Kids in Farm-School Partnership Know Where Food Comes From

Two innovative British Columbia businesses have come up with an clever scheme that links farms with schools and community-based organizations. Their Farm Bag Fundraiser program gives schools and organizations a way to support local farmers and raise funds at the same time. It is a win for both ends of the equation, as farmers gain a market for their produce.

One of the companies, Local Motive Organic Delivery is owned by Thomas Tumbach, whose passion for sustainable food systems led him to acquire a degree in Agroecology. He is also a grower, raising vegetables in the Okanagan Valley.

The second company is Little Green Book, whose tag line – “a network of visionaries” – is an apt description of its mission:

Little Green Book is a digital networking and design think tank. Our portfolio features collaborative relationships that share common core goals.

A Little Green Book project is fundamentally based on the principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Jennifer Vincent is the founding mastermind behind Little Green Book. With her background in horticulture and determination to raise awareness about where food comes from, she and Tumbach make the ideal pair to connect local farmers with consumers through the Farm Bag Fundraiser.

Schools and community organizations that opt into the fundraising scheme make a 20% commission on their sales during the growing season. Their customers receive a monthly Farm Bag with 6-8 kinds of fruits and vegetables that are in season and are sourced from local and BC growers, organic when available.

Vincent says:

The farmers earn fair wage for their products with 60% of the sale price going towards the purchase of their produce.

This month we delivered a total of 306 bags to 11 fundraising groups. Since program inception in October, over 30,000 lbs of produce have been sold.

The potential for transforming children’s understanding of where their food comes from is evident in the video shot by Shaw TV. It starts with a scene that gives me hope for raising awareness of the food system. A kindergartener at Uplands Elementary signs in one of the customers of the school’s Farm Bag Fundraiser and says, “You just, like, sign them in. We give them their bag, and then they get to pick out vegetables. That’s what they do.”

Just how critical it is to give young people this kind of exposure was confirmed by a new survey of Australian children. Many of the students figured yogurt comes from plants and pasta was an animal product.

With food security such a critical global issue, a scheme like Farm Bag Fundraiser just may be the missing piece in making sustainable farming more viable and rearing a generation of farm supporters.

Related Care2 Stories

Is Organic Agriculture Bad for the Environment? Another Reason to Eat Locally

Participation in “KIND Tuesday” Helps Plant School Gardens

Soil Born Farms – Living in Harmony with Nature (VIDEO)

From Small Seeds, Urban Farms Grow

Photo from color line via Flickr Creative Commons

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Elizabeth O.

2:59PM PST on Mar 8, 2012

Voted: 'yes!'

send a green star

Judy A.

9:02AM PST on Mar 7, 2012

Thank you!!!

Alison A.

2:59AM PST on Mar 6, 2012

This sounds great, it is also a way for children to be 'hands on', learning from behind a desk all the time can get quite monotonous and then not everything sinks in.

This reminds me of a programme I saw a few years back, Jamie Oliver (TV Chef) visited schools to try to change their lunch menu so children received better nutrition, he visited a classroom with a bag of fruit and vegetables and very few of the children could tell him what those fruits and vegetables were, probably because they had never seen or eaten them before.

Not one child recognised a celery! It makes you wonder what they are being fed at home, so I think they would have definitely benefited from a project like this.

LMj S.

3:18PM PST on Mar 5, 2012

This is great, hope more communities follow, thank you for info and sharing!

Valerie A.

7:18AM PST on Mar 5, 2012

Thanks

Patricia G.

3:21AM PST on Mar 5, 2012

It's good to know that there is projects like this, thanks for the article :)

Luna B.

1:39AM PST on Mar 4, 2012

Wow, I would love for my future kid to be able to participate in a project like this.....amazing!