Our GREENandSAVE Staff is pleased to inform our members and readers about organizations that are helping to promote sustainability. If you would like us to profile your organization please Contact Us.
Student Farmers is actively looking to recruit a student ambassador in Connecticut, as well as farm mentors in Connecticut that can help guide students. Overall, student farming is a great way to reduce the distance from farm to table and increase health for students as well as their parents.
Here is an overview on Student Farmers
Student Farmers is a growing group of students who are committed to in-home and in-school sustainable farming as a means to promote physical fitness and environmental stewardship.
Our Mission: To improve health and nutrition education, combat the challenges of climate change, and support each other in generating some revenue to help pay for college.
Our Vision: To increase knowledge about the advantages of eating more heathy and locally grown vegetables across the range of high school and college age students. We also hope that many of the parents of the students will learn from their children’s engagement in our organization and adopt a diet with less processed foods to reduce the growing cost of healthcare.
Here is an example of an agriculture education program in Connecticut:
CT Grown for CT Kids: Connecting Communities to Farm-to-School Opportunities
Farm-to-school programs are nothing new. In fact, they date back to the early 1800s as a way for children to learn natural sciences and vocational skills.
Now support is growing in the state legislature for a program that would bring education and agriculture together to benefit Connecticut students and communities.
CT Grown for CT Kids is a program that would promote farm-to-school activities and help them more accessible. The General Assembly would need to pass House Bill 6618 this session to get the program off the ground.
“I think this bill is extremely important for not only the educational side of it and helping students to understand where their food grows but also helping to directors like me who might not have all of the resources,” said Lonnie Burt, Senior Director for Hartford Food & Child Nutrition Services.
Burt oversees meal programs for all of Hartford Public Schools and knows firsthand how important it is for students to get a nutritious meal and understand where their food is coming from.
"When they know it’s grown locally they are more apt to actually try it and actually consume it.,” Burt said.
If passed, the bill would award the Department of Agriculture $250,000 to run the grants program and distribute the money to any farm-to-school program.