Growing Minds @ Community College

Through our Growing Minds @ Community College (GM@CC) program, Growing Minds offers a range of resources to community college instructors and students who are interested in incorporating farm to preschool programming into their early childhood care and education coursework, including our comprehensive Farm to Preschool Toolkit, presentations, videos, workshops, funding, and more. 

Why Farm to Preschool?

Why include farm to preschool in your early childhood education (ECE) coursework? North Carolina is becoming a national model for how to integrate farm to preschool programming into community college curriculum. By incorporating farm to preschool into your curriculum, your students will enter their ECE careers equipped with the knowledge and skills to impact children and families through local food and farm to preschool activities. 

Early childhood is a critical stage of child development. Attitudes toward foods that are shaped at this time in life are strong determinants of later eating behaviors. Many preschool-aged children suffer from high rates of obesity and low consumption of, and access to, fruits and vegetables. It is imperative to establish healthy habits early on. Many preschoolers consume the majority of their daily nutrients in child care, and more than any other age group, they rely on parents and caregivers to shape their food and activity environments. Farm to preschool programming is an ideal way to establish healthy patterns in our youngest citizens and connect them to the food they eat, simultaneously supporting local food systems.

Growing Minds staff members currently co-facilitate the North Carolina Farm to Preschool Network and serve in the National Farm to School Network Farm to Early Childhood Education work group. 

GM@CC Resources

Click here to access all of our Growing Minds @ Community College resources.

Join a growing movement!

Blue Ridge Community College and Western Piedmont Community College have already incorporated farm to preschool resources into their early childhood education curriculum. Contact us at growingminds@nullasapconnections.org to learn more about joining the Growing Minds @ Community College program.