What is the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP?
Why I Do It
As a FoodCorps service member, I wake up every day excited to teach classes and serve my own community. By planting seeds with students on the Navajo Reservation, I’m giving them a new twist on old agricultural techniques. For generations, our people have farmed the land, endured droughts, and used traditional knowledge to grow food. … Continued
Guest Youth Blogger: Daynaba Mohamed, Youth Food Movement Intern
My name is Daynaba Mohamed. I am 14 years old and an 8th grade student at the Browne Middle School in Chelsea, MA. I joined Youth Food Movement in 2014, after a friend who was in the program introduced me to it. From her I learned that Youth Food Movement focused mainly on school food, which … Continued
Peer Pressure and Leafy Greens
I stood behind a long table in the high school cafeteria, small plastic cups lined end to end. Half the cups were overflowing with shiny, curly, green leaves speckled with dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds: Kale Salad. The other half were filled with kale too, but darkened, flat, and crispy: chips. I was standing next … Continued
5th Grade Veggie Competition of Garbanzo Proportions
Blindfolded, they were surrounded. With sight gone, their 4 other senses were heightened, as they carefully and silently ate what I put on their plates. Round 1, one veggie… Round 2, another. Contestants thought: I’ve tasted this before, what can it be?! I think maybe corn? I reported, “Incorrect, it was a beet.” Round 3, something … Continued
Farm to School in Native Communities: A New Name for an Ancient Practice
In honor of National Farm to School Month, we are taking a close look at the work of our service members serving in Native Communities. We have service members in the Navajo, Tohono O’odham, and Apache tribes. Prior to the existence of schools, indigenous elders educated their youth about agricultural practices and food. From … Continued
Four FoodCorps Alumni Awarded Good Food Grants
FoodCorps’ new Alumni Grant Program is designed to make it easier for our alumni to access the resources they need to remain active members of the good food movement. Alumni can apply for grants to fund their own professional development, to organize service projects, or to provide seed funding for new ventures. We award 4 … Continued
The Beet: Jerusha’s got it.
What you are doing is amazing… Who are you? Jerusha Klemperer What do you do? I am the Communications Director for FoodCorps. Where are you from? I am from New York City, less than a quarter mile away from FoodCorps headquarters. What was your favorite meal growing up? My favorite meal was a version of … Continued
The Color of Food
This spring Natasha Bowens, an urban farmer and the blogger behind Brown Girl Farming and the multimedia project The Color of Food, published a travelogue, of sorts, that chronicles her time spent driving across the country talking to farmers of color. The book is extraordinary. In giving voice to these practitioners, it ends up giving … Continued
Growing Community: Looking back on two years of FoodCorps service in Kalispell
This year in Kalispell it seemed the calendar turned straight from winter to summer. The early thaw lifted a thick blanket of snow from our school gardens and left them bursting with green garlic shoots in what felt like a matter of days. This early summer has been a bit of a mixed blessing; it … Continued
15 Garden Jokes for Classrooms and Families
Our favorite kid-tested garden jokes for laughs at school or at home.