October is Farm to School Month!
It's time to plan your celebration and the OFSSGN is here to help!
This October, let's celebrate Farm to School and all it brings to our children, food producers and communities!
Oregon Farm to School Month Events
What's a Farm to School Crunch, you ask? It's a simple and fun way to feature Oregon produce in your school or community. All you have to do is: 1) Register, 2) Choose a crunchy Oregon grown fruit or vegetable, 3) Coordinate a school/ site-wide time, and 4) Crunch together! Check out the Crunch Toolkit for more information.
Help us to fill up our Oregon Farm to School Month Calendar!
Whether you decide to participate in the Oregon Farm to School Crunch, or not, we want to support you celebrating Farm to School this October. There are so many ways to celebrate and offer students and community members a way to experience the benefits of Farm to School.
Here are a few ideas:
- serve a 100% local lunch (we have customizable promotional materials below)
- feature a Harvest of the Month item multiple times all October
- invite local food producers to lunch at your school or early care center
- visit a local farm or farmer's market
- get busy learning and growing in the school garden
- or coordinate a celebration that fits your community
Please, Let us know if you have other Farm to School celebrations planned in October!
Looking for inspiration? Check out 2023's Farm to School Month lineup (below)!
Host a site visit!
Farm to School month is more than just a celebration, it's a showcase of the groundbreaking farm to school work happening in Oregon. Invite a Legislator or Administrator to the cafeteria, garden or farm!
Plan a local lunch week!
Celebrate Farm to School Month choosing a week to source over 50% of your ingredients from Oregon grown or produced products!
Farm to School Month Calendar, October 2023
Date: Throughout the Month
Location: Portland, Multnomah
Event: Grow Portland is partnering with 14 local schools to celebrate farm to school month with an abundance of local apples from Hood River! All of their 6,000 students will also be focusing on plant part lessons and eating plenty of fresh fruits and veggies from their gardens.
Date: October 6, 9-10pm
Location: Virtual
Event: Tracking Oregon Purchases for Child Nutrition Programs
Are you unsure how to track your Oregon purchases for the farm to CNP grant reports? Wondering if there might be an easier way to track local purchases throughout the year so you can report accurately to ODE?
If we want to sustain and grow funding for farm to school in Oregon, we need accurate data to share with legislators that shows the full picture of local purchases.
We know Child Nutrition Programs don't have extra time for tracking so we're here to offer some tried and true methods to simplify keeping track of your local spending. Join us to learn from experienced school nutrition directors and staff about various ways to track Oregon and local purchases for the Farm to CNP grant program and other purchasing programs!
Date: October 17
Location: Willamina, OR
Event: From Apples to Zucchini: What Small Growers Need to Know to Sell to Schools
This October, The Oregon Department of Agriculture, along with partners Carrie Sendak, owner of Mama Tee's Farmstead, and Willamina School District Nutrition Services Director, Lynne Shore, are hosting a workshop series for the Farm to School Program. If you are a small diversified fruit or vegetable grower interested in selling directly to a school in your region you won't want to miss this opportunity.
Date: October 20th
Location: Virtual
Event: Northwest Youth Garden Network (NWYGN) Fall Virtual Gathering
The opportunity for networking, building relationships, and being in community with like minded peers is invaluable. There weren't — and to this day still aren’t — many networks for working with demographic of older youth (ages 14-21), until NWYGN!
Join us to learn about promising high school aged school garden programs from Kim Gaffi (she/her)—co-founder of GRuB—and the Jones Valley Teaching Farm. This webinar includes an open forum Q&A.
Date: October 7th, 2022
Location: Logos Public Charter School, Medford.
Event: Harvest Meal: Pizza Making!
October 7, 2-4pm. Logos Public Charter School will use homemade sauce from their garden tomatoes and herb toppings from around the garden to make personal pizzas for every student! Cooked on BBQ grills 🙂
Date: October 15th, 2022
Location: Thimbleberry Collaborative Farm. Gresham, OR, Multnomah County.
Event: First Annual Harvest Celebration
The Thimbleberry Collaborative Farm will be celebrating their first season of donating produce and hosting educational programs at their farm. They have had several workshops so far and are about to start field trips with students from Gresham Barlow School District! Your ticket will include dinner, drinks, live music, and activities. Proceeds will help fund next year’s educational program at Thimbleberry Collaborative Farm.
Date: October 27th, 2022
Location: OSU Extension & Klamath County Schools Klamath Falls
Event: Klamath County Crunch at Once.
This annual Farm to School event features locally grown carrots at lunch in cafeterias throughout the Klamath County School district.
Date: Sundays throughout the month, 2022
Location: Tillamook Junior High School garden, Tillamook.
Event: Garden Club is taking place at the Tillamook Junior High School garden. We are meeting every Sunday this month for mini-lessons, hands-on activities, garden exploration, story time and of course snack time with items harvested from the garden. We are covering the following topics: soil, seeds, plants and bugs, and on our last day we are covering art and wellness with a special guest from the Tillamook Counseling center.
