“FEED impacted my teaching by informing me of the tremendous impact food and nutrition have on both society and the individual. Good food for thought. Our school was positively transformed by FEED efforts.” Ben Gunsberg, 7/8 grade teacher VT FEED: • Brings together a team of teachers, farmers, food service staff and local leaders to create a "curriculum of place." This curriculum is not an add-on, it can enhance and be woven into current school curriculum • Works with teachers to develop standards-based lesson plans to give students an introduction to Vermont's farm life, agricultural cycles, nutrition education, and their local history • Is personalized to each community • Integrates hands-on skills such as cooking and farm-based investigations • Develops a plan(s) to integrate local foods into your cafeteria and connections with local farmers into your school More Vermont Feed Info FEED Frequenty Asked Questions Benefits to Teachers: • Opportunity to work with colleagues on standards-based hands-on farm, food, and nutrition units involving sensory based student experiences • Receive summer training to develop a unit • School will receive a stipend • FEED staff will be available on-site regularly to assist teachers with implementing their lesson plans • Develop lasting relationships with your community: elders, historic society, business people, farmers, and food producers * Mentoring and stipends for food service staff to work on improving student eating habits and cafeteria food Many of the resources provided here are downloadable PDF files. They require FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader. Getting a free plug-in for viewing PDFs in your browser is also a good idea.

Since 2000, the FEED partners have been connecting three components: classroom, community, and the cafeteria. We find that we can be the catalyst or spark in each of the schools we work in to improve children's connection to their health, the food they eat, and their communities. Downloads: Technical Assistance Application Needs Assessment “It is so great that the students themselves are cooking up recipes with local foods and then delivering the taste tests to each classroom. It doesn’t get better.” Val Simmons, Food Service Director Hardwick Elementary School Forging Local Partnerships The Vermont Food Education Every Day (FEED) Project brings together school teams of teachers, farmers, food service staff and local leaders to weave Food, Farm, and Nutrition into existing, required curriculum. These hands-on Vermont standards-based units give students an introduction to Vermont's farm life, agricultural cycles, nutrition education, and their local history. The FEED project also works with school kitchen managers to integrate fresh, local foods into lunch programs, and to increase students' acceptance of fresh vegetables via a series of classroom taste tests and nutrition education lessons. This compliments classroom work and extends food and farm learning into the cafeteria. What is Vermont FEED? Vermont FEED is a collaborative project of Food Works, [www.tworiverscenter.org], the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont [www.nofavt.org], and Shelburne Farms [www.shelburnefarms.org].

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Vermont Food Education Every Day (VT FEED) is a community-based approach to school food system change in a rural state through a collaboration of three Vermont non-profits: Food Works, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, and Shelburne Farms. CONTACT Vermont FEED Abbie Nelson, VT FEED Co-Director, 802-434-4122, abbienelson@comcast.net l © 2000-2007, All Rights Reserved by Vermont FEED Web Site Development by Community Works On-Line