East Hartford Public Schools is an urban district with about 7,000 students. East Hartford Public Schools employees work to deliver a high-quality learning experience for EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY. The district’s Food Services Department (run by Sodexo Food Service Management Company) oversees the FoodCorps programming, and ensures that all students are well nourished and ready to learn. The department has been improving and expanding their farm to school programming over the past few years, especially following district representatives who attended the prestigious Northeast Farm to School Institute in Vermont. The city of East Hartford is located just outside of Connecticut’s state capital, and is comprised of about 51,000 people, and is an inclusive urban community with a focus on community engagement, anti-hunger initiatives, and community gardens.

The two service members will be immersed in one elementary school each in the district teaching K-5 students through hands on lessons in the garden (only if the school already has one) and classroom. Because the members will be overseen by the food services department, they will also execute local taste tests, also known as Put Local on Your Tray Day events. There has been great success with introducing and building community around nourishing school food environments by focusing on outcomes around family engagement as well. Because of this, the service members will also be embedded in district-wide afterschool programming across all nine elementary schools, in partnership with THRIVE, as well as community projects and committees such as the East Hartford Hunger Action Team. This includes but is not limited to attending district-wide farm to school meetings, as well as maintaining gardens throughout the school district.

FoodCorps service members at this site are part of a Connecticut cohort of members, and with the small geography of the state, members can frequently collaborate in person. These service members are creating powerful relationships with the wide variety of organizations and individuals that make up the networks addressing food systems change across the state and region. Serving in Connecticut means you are part of a close-knit FoodCorps team, enjoy ample opportunity for a wide range of professional development, and have the chance to make a huge impact in the state with the second-highest income disparity in the nation. The FoodCorps CT cohort is part of a much larger network of organizations and agencies dedicated to farm-to-school work, including, but not limited to: the University of Connecticut, CT State Department of Education, CT Department of Agriculture, CT Department of Public Health, Common Ground, CT Farm to School Collaborative, Keney Park Sustainability Project, Brigaid, New England Dairy, and New Britain ROOTS.