What is Procurement?
Simply put, purchasing locally from a farmer. ASAP’s (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) Appalachian Grown Region is made up of the 60 counties located roughly within 100 miles of Asheville, NC.
The USDA defines local as food product that is raised, produced, aggregated, stored, processed, and distributed less than 400 miles from the origin of the product, or within the state in which the product is produced.
Local Procurement Resources:
Growing Minds connects farmers, distributors, and school food leaders to ensure students have access to healthy local food. Over the years, we have developed tried-and-true resources for bringing local food into cafeterias and engaging students in making healthy eating choices. Serving local food in school cafeterias can sometimes be a daunting task. We encourage schools to start where they can, such as featuring one local product a month.
- Interested in working to change the food environment at your K-12 school? One of the first steps is gaining an understanding of how school food works.
- ECE sites can use the following Local Food Decision Tree in English and in Spanish.
Get Local @ School
ASAP’s Get Local @ School calendar was designed to feature local products that can be sourced at the cost and volumes appropriate for schools. At the same time, these items are also affordable and easy for families in our region to find at tailgate markets and grocery stores.
Lesson Plans:
Great lesson plans make any new classroom project a cinch! Over the years, Growing Minds has developed farm to school activities that incorporate state and national curriculum. All Growing Minds lesson plans have connections to the Common Core State Standards, NC Essential Standards, and age-appropriate literature.
- Looking for a specific lesson plan? Find a lesson plan by typing key words such as your grade level, subject area, season, a specific fruit or vegetable, etc. in the search at the top of the webpage. Example: Recipe lessons plans.
- Lesson Plans by Age Group: To view a complete list of our lesson plans, visit our Lesson Plans webpage.
Children’s Literature:
Search this ever-growing database to find our recommendations, which are perfect for teaching about gardening, cooking, farms, food, and nature. Use our list to find children’s literature, cookbooks, and curriculum for the classroom, school library, or home. To view a complete list of our book collection, visit our Children’s Literature webpage.
- Looking for books on a specific topic? Type one or more keywords (like “farms, “food”, or “cooking”) into the search bar to filter your search, or click on a particular tag to explore thematic books and resources. Use the “diversity” tag to explore books featuring multicultural characters and/or authors.
- Lending Library: Educators in the region are welcome to borrow any of the books featured in our database through the lending library at ASAP’s office. Children’s literature, cookbooks, and curriculum can all be checked out. Contact us to be sure the books you’re looking for are available and to schedule a time to pick them up from our office.
Growing Minds Resources for Local Procurement:
- Growing Minds Farm to Preschool Toolkit: This resource contains all of our preschool lesson plans, This Week in the Garden Preschool weekly activity guides, and Farm to School Goes Home weekly newsletter for families.
- I Tried Local: A Toolkit for Engaging Kids with Local Food and Farms: “I Tried Local…” is designed for use in ECE through second grade classrooms. The curriculum is divided into 10 units based on foods grown in North Carolina: blueberries, broccoli, carrots, green beans, mushrooms, peppers, radishes, sugar snap peas, sweet corn, and watermelons.
- Where to source food grown in the Appalachian Grown region
- Serving Local Food in Meals and Snacks
- Seasonal recipes in English and Spanish
- Seasonal Produce Availability Chart
- Kids Cooking Bingo Cards (also available in print) with accompanying resources
- Day by Day – Growing Minds Day by Day is a year-long series of seasonal educational resources designed for families and teachers. Weekly resource lists feature a theme related to food. Each resource list includes thematic recommendations for children’s literature, local food recipes, lesson plans, activities, and online resources curated by the Growing Minds team.