Celebrating Farm to School Month with Area 2 Farms
October is National Farm to School Month and what better way to celebrate than with your neighborhood farm!
Area 2 Farms welcomes thousands of students to the farm every year to discover local food in action. We believe that a huge part of fixing the broken food system is engaging kids early in their educational journeys about where food grows, who is behind the veggies on their plates, and how to be good agricultural stewards.
What is Farm to School Month?
In 2010, Congress designated October as National Farm to School Month to highlight and strengthen the connections between schools and local food.
These connections play an important role in teaching kids about where their food comes from and encouraging healthy eating from an early age. By bringing farms into the classroom—or classrooms out to the farm—students get hands-on experiences that make nutrition, agriculture, and sustainability come alive.
Farm to School Month is a celebration of these efforts, honoring the educators, farmers, and communities who work together to grow lifelong healthy habits.
“I just wanted to thank you so much for the wonderful tour today. It was so cool to feel like we were seeing a glimpse of the future of agriculture.”
Area 2 Farms to Schools
At Area 2 Farms, we see this month as a chance to shine a light on the year-round work we do with schools in our community. Every field trip is designed to spark curiosity—whether students are tasting just-harvested microgreens, peeking into our compost system to see worms at work, or learning how our indoor farm uses soil and robotics to grow food right in the city.
“It’s always fun to expose the girls to something new and different that they haven’t experienced before. And this was great because it’s something right in their neighborhood that they didn’t know about, which is awesome. They’ve been talking about buzz buttons nonstop ever”
The best part is seeing the lightbulb moments. Kids who were hesitant to try broccoli microgreens at first loved being able to pick them straight from the tray where they were growing—and many even went back for seconds. Others are amazed at how much flavor can be packed into a single leaf, like when they taste nasturtium for the first time and are wowed by its peppery bite.
Sometimes the impact goes beyond food. On one tour, when we asked if the students thought farming was a real job, the group unanimously said no. By the end of the visit, when we asked, “Who wants to be a farmer when they grow up?” more than half of the students raised their hands.
These are the moments that make Farm to School Month—and our everyday work—so meaningful. When kids connect directly with their food, they discover not just how delicious and fun it can be, but also that farming is a vital and exciting part of their community.
Area 2 Farms for Schools
Your students deserve to know where their food comes from. That’s where we come in. At Area 2 Farms, we offer free, hands-on tours that bring food, farming, and sustainability to life for classrooms across our community.
