FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville Public Schools was one of five regional organizations recently awarded a $10,000 Sustainable Community Innovation Grant from the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.
The grant money will support educational programming, including summer farm field trips in coordination with the Owl Creek summer lunch program; farmer training; and community outreach.
Program partners include the University of Arkansas, Apple Seeds Inc., Feed Fayetteville and the Boys & Girls Club.
Farm to School is a program connecting schools and farms to serve healthy meals in cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities as well as supporting local and regional farmers, according to a school district news release.
The district, last summer, purchased 1,885 pounds of produce and 300 pounds of ground beef locally for the free lunch program at Owl Creek. About 200 students also participated in farm tours, farmers’ market visits and healthy snack classes using local produce donated from The Farm at Cobblestone.