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Announcing 2012 Kids Growing Food school garden grant recipients
Congratulations to Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls (Albany), Casey Park Elementary (Auburn), Roxbury Central (Roxbury), Bloomfield Central (Bloomfield), Hampton Bays Middle School (Hampton Bays), Canton Central (Canton), Sharon Springs Central (Sharon Springs), and PS 107 (Brooklyn) for being selected as this year's Kids Growing Food and Kids Growing Food II grant recipients! We look forward to sharing more about these diverse and inspiring projects that connect kids to agriculture and the food system through growing food at school.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to submit proposals. We are continually amazed by all of the innovative projects at schools across the state.
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Ideas & Inspiration: February and March may seem like a quiet time for our farms, but there is so much happening! Maple sugaring, planting plans, seed ordering, harvesting winter greens, lambing, soon to be shearing, winter farmers markets, and there is always milking to do, just to name a few. These winter months, as busy as they may be, are an optimum time to invite a farmer to your classroom before spring...springs! Other ideas: explore the sheep to wool process, begin planning your own school garden, start seeds in your classroom, force bulbs, or taste test NY cheeses. |
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Books:
by Nathaniel Tripp, illustrations by Kate Kiesler
A day comes, after the leaves have fallen and the wild geese have left for warmer places, when the air holds its breath, still and full of expectation. Snow is coming, and soon farmland and forest, ground and sky will be transformed. This story tells about two brothers waiting and watching for the first snow of winter.
by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrations by Julie Maren
 We can't grow them in New York, but oranges are one of the great pleasures of winter. This book tells of how those oranges find their way to our grocery stores, and then into kids' tummies. Great illustrations showcase this poetic book about a plant's growth cycle and the produce industry. The story follows an orange from blossom to ripe fruit, from tree to truck to market and into the hands of a boy who shares the treat with his friends on the playground 'so that everyone could taste the sweetness of an orange in January.'
Video:
In addition to daily chores, learn about the extra jobs that winter brings. Cutting wood, trimming apple trees, tapping maple trees, and making maple syrup are all part of winter farm life.
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Recipes and Lesson Plans:
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Web Resources:
Project Look Sharp is a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College to provide lesson plans, materials, training and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels.
Announcing a New Curriculum Kit:
Featuring upcoming regional food events, workshops, and conferences all around New York.
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Opportunities:
Grant Application Deadline: February 15, 2012
Provides schools with $500 in gardening supplies, curriculum, soil amendments and plants to help create engaging nutrition and gardening experiences.
Grant Application Deadline: March 1, 2012
Each year, Mantis presents the Mantis Awards to charitable and educational garden projects that enhance the quality of life in their host communities. NGA selects 25 outstanding applicants to receive Mantis tiller/cultivators.
The grants section of the USDA Farm to School website has been updated to include an extensive list of Farm to School related funding opportunities by USDA and other Federal agencies. The information is organized by target audience, which includes farmers, schools and community.
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Distance Learning Courses from Cornell Garden-Based Learning and the Department of Horticulture
Start dates ranging from February to April
Check out Planning and Organizing Sustainable Gardening Programs for Children, Youth, Adults and Communities and Teaching and Learning in the School Garden: Theory into Practice. There are also courses on organic gardening, garden design, plant propagation, and botanical illustration.
Take Root! A Training for Garden Educators, Cornell Garden-Based Learning
Various locations and dates across the state February through November 2012
Trainings are open to educators and youth workers interested in, or already implementing, garden-based learning. Attendees from organizations and CCE offices are encouraged to bring along at least two other staff and/or volunteers.
2012 Agricultural Literacy Week
March 19th-23rd, Statewide
Volunteers throughout the state are reading Seed, Soil, Sun to second graders and exploring the plant life cycle with a hands-on germinating activity. There is still time to sign up to be a volunteer reader, host a reader in your classroom, and/or donate a book to a local school. For more information about this NYAITC event please visit our website.
Dig In! Food & Garden Conference
March 19, Potsdam
Dig In! Food & Garden Conference will offer information, inspiration and resources to develop and strengthen food-based projects at the organizational level. Participants may include school staff & parents; business owners & employees; community leaders & residents; and health & food-focused professionals. If you grow, prepare, market, eat, compost, educate or set policy about food, this event is for YOU!
Food, Land and People Workshops
March 31st @ SUNY-ESF in Syracuse. More info coming soon.
April 3rd and 30th @ the following Cornell Cooperative Extension offices: Clinton, Cortland, Dutchess, Erie, Genesee, Ontario, Schoharie, and Schuyler County. This two-part workshop is for classroom teachers, educators, volunteers, parents, farmers, and others interested in agricultural education.
Contact Sandie Prokop to register: sprokop@nyfb.org
For more information and workshop brochures, please visit our website.
State deadline: April 13th
Entry forms can be downloaded here.
The I Love NY Agriculture Contest is an opportunity to explore agriculture and the food system while meeting NYS Learning Standards. Students can discover more about where food comes from and why agriculture is important for all of us everyday. For more information on this pre-K-6th grade contest, visit ourwebsite.
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This month in Ag..
National Cherry Month
15- Cyrus McCormick's Birthday
16- National Almond Day
18-25- National FFA Week
19-25- National Pancake Week
20- Presidents' Day
23- Anniversary of the Patented Diesel Engine
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Did You Know...
New York wool production during 2011 totaled 210,000 pounds. The average price received increased 20 cents to 0.60 dollars per pound. The value of production in 2011 was $126,000.
For more 2011 NY Ag Statistics visit USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
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Our Mission...
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is to foster awareness, understanding, and appreciation of how we produce food and fiber, what we eat, and how we live, by helping educators, students, and their communities learn about and engage with agriculture and food systems.
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