"Nationwide, tens of millions of people each day eat their meals outside of home at schools, colleges, hospitals, corporate cafeterias and government agencies. Each one of these institutions represents an opportunity for U.S. farmers, ranchers and food businesses to gain market share, earn a livelihood, forge ties with local residents, and improve community health and well-being through farm to institution efforts, in which local producers sell to institutions nearby." USDA Farm to Institution Initiatives. This page contains resources categorized by institutions that could be collaborative partners: schools, preschools, universities and hospitals.

On This Page

:Farm to School

• Training Template: Farm to School 101 for Educators: Use this training template to teach educators about Farm to School (F2S) and how to incorporate F2S lessons in and outside of the classroom. The template consists of a customizable slide deck, speaker notes, handouts and an evaluation form.
• Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions: An ATTRA resource guide for farm to institution programs. It includes models of farm to institution programs, program considerations and case studies.
• Institutional Food Purchasing: This 2010 report from Michigan Good Food Work Group describes trends, institutional purchasing goals, indicators and agenda priorities in K-12 schools.

• Farm to School: Farm to School is a movement that strives to build a youth’s connection to healthy, local food through school gardening, farm field trips, hands-on cooking and nutrition and local sourcing of fresh fruits and vegetables to school cafeterias. Explore Extension's related programs and learn how to get your office involved in Farm to School.
• Farm to Cafeteria: Farm to Cafeteria is the process of facilitating and procuring locally grown, GAP-certified produce, meat and seafood from a grower into the school. Check out Extension's page to learn about sourcing models and state initiatives.
• NC Farm to School Coalition: NC Farm to School Coalition brings together local schools, state agencies and organizations together with local farmers to supply healthy nutritious food to our children’s schools. Find Coalition Members near you.
• NC Farm to School: North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services Farm to School program supplies school cafeterias across the state with locally grown produce from North Carolina farms.
• National Farm to School Network: National Farm to School Network increases access to local food and nutrition education to improve children’s health, strengthen family farms, and cultivate vibrant communities.

:Farm to Preschool

• Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions: An ATTRA resource guide for farm to institution programs. It includes models of farm to institution programs, program considerations and case studies.
• Institutional Food Purchasing: This 2010 report from Michigan Good Food Work Group describes trends, institutional purchasing goals, indicators and agenda priorities in K-12 schools.

• Farm to Preschool/Childcare: Explore this Extension page that contains information on Farm to Childcare projects, initiatives and other resources.
• NC Farm to Early Care & Education: Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) enhances the health and education of young children by developing systems and experiential learning that connect children and their families with local food and farms.
• National Farm to Preschool: This program, based in California, is designed for children aged 3-5 in any childcare setting. They also provide research and evaluation tools, publications and presentations on the topic, and information on local food sourcing.

• Farm to University: Guide for Extension Agents: This publication provides information that N.C. Cooperative Extension agents can use to build a Farm to University program. The information is based on lessons learned working with campus communities over five years in conjunction with two NC 10% Campaign project collaborations: UFoods and the Local Food Ambassador Program.
• How It Works Handbook: University Food Systems and Local Food Programs: This handbook showcases some of the local food initiatives of NC 10% Campaign's UFoods partner schools.
• Farm to Dorm Cooking Videos: NC 10% Campaign and UFoods teamed up with GeoCore Films to produce a series of dorm cooking videos based on Local Food Spotlight seasonal recipes created by the UFoods project.
• Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions: An ATTRA resource guide for farm to institution programs. It includes models of farm to institution programs, program considerations and case studies.
• Institutional Food Purchasing: This 2010 report from Michigan Good Food Work Group describes trends, institutional purchasing goals, indicators and agenda priorities at colleges and universities.

• NC Farm to University: The NC 10% Campaign has worked with over 20 universities in the state to increase their local food procurement. This work was built from two main pilot projects: 1) The Local Food Ambassador (LFA) Program (2013-2019) provided paid student intern positions at six universities to engage the student body through events and media promotion, support local foods in alignment with the campus sustainability mission, connect university and community advocates, work with dining services to track local food, and build leadership skills in understanding community-based food systems. 2) The UFOODS project (2016-2018) researched supply chain links from farms to university campuses and developed new local food pathways at the six universities that partnered with the LFA Program. The six NC universities are Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Winston-Salem State University. Resources include a Local Food Ambassador Manual, a Guide to University Food Systems & Local Food Programs, and a Farm to University Guide for Extension Agents.

• ASAP Farm to Institution: This page from Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project describes UNC of Asheville's transition to local food procurement for their dining services to students.

• Farms and Health: A Guide to Farm & Garden Programs in Healthcare: This guide, out of the University of Michigan, offers an overview of the types of farm and garden programs that work at hospital and clinical settings. The guide includes a list of existing farm to institution guides and toolkits and multiple case studies of farm to hospital programs across the United States.
• Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions: An ATTRA resource guide for farm to institution programs. It includes models of farm-to-institution programs, program considerations and case studies.
• Institutional Food Purchasing: This 2010 report from Michigan Good Food Work Group describes trends, institutional purchasing goals, indicators and agenda priorities in health care.

• Farm to Clinic: Farm to Clinic (F2C) is a program that recovers and distributes fresh produce and offers health education to rural and under-resourced participants receiving medical care. F2C includes Fresh Start and Produce Rx programs. Based out of East Carolina University, the program utilizes evidence-based research and offers experiential opportunities for students to address health and nutrition disparities.

• Farm to Senior Services: Guide to Building Networks and Local Food Pathways with Senior Centers: This guide is designed to help community members and leaders create local food pathways in their community-based food services for older adults. This guide includes background information on senior services at the federal, state, and local levels and illustrates the different types of food services available to older adults. The guide also highlights where locally-grown foods can be included in existing services, provides suggestions for building local networks, and shows three examples of pilot F2SS projects in North Carolina.

• NC Farm to Senior Services (F2SS): F2SS is designed to increase local food procurement in county-based senior food services, increase farmer and food hub revenue, increase access to healthy, local foods for senior populations, and increase knowledge on benefits of and how to access local foods. Resources include a how to guide for building local F2SS programming based on a 2020-2023 F2SS pilot in three North Carolina counties: McDowell, Scotland, and Warren.

Primary Contact: Robyn Stout
Program Director, NC 10% Campaign
Center for Environmental Farming Systems
NC State University
robyn_stout@ncsu.edu