Farm-to-school educational opportunities have been shown to result in positive impacts on young people, including introducing them to creative ways of learning about how to grow their own food and understanding a local food system. School farm-to-school programs also enrich the connection communities have with fresh, healthy food and help teach students lifelong skills related to nutrition and creating healthy meals.
Since 2021, Oregon State University Extension Service’s Supplemental Nutrition Education Program (SNAP-Ed) unit in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties’ facilitation of a teacher-led version of the Growing Healthy Kids program supports farm-to-school education opportunities for second and third grade students by providing guidance, structure and resources to teachers to implement impactful garden-based nutrition education with their students.
The Growing Healthy Kids program includes seven video lessons and a physical toolkit of hands-on educational resources to enhance lessons. Teachers lead the series with their students from April through May with minimal involvement from SNAP-Ed staff. The curriculum components are flexible, and teachers can choose to complete all lesson components at one time, or space them throughout the day or week. All materials are provided in English, Spanish or both, depending on classroom preference.
In addition to a toolkit, each teacher receives a bag of soil, microgreen, herb and radish seeds; a window planter, a spray bottle, hard copies of each lesson handout in English and Spanish as well as Food Hero gardening tip sheets. Food Hero is a statewide initiative of the SNAP-Ed program and was developed by OSU Extension in English and Spanish.
In 2024, a new component was added to the tri-county Growing Healthy Kids program: delivery of locally grown produce to schools through a partnership with Lucky Crow Farm in Monmouth. Eden Olsen, owner and farmer of Lucky Crow Farm, worked with SNAP-Ed and Small Farms faculty starting in the fall of 2023 to plan produce that could be grown and harvested in time for the weekly lessons, and that corresponded with the part of the plant that each lesson covered. Examples include radishes for root vegetables or Bok choy for stem vegetables.
Olsen then grew the produce and delivered it to the OSU Extension office in Marion County each week during the Growing Healthy Kids series. While most of the produce came from Lucky Crow Farm, Olson worked with other local farmers to supply the rest. Three other farms were involved. And a local fruit processing company, Meduri Farms in Dallas, donated 40 pounds of dried sour cherries for the lesson on fruits.
In 2024, 67 teachers at 22 SNAP-eligible elementary schools in Salem-Keizer, Woodburn, Santiam Canyon, North Santiam, North Marion, Jefferson and Central school districts registered for the Growing Healthy Kids program, with a reach of more than 1,200 students.
Of the teachers who responded to a post-program survey:
- 90% reported teaching every lesson
- 100% reported using the local produce tastings
- 96% used the gardening materials
- 89% used student mission logs
- 79% used a food adjectives worksheet and other hardcopy materials
Teachers were also asked to select the answer that most closely fit each statement on a 5-point scale of “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” All the teachers selected agree or strongly agree to the statement "resulted in their students being more willing to try plant foods with their senses." In addition:
- 94% of teachers selected agree or strongly agree to "contributed to their student's knowledge of nutrition."
- 96% of teachers selected agree or strongly agree to "resulted in my students learning about local fruits and vegetables."
- When asked their level of interest to participate in future years, 96% responded "very interested" or "interested."
External funding for the program was provided through a Healthy Communities Grant from Pacific Source and an Oregon Department of Education Farm to School Education grant.