Publications

“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. You can move through the units in any order that makes sense based on your growing region, curriculum, or program structure. The toolkit has a plethora of additional resources around how to implement farm to school with gardens, classroom cooking, farm field trips and farmer visits, and local food in meals or snacks. View the Spanish version here.

Farm to Preschool Toolkit

The Growing Minds Farm to Preschool Toolkit contains all of our farm to preschool resources, including lesson plans, “This Week in the Garden” activity guides, “Farm to School Goes Home” parent handouts, local food sourcing guidance, and tips for cooking and gardening with young children. This second edition, published in 2020, was revised with a new, easy to use format and streamlined recipes. The Toolkit is available as a free digital download. View the Spanish version here.

Reach for the Stars with Farm to Preschool, Second Edition

This resource was created by the NC Farm to Preschool Network, of which Growing Minds is a member. Originally published in 2016, it was revised in 2020. Its purpose is to help child care centers and family child care homes integrate farm to preschool activities into their curriculum while simultaneously addressing the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, revised edition (ECERS-R) and Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale, revised edition (ITERS-R). Reach for the Stars is also included in the Growing Minds Farm to Preschool Toolkit. 

This publication can be used by educators, parents, and caregivers to plan successful educational farm field trips. The resource contains tips for selecting a farm to visit and communicating with farmers, ideas for on-farm activities and classroom curriculum connections, and suggestions for what to bring on the field trip to ensure a memorable and successful visit. 

Our manual is full of local food and farm based children’s activities perfect for the tailgate market setting and community events and settings of all kinds. In addition to helpful tips on launching a GM@M program, the manual includes local food-based crafts, tasting and cooking activities, and scavenger hunts.

ASAP’s Farmers Market Tour Guide

This guide will help you introduce people to your farmers market, share best practices in shopping, and help shoppers to feel comfortable at the market so that they can become regulars. Whether you are a market employee or volunteer, local organization, or a community group, you will find useful tips and tools to organize and lead a successful market tour.

The Growing Minds @ University Project institutionalizes local food and Farm to School experiences and training into undergraduate and graduate curricula for education and nutrition and dietetics students and Dietetic Interns (DIs). This report documents specific ways in which local food and F2S activities can address core competencies for Dietetic Internships. These suggested activities are based on project experience and our team’s expertise and are meant to work in a variety of communities and programs. They are not exhaustive lists and can certainly be adapted to specific settings.