The Massachusetts Farm to School Institute is a unique year-long professional learning opportunity for selected school, district, or early childhood teams from Massachusetts. The Institute supports teams working together to create a culture of equity and wellness, improve food access, increase student leadership, and strengthen local food systems.

Teams selected for the Institute are given support for an entire year. Starting with a fall retreat, teams are joined by an experienced coach that supports the team to develop an action plan inspired by workshops, learning journeys, and the work of other schools. During the school year, team members implement and adapt their plans with the support of their coach. Throughout the year, participants network and learn with peers in similar roles in a professional learning community.

Any K–12 school or early childhood program in Massachusetts of all different sizes can apply to the Institute. The Institute is designed to support programs in either the early stages of farm to school program development or for those who want to take their programming to the next level. We typically select six to eight teams to participate each year.

Teams are welcome to apply as a single school, school district, early childhood program, or as an early childhood collaborative. If an early childhood collaborative applies, each individual program should have at least one representative on the team. 

All educational institutions are welcome to apply, however, we have a preference for public schools and our programming is tailored to the public school environment.

Farm to school efforts are most successful and long-lasting when teams take the time to build commitment and capacity of a diverse set of stakeholders. These stakeholders should include nutrition/food service staff, teachers, administrators, student leaders, nurses, farmers, community partners, and family members. We encourage and seek diverse teams that contain members of different racial and gender identity, experience levels, and program roles. Teams for the Institute’s fall retreat are typically 4-7 members and do not include students, but a full team or farm to school committee can be larger during the school year. 

Consider inviting people who are already farm to school champions as well as key decision-makers and implementers who have yet to become involved but could provide valuable insights or connections when it comes time to implement your action plan. Your school may already have a group that has been working on farm to school or wellness, or there might be a committee that has worked on these efforts in the past but possibly needs a “refresh” with some new planning and new team members.

If you are unable to assemble a full team at this time, the Institute will not be a good fit for you. Instead, we offer a program called SEEDS aimed at helping schools build farm to school teams. Please visit our website for more information about SEEDS.

The application is used to gain an understanding of each applicant’s school community and existing farm to school efforts. We aim to build a diverse cohort of teams that have both similarities and opportunities to share lessons learned with others. We are looking for schools that prioritize making their farm to school program inclusive of diverse students and community members, equitable, and incorporating opportunities for youth and family leadership.

We use the following criteria to evaluate all applications:

• Team composition: The team has at least one member from each of the following roles: school nutrition, administrator, and educator.
• Accessibility: We prioritize teams with greater student diversity, and consider metrics such as the percentage of students participating in free and reduced lunch, ethnicity composition of the student body, school location (rural/urban), and other demographic information (e.g. income level and ethnicity composition of the geographic region).  For early childhood programs not enrolled in CACFP, the percentage of children/families receiving state subsidized childcare support can replace free/reduced lunch data.
• Team readiness: The team demonstrates some experience in farm to school and is in a suitable phase to receive support and grow.  
• 3Cs mindset: The team has a good understanding of the 3Cs (classroom, cafeteria, and community) and intends to use an integrated approach to bring the three components together.
• Equity: The team has clear goals for centering equity in their farm to school work, and demonstrates how the Institute will benefit their equity work.
• Staying power: The team has a clear commitment to farm to school, and has in-place or identified strategy and additional resources to sustain their work.
• The “why”: The team has a clear “why” for their farm to school work, and can explain how their goals align with the Institute’s vision.

The retreat is the annual kick-off event for the Massachusetts Farm to School Institute. As the host, Mass. Farm to School will provide a series of workshops and learning journeys, presented by staff members and external partners, which take place over the two day retreat. Teams will also have time to develop their year-long action plan with their coach. This is a time for teams to gain inspiration, new skills, and build relationships.

With the support of a coach, teams spend the school year putting their plans into action and strengthening their capacity to impact classrooms, cafeterias, and communities with lasting change. In the spring, teams regather (virtually) with their peers to share successes, how they adapted to challenges, and begin planning for future years of farm to school programming.

Massachusetts Farm to School has been authorized by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to award Professional Development Points (PDPs) to Massachusetts educators. Any educator that chooses can earn 15 PDPs from the Institute Retreat provided that they submit a lesson plan that they will use in their classroom sometime during the school year. This can be a lesson plan designed from your learning during a Retreat workshop or something that is developed from time with your Coach and team. The lesson plan needs to be submitted within 1 month of the Retreat, but the lesson can be taught at a later point in the year. 

This is a year-long program! Teams will implement their action plans during the school year with the support of their coach. In September, teams attend our retreat to dive into farm to school action planning, network with peers around the region, and explore farm to school possibilities.

Once a final draft of the action plan is prepared, teams share their plan with members of their school or program’s administration and any other stakeholders. Institute schools are expected to commit to implementing their Farm to School Action Plan and establishing systems to track progress throughout the year. 

Teams will establish regular meetings that include their coach (monthly is recommended), focusing on assessing progress, communicating and celebrating successes, and changing course as needed. Teams participate in a virtual, Institute-wide, mid-year check-in; can attend webinars; and provide feedback through data collection, evaluation, and storytelling to support program growth and improvement.

At the end of the Institute, all teams will share their successes and challenges through a virtual meeting in the spring with other teams. Teams will also have a final opportunity to work with their coach to create an updated action plan and rubric for the next school year.

Each team who participates in the Institute is assigned an experienced farm to school coach based on school/district/program location and/or the specific needs of a school/district/program. Massachusetts Farm to School provides support for the Institute coaches for the success of the team. 

Coaches will: 

• Facilitate the development of the team’s action plan
• Provide technical assistance where needed
• Recommend professional development opportunities

Coaches will also add creativity to the planning and implementation process by offering insights, suggestions, and feedback regularly. Most importantly, coaches guide their team, by listening, reflecting, evaluating, and supporting the implementation of their team’s action plan.

Thanks to generous funding from the Kendall Foundation, Massachusetts Farm to School is able to provide year-long Institute programming to teams at a cost of $600. This covers all costs of the Retreat, including meals for all teams, and accommodations for teams traveling further than an hour. This also covers the costs of year-long coaching and support. Travel costs and incidentals are the responsibility of the individual teams.

Massachusetts Farm to School hosts the Institute.

Questions? Email dinah@massfarmtoschool.org