It’s National Farm to School Month! As part of our ongoing celebration, we are sharing some of our favorite activities to do outside of the cafeteria. Our mystery box is a RI Farm to School classic! It serves as a great introduction for kids and adults to explore our food…in more than one sense of the word. Have questions about how to build one and incorporate it in your classroom, early childhood center or community center? We have answers.

Don’t miss this food system news from around our region: TONIGHT: Get exclusive access to Mary Blue (Farmacy Herbs) and Rosemary Gladstar during a behind-the-scenes look into the court battle surrounding “Fire Cider.” If you dig potatoes, you’ll love digging for potatoes at Muck and Mystery Farm / Osamequin Farm October 13th. Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic invites you to join a panel presentation on black land loss and reparations October 16. Plus, live stream the Third Annual Food Tank NYC Summit starting November 1.

Though the weather isn’t looking the best for an outdoor farmers market today — we are OPEN anyway! With just a few weeks left in our outdoor farmers market season, we won’t let a little wind and rain stand in our way. Join us at Armory Market every Thursday through 10/31 on Providence’s West End. Add a little fun to your week 3:30-7:00pm (or dusk).

Check out our Market Mobile wholesale service to see some of the restaurants, schools, grocers, and other businesses sourcing local food in our community. And get a taste of some of the items on offer from local farmers and makers — like Concord grapes from Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon, MA.

The leaves are turning and temperatures are dropping. The outdoor farmers market season is almost at its end. Our Harvest Kitchen farmers market booth has been busy!

We are gearing up for another amazing season at the largest indoor farmers market in New England! Opening day at the Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market is coming up November 2nd — and will be open every Saturday 9am–1pm through April 25, 2020! Check out the tantalizing list of vendors for November and December at the market!

Anyone can get involved in Farm to School activities — from students and parents, to teachers and administrators, to farmers and food service professionals. Add a lesson about farming to your class, serve local foods on your menu, advocate for more Farm to School activities in your school, or visit a farm. The possibilities are endless!

This week in our Harvest Kitchen training program, our youth trainees got to work creating more elaborate recipes than ever before. We learned about the globalization of food, practiced some complex kitchen conversions, and preserved peaches from Horse Listener’s Orchard in Ashford, CT.

School may be back in session, but our outdoor farmers market season runs through the end of October! Fall is a beautiful season at the farmers market, bursting with colorful local harvest. Join us at Armory Market every Thursday through 10/31 on Providence’s West End. Add a little fun to your week 3:30-7:00pm (or dusk), where community gathers in the park.

Check out our Market Mobile wholesale service to see some of the restaurants, schools, grocers, and other businesses sourcing local food in our community. And get a taste of some of the items on offer from local farmers and makers — like sweet organic pea greens from Allen Farms in Westport, MA.

October is for celebrating Farm to School programming across Rhode Island, thanks to an official proclamation signed in 2017 by Governor Gina Raimondo. This statewide proclamation is in alignment with National Farm to School Month, designated by Congress in 2010 as an annual celebration of food education, school gardens, and lunch trays filled with nutritious, local ingredients. RI schools are celebrating with a Great Apple Crunch, and you can get tools and resources to celebrate too.

Check out our Market Mobile wholesale service to see some of the restaurants, schools, grocers, and other businesses sourcing local food in our community. And get a taste of some of the items on offer from local farmers and makers — like edible daikon blossoms from Endless Farm in Johnston, RI.

After a studious week of getting to know each other and completing their ServSafe food handler certification in record time, our newest class of culinary recruits finally stepped into the kitchen this week — hairnets and all!

Welcome to our new Farm to Community Program Director, Stephanie Bush, and to our new year-long Fruitful Data Systems AmeriCorps VISTA member, Melissa Fineman. Thank you USDA Farm to School Grant Program!