Hello Farm to Fork Friends,
April is Kids Gardening Month! It’s a great time to plant some seeds with the young people in your life, whether it’s in a fancy hydroponic unit, a simple paper cup, or outside. If you’re looking for school garden funding, check out our Harvest of the Season Microgrants at the end of this letter. And be sure to show us what you’re growing @utfarm2fork.
What to Harvest This Month
What vegetable is small, red, and can only whisper? A hoarse radish! Jokes aside, April is a great month to celebrate the highly underrated radish. There are literally dozens of varieties, from our standard red cherry belles to daikon, watermelon radishes, easter eggs, black radishes, bartender mammoths, and golden helios. Let this be the year you sample a new-to-you radish.
Get Involved!
Farm to Fork Task Force Quarterly Meeting
Join us for our next quarterly meeting on April 13th at 11am. We’ll be meeting via Zoom to provide updates on our strategic plan and other projects. Join here.
Write for our Blog
Did you know the Farm to Fork website has a blog section? (It's right here, this is it). The blog was originally conceived of as a way to share more farm to fork stories from the community, but it’s languishing for lack of content. We’d love to get it going, so if you’ve got a farm to fork story that you’d like to share, let us know. We’re looking for short pieces, between 250-500 words. Pretty much anything related to local food or agriculture education is a good fit—tell us about your winter farmer’s market visit, the farm field trip your kids went on, or a new recipe you tried using local products. Tell us about what you grow on your farm, or how your organization is involved in farm to fork. Send your ideas to contact@utfarmtofork.org.
Webinars & Trainings
School Garden Drip Irrigation, April 6, 12pm MT
It’s hard for a school garden to survive in our climate without an irrigation system. Join the team from the University of Arizona Community and School Garden Program to learn all about drip irrigation systems in school gardens. They will share the components needed to create a system, steps to calculate/order materials, basic skills to build/repair your system, and tips for year-round management within a school garden context! Learn more and register here.
Teaching for Sustainability, April 12, 2pm MT
School gardens offer an accessible hands-on place to support students’ learning and their deepening understanding of the complexity of sustainability. In this webinar, we’ll dig into these concepts and learn about ways schools are connecting concepts and projects to student learning and voice. You’ll leave with tools and examples for your own practice. Learn more and register here.
Improving Equity National Farmworker Awareness Week just wrapped up on March 31st (Cesar Chavez’s birthday!), but farmworkers are a critical part of our food system all year long. You’re probably heard about fair-trade products from other countries: coffee, tea, chocolate, and more. But what about food grown here in the US? How can we, as consumers, make sure that the food we buy isn’t exploiting farm workers? We don’t have a domestic fair-trade association yet, but four different food certification programs are working to put farmworker justice front and center: The Equitable Food Initiative, The Fair Food Program, Milk with Dignity, and the Agricultural Justice Project. Watch this 15-minute video to learn more.
Job Opportunities Youth Programs Instructor, Youth Garden Project, Moab
YGP is currently hiring interns as summer and fall Youth Program Instructors! Interns will collaborate to implement our nine-week Summer Camp program, facilitate two After-School Programs, teach 90-minute Garden Classroom Field Trips, and provide a Fall Break Camp. The internship runs May 17th-November 11th and includes housing, a weekly CSA share, and a stipend of $500/month. Learn more and apply here.
Funding Opportunities
Harvest of the Season Microgrants
Harvest of the Season Microgrants are here! Supported by a Specialty Crop Block Grant, these microgrants are intended to remove financial barriers to participating in Harvest of the Season. There are two different microgrants available, and schools, childcare centers, and non-profit organizations that work with children are all welcome to apply. Applications for both grants will be reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis. Successful applicants will have up to one year to spend the money after awards are made.
Garden Support Grant
Up to 10 garden grants will be awarded. The grant includes an AeroGarden hydroponic unit, 16 seed packets, a printed garden guide, and $1000 to cover costs directly associated with starting and maintaining a garden. Apply for the garden grant here.
Local Food Taste Test Grant
Up to 20 grants of $500 each will be awarded. Grant funds may be used to purchase Harvest of the Season items from a Utah farmer or rancher, supplies and equipment for conducting the taste test (including but not limited to napkins, handwipes, portion cups, plates/bowls, hot plates, knives, cutting boards), and cover staff time for procuring and preparing food and holding the taste test. Apply for the taste test grant here.
Be sure to share your upcoming events, grant opportunities, and jobs with us so that we can share them here!
