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The Burlington School Food Project (BSFP),is a community based Farm 2 School initiative working to transform school food culture in Burlington and beyond. The BSFP is a collaborative partnership of the Burlington School District , City Market/Onion River Co-op, Friends of Burlington Gardens/Healthy City Youth Initiative, Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable Schools Project and VT FEED (Food Education Every Day), in affiliation with the Burlington Food Council and the Burlington Legacy Project. The mission of the BSFP is to connect students and their families with whole, fresh and local foods to improve their health and the health of our community.
Started in 2003, the BSFP continues its mission almost a decade later, always exploring new and exciting ways to connect the three C’s: the Classroom, Cafeteria and Community.
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Farm 2 School
In Burlington, Vermont, Farm 2 School is much more than putting local veggies on the lunch tray. F2S is about fostering a culture that respects the land and people that produce the food we eat. It is also more about community development (with school food on the center of the plate) and Burlington is just about the best place to try and make this happen.
Not only are we surrounded by a vibrant rural farming community, we also have our own agricultural gem within city limits, the Intervale, where a handful of organic farms produce an abundance of food and provide space for city residents to connect to the land. Students take field trips to the local farms, and farmers visit their classrooms. We now see this influence coming full circle, as Intervale farmers begin to send their own children to school.
How We Started:
Farm 2 School initiatives formally started in Burlington in 2003 out of a 3-year USDA Community Food Projects Grant entitled “Growing Farms, Growing Minds: the Burlington School Food Project.” This project entailed an enormous amount of work, assessing, implementing and evaluating both existing and new programs within the school district. The project pulled together many community partners, including the schools’ Food Service, and laid the groundwork for F2S activities to continue and flourish in the city. In 2006, the district hired a Farm 2 School Coordinator to assist Food Service in sourcing and using locally grown foods. Since then, Food Service has taken the charge in supporting local farms and food producers in Vermont and the Northeast region, always looking to build on previous year’s work.
Here’s a number of ways we support and forward the mission of Farm 2 School programs in Burlington and beyond:
Here is a list of our district's local food partners:
Adams Berry Farm
Arethusa Farms
Diggers' Mirth
Champlain Orchards
The Farm Between
The Food Hub
Healthy City Youth Initiative
Intervale Community Farm
Lewis Creek Farms
O'Bread Bakery
Red Hen Baking Co.
Shelburne Farms
Sunrise Orchard
Lalumiere Farm Norris Berry Farm Addison Dairy Co-op
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