris Public School, Oshawa, ON Last year, our school received a seed grant of $1,500 from Farm to Cafeteria Canada. Immediately, this money was put to good use, as our Garden Club and Grade 3 students began growing sprouts for consumption during the cold winter months. With this infusion of cash, we bought...Read More

At Salt Spring Elementary (SSE), we celebrated National Farm-to-School Month with an all-school, community Harvest Lunch. Here’s how it happened. Last June kindergartners planted turban squash seeds donated by Salt Spring Seeds and over the summer, Camp Collosal participants watered and cared for the Hillside Garden, snacking on what was ripe and harvesting some of...Read More