Grants in 26 counties will create opportunities for healthier children and families across Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg, PA – Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding today announced PA Farm Bill Farm-to-School Grants of $462,607 to 45 schools, school districts, and childhood education centers in 26 counties. Grants of up to $15,000 will fund projects aimed at improving access to healthy, local food and increasing hands-on learning for children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
“Farm-to-School grants are an investment not just in feeding hungry minds, but feeding our future, Secretary Redding said. “Introducing children to fresh, local food can change their diets and open their eyes to career possibilities when they learn how food is produced and who produces it. The Shapiro Administration is making critical investments to feed the future of our communities and expand opportunities for children to succeed and Pennsylvania farms to prosper.”
Funded projects connect local farmers to schools to supply fresh, in-season products to be served in cafeterias, expanding market opportunities for farmers. Other projects support school gardens, field trips, and other hands-on agriculture education, enriching early career awareness.
Grant recipients, amounts, and funded projects are listed below by county.
Allegheny
The Environmental Charter School – $15,000
The Edible Schoolyard program creates hands-on experiences that connect students to food, nature, and each other, addressing the crises of climate change, public health, and social inequality.
Highlands School District – $11,002
Digging Deeper project aims to increase awareness of healthy, nutritious food choices, and environmental sustainability, through exposure to local farms and crops. Through classroom instruction, they will plant, care for, and harvest their own crop and see it integrated in a recipe.
School District of Pittsburgh – $14,975
Pittsburgh schools are partnering with Grow Pittsburgh’s network of gardens to provide agriculture lessons to nine schools facing challenges reactivating their garden programs post-pandemic.
Beaver
Beaver County School District – $1,165
Cheeseman Farm field trip – district first-graders will learn about farming, agriculture, planting, growing, and harvesting. The trip will include a hayride on which students get to pick a pumpkin, a hay maze, an informational movie about planting, growing, and harvesting crops, and a story-telling session.
Bedford
Northern Bedford County Elementary – $15,000
Partnership with the PA Beef Council’s PA Beef to PA Schools program, purchasing local beef to serve to their students.
Berks
Kutztown Area School District – $2,392
From Cow to Cone will expose 8th-graders to dairy production. Students will tour a local dairy farm with an on-farm processing plant and store, then use fresh milk and cream from the farm in recipes.
Morrisville Borough School District – $14,700
Community School, Farm and Family Initiative will include monthly lessons on nutrition; plant-based healthy eating basic food prep; healthy snacks choices, agriculture and what farmers do; organic farms; home gardening and more; plus local food purchases, take-home recipes, and field trips.
Tulpehoken Area School District – $15,000
Project aims to increase the amount of local food purchases by the Tulpehocken Food Service Department and served to K-8 students.
Bucks
Lifespan Day Care – $14,975
LifeSpan’s Learning Garden: Project goal is a community children’s garden and program with senior “grand friends” living in an assisted living facility next door.
Centre
State College Area School District – $3,000
Grant will fund a year-long school garden club in an elementary school in the district. Students will travel to the Penn State Student Farm, maintain the school garden, and run a farmers market.
Chester
Great Valley School District – $15,000
The district plans to purchase local, seasonal produce, yogurt, beef, and other products. In partnership with The Common Market, local products from Pequea Valley Farm, Frecon Farms, Happy Valley Meat, and other farms will be served in cafeterias along with information on where food was sourced.
Clarion
North Clarion Elementary – $14,958
Hydroponic School Lunch Project aims to establish a student-led hydroponic farm producing fresh fruit and vegetables to be served in elementary lunches. All 325 pre-K through 6th-graders will plant, maintain, and harvest the garden as part of their weekly STEM curriculum throughout the school year.
Redbank Valley School District – $550
District will purchase local fruit and vegetables at Smicksburg Produce Auction twice monthly in September, October and May.
Columbia
Bloomsburg Area School District – $15,000
Partnership with PA Beef Council in procuring local beef with the goal of serving more beef to the students, with local farmers for PA the Harvest of the Month Program and with local farms for elementary field trips.
Cumberland
St. Patrick’s School (Carlisle) – $11,500
A new partnership with the LEAF Project (Leadership, Education, and Farming) to bring back a Kindergarten Tasting Program and introduce a 6th-grade. Project aims to promote healthy eating habits among students and foster an understanding of the science behind food and farming.
Dauphin
Bright Futures Learning Centers – $15,000
Urban gardening initiative to increase food literacy in young children and families who experience poverty. In addition to installation of raised garden beds, project will fund outdoor learning spaces and will engage with local farmers markets and stands.
Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg – $15,000
The Brenner Family Early Learning Center’s well-established school garden has been used to teach children, teachers, and parents about food, nutrition, the earth, and Jewish values for many years. The grant will help rebuild the garden after relocation to the Alexander Grass Campus for Jewish Life.
Upper Dauphin Area Middle School – $11,208
Project will establish a large greenhouse associated with the Middle School Agriculture Classroom.
Erie
Erie Public Schools – $9,700
Harvest of the Month Engagement program provides nutrition education for staff, so they can be school-wide proponents of the program, creates opportunities for families to sample local foods through out-of-school events and learn about local places to purchase healthy food.
Huntingdon
Southern Huntingdon County School District – $10,642
Shade Gap Elementary Farm Fresh Futures program connects students to agriculture with a focus on sustainability. Through nutrition education, and hands-on activities like edible landscaping and composting, students learn about agriculture from production to consumption.
Lackawanna
Dunmore School District – $4,000
Expansion of the Dunmore Elementary Center School Garden Club’s garden. Project aims to instill a love of gardening at an early age, and promote a healthy lifestyle, encouraging students to try new, freshly grown foods.
Lawrence
Laurel School District – $7,500
Funds will be used to purchase a freezer to store local fresh beef from the PA Beef for PA Schools program.
Lawrence County Social Services – $15,000
Healthy Start Ag and Nutrition Center will use funds to support the upkeep of the center’s grow zones and defray costs of early learning field trips to visit the center, where they will explore the garden, greenhouse, and hydroponic lab, and participate in PA Harvest of the Month activities. Funds will also support Ag and Nutrition activities at family engagement events.
Lehigh
Allentown School District – $9,993
Fancy Farm-Fresh Apples – Students in grades 6-8 will be exposed to a new local apple variety every month throughout the year. Apples will be sourced from Frecon Farms in Boyertown, and the farmer will discuss nutrition at the Afterschool Cooking Club.
Learning Minds Education Center (Allentown) – $12,900
Project includes lesson plans incorporating agriculture, field trip to a local farm, books for classrooms, a nutrition informative meeting for families, and purchase of equipment to prepare and cook local food for students.
Traci’s Learning Center – $14,846
Project will focus enhancing garden features in an outdoor learning space. It will also include field trips to local farms to learn about raising animals and growing produce
Luzerne
Cheder Menachem School (Wilkes-Barre) – $15,000
The Integrating Farming and Jewish Cultural Food at School initiative will engage staff and students through farming education and Jewish foods, festivals, and culture, and share the passion and experience with the local Jewish community.
Mercer
West Middlesex Area School District – $15,000
Stronger Communities, Deeper Roots – Project aims to transform elementary STEM education by installing aquaponic systems in science classrooms. This program engages students with hands-on learning to foster a love of local food while cultivating the next generation of scientists.
Montgomery
Colonial School District – $9,997
Project will expand beyond local produce to include local protein items such as local beef, chicken, and yogurt in school cafeteria menus. Project aims to minimize the district’s carbon footprint, reduce transportation emissions, and support regional agriculture.
Montour
Danville Child Development Center – $5,408
Partnership with PA Beef Council and Davis Grown Farms to receive 75 pounds of fresh ground beef per month through the PA Beef to PA Schools Program. Additionally, field trips to Rohrbach’s Farm Market will foster a deeper connection to agriculture and understanding of food production.
Perry
Newport School District – $3,942
Fourth Grade Seed Cycle Project will continue a collaboration with the LEAF Project teaching ag-science concepts, and exposing students to local farms, and farming as a viable career.
West Perry School District – $11,761
Agri-Science Adventures will continue a 4th-grade collaboration with the LEAF Project and introduce a 7th-grade component, teaching ag-science concepts and exposing students to local farms and farming as a viable career.
Philadelphia
Early Literacy Academy – Fairmount – $10,000
Early Literacy Academy – Oxford – $10,000
Harvest Tasting Program in both locations will teach benefits of healthy eating through farm-fresh produce and balanced diet lessons and integrating local fruit and vegetables into the school menu by including the Harvest of the Month featured product from the Common Market.
Methodist Services – $15,000
Re-energized Farm to School programming for preschool, Head Start, and kindergarten children and their families in nutrition, farming, fresh foods, and maintaining 16 Children’s Garden container beds.
New Foundations Charter School – $9,300
Service-learning courses using the school’s garden to educate and empower students, families and school community. The revitalized garden will equip our community with skills in sustainability and nutrition that are otherwise nearly inaccessible in this area.
Parent Infant Center – $5,646
Grant will fund Pennsylvania-grown, fresh seasonal produce and dairy products as preschool snacks, hands-on opportunities to experience urban agriculture in a new greenhouse, and a weekly gardening club during the summer.
William H. Loesche School – $2,833
Second Grade Class to Kitchen – Through firsthand experience of growing vegetables and herbs in the classroom, maintaining the crops, harvesting, and preparing them in a dish, students will connect with their food, and gain a deeper understanding of plant biology, and nutrition, while developing cooking skills.
Schuylkill
Pottsville Area School District — $15,000
DHH Lengel Middle School is partnering with Pottsville teacher, after-school garden educator and farmer Leah Zerbe and other farms to teach students to create and maintain urban vegetable and native pollinator gardens, while making healthy food choices.
Tioga
Southern Tioga School District – $1,816
F2S Hydroponics, It’s Elementary – Aims to engage 23 fourth-grade students in Liberty Elementary School in an immersive, hands-on learning experience growing herbs and vegetables using hydroponic systems.
Washington
California Academy of Learning – $13,631
The Sunflower Symphony: A Buzzing Collaboration with Bees” – Project will teach K-5 students about sunflowers and apiary agriculture in PA.
California Area School District – $8,590
Buzzing Minds Learn from Farm to School – Partnership with Bedillion Honey Farm, the program immerses elementary students in the world of honeybees, teaching them about their essential role. Middle school students will explore honeybee genetics, gaining advanced knowledge of these vital pollinators.
Fort Cherry School District – $2,679
Fort Cherry Elementary Community Garden aims to foster hands-on learning, community engagement, and environmental stewardship. Key activities include student planting and harvesting, integration of science curriculum, and collaboration with high school students.
Washington School District – $3,200
Prexie Farm Friends Project includes a field trip to a local dairy farm for 139 first-graders. Students will learn about farm work, animals, lifestyle and products. Project will include purchasing local produce to serve in the cafeteria and promote in taste-testing events.
Westmoreland
Queen of Angels Catholic School (North Huntingdon Township) – $13,700
Farm Fresh Future Program aims to integrate local food systems into educational environments, providing students with comprehensive learning experiences around agriculture and nutrition. Goals include serving local foods in the cafeteria, field trips to local farms, expanded variety of food on campus, and combatting food insecurity.
Find a map of previous Farm-to-School and other PA Farm Bill grant recipients in your area as well as details of initiatives to grow and sustain Pennsylvania agriculture at agriculture.pa.gov/pafarmbill.
Governor Josh Shapiro’s bipartisan 2024-25 budget invests in Pennsylvania’s national legacy as a leader in agriculture. The Governor’s new Economic Development Strategy recognizes agriculture as key to Pennsylvania’s future economic success.