About the Program

Access to Quality Food

Create easy access to locally produced, culturally appropriate food by cultivating a local food system that benefits farmers, consumers, and the planet.

Program Actions:

• Provide stipends to purchase local food through an online marketplace and deliver food directly to participating sites

• Provide regular bags of fresh produce for preschool families

• Provide nutrition and gardening education, menu planning support, and staff training in food preparation and curriculum

Community Connection

Focus on the shared experience of food, from eating together to connecting with those who grow, process, distribute, and prepare our food.

Program Actions:

• Create activities for students that show how food brings people together

• Promote family-style meals and family engagement events at school

• Engage students in activities that help them understand where their food comes from

Health Equity

Promote fresh, local food with young children to support the development of good eating habits that can prevent diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect people of color.

Program Actions:

• Provide high-quality food to families and for school meals and snacks, while addressing systemic inequities in our food system

• Provide information and skill building to teachers and parents about how and why fresh, local food promotes overall health

Appreciation for Farm and Food Workers

Acknowledge the importance of farm and food workers as the providers of our food and teach about the history and present-day complexity of our food system.

Program Actions:

• Highlight farm and food workers in cooking, gardening, and nutrition lessons

• Provide and promote books that feature farmers and their stories

• Facilitate farmer visits to the classroom and field trips to local farms

Honoring the Land

Educate young eaters on how to be stewards of the land and understand that the health of the land connects to the health of our food and our bodies.

Program Actions:

• Acknowledge the land we inhabit is of the Duwamish and Coast Salish people

• Promote composting, introduce soil science, and teach about the food system as a web of life that we are all a part of

Respect Culture and Tradition

Recognize the role culture and traditions have on our relationship to food and represent the diverse food cultures reflected among students, families, and staff.

Program Actions:

• Feature recipes from many cultures, use books that reflect diverse lifestyles and food traditions, and include nutrition and gardening concepts from traditional perspectives

Enjoy and Celebrate Food

Model a positive relationship with food that emphasizes the pleasure of eating and how it nourishes our bodies.

Program Actions:

• Balance education between the science, skills, and social aspects that encompass food

• Acknowledge that food has an emotional component that affects what and how we eat

Resilient and Regenerative Practices

Commit to long-term practices that both sustain and heal and actively minimize any harm to people, the environment, and animals.

Program Actions:

• Build resilient systems within Farm to Preschool to ensure the work can thrive as the staff and program evolves

• Champion regenerative farming practices that protect the health of our environment and all living beings