In this new video, you’ll hear from both kids and adults in FoodCorps partner schools in California, Georgia, and New York about how FoodCorps service has helped transform their cafeterias and classrooms.

Apply to serve

Special thanks to our featured partners: Bertha DeLeon (P.S. 151K in Brooklyn, NY), Linette Dodson (Carrollton City Schools in Carrollton, GA), and Pamela Lee (Ocean View School District in Oxnard, CA).

Directed, shot, and edited by Kaliya Warren. Additional footage by Tim Wu.

The post Video: An Inside Look at Service in Schools appeared first on FoodCorps.

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) – The Growing Healthy Waves initiative in Tupelo fosters creative efforts to encourage kids to eat those vegetables.

Fourth grade students at Lawndale Elementary are developing quite the green thumb. This is the first green house in the Tupelo Public School District, which is made possible through community grants from Boerner Be Wild and Toyota.

The Sprout House was officially dedicated in September.

Sarah Murphy works with Growing Healthy Waves as a FoodCorps service member.

“It’s just a great learning environment,” Murphy said.

The lesson this week is “Seed Ya Later,” teaching students about seeds and how they travel. For example, did you know that strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside?

Watch the video

The post WATCH: FoodCorps member Sarah teaches in school district’s first ever greenhouse appeared first on FoodCorps.

CONWAY, Ark. – Local schools are emphasizing the importance of having gardens on campus through the Farm to School program.

The Carolyn Lewis Elementary School Garden keeps growing year after year. It teaches kids where their food comes from and how to eat healthy and sustainable meals.

Everything you see in the garden from the beds to the plant signs, students put together and planted seeds in an area next to the playground.

“It was just a whole bunch of dirt, but now it’s growing,” one student says.

“The plants need water, sunlight, space,” explains another student. “We do two hands apart and we stick it in.”

Healthy greens are not just growing outdoors. They’re sprouting inside classrooms too.

Students are learning about seeds, how to plant them and grow vegetables.

Next door in the cafeteria they get to do taste tests.

“I want you to get a little bit of the delicious radish salsa with mango and cilantro on it,” says Sarah Lane, Food Corps Service Member. It focuses on connecting schools with farmers and teaching nutrition to students.

Watch the video

The post WATCH: Students Grow with FoodCorps in Arkansas appeared first on FoodCorps.

We’ve all been there — you’re full, and you simply scrape the food off your plate into the trash. It’s part of the reason 40 percent of food is wasted in America. Now some students are taking notice of those numbers Traverse Heights in Traverse City is digging deeper into why by conducting a little experiment during lunch. They got some help from organizations across town like Oryana, FoodCorps and Food Rescue, which is a program through Goodwill Northern Michigan. Usually lunch is time for laugh and play, but now — lunch is time for a lesson.

“We waste a lot of food in this country. 40% of our food is wasted, and it starts there,” said Devin Moore, education outreach coordinator for Oryana.

That 40% is the focus for students at Traverse Heights Elementary School in Traverse City. The garbage cans were pushed aside at lunch today and replaced with marked containers showing students how much of each food gets wasted.

“What nutritional value ends up in the garbage can that should be in your body to help you grow into a better thinker,” said Ryan Schrock, Principal of Traverse Heights.

Watch Video

The post WATCH: FoodCorps service member takes action to reduce food waste appeared first on FoodCorps.

Cecily Upton, FoodCorps’ Co-Founder and VP of Innovation & Strategic Partnerships, recently spoke on a panel with peers in the food and agriculture movement at the Food Tank Summit in Washington, D.C. Watch the video to hear her speak about engaging kids in food and agriculture!

Panel Conversation: Cultivating the Food and Agriculture Movement

Moderator: Caitlin Dewey, Reporter, The Washington Post

Panelists:

Lauren Frances Tucker, Executive Director, Kiss the Ground
Cecily Upton, Co-Founder and VP of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, FoodCorps
Mara Fleishman, Chief Executive Officer, Chef Ann Foundation
Tambra Raye Stevenson, Founder and CEO, WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, & Agriculture
Sarah Sem, Former President, The Store at George Washington University

The post Watch: FoodCorps Co-Founder Cecily Upton at Food Tank Summit appeared first on FoodCorps.

Recently, Target volunteers from Marietta, Georgia spent a day helping out in the garden at Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, a FoodCorps school. Watch the video to see FoodCorps and Target in action!

About FoodCorps and Target

Since 2015, FoodCorps and Target have joined together to connect kids to healthy food in schools. Target, FoodCorps’ National Champion for Healthy Kids, enabled us to launch our Sprout Scouts program in 2016. Sprout Scouts is a national program that provides FoodCorps AmeriCorps service members with the resources and activities needed to teach students about cooking, gardening, and nutrition through hands-on learning. This year, support from Target has enabled the launch of FoodCorps in-school lesson plans, along with the training and coaching that enable our AmeriCorps members to deliver the best hands-on learning.

The post WATCH: FoodCorps and Target support Georgia school appeared first on FoodCorps.

Caleb Swanigan, forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, visited a FoodCorps classroom to share how nutrition got him to the NBA. Watch him and FoodCorps CEO Curt Ellis on The Players’ Tribune!

The post Watch: NBA Player Caleb Swanigan Visits FoodCorps School appeared first on FoodCorps.

The post VIDEO: What do CT students think of healthy food? appeared first on FoodCorps.

CONWAY, Ark. (KTHV) – How many healthy lunches do you remember eating in elementary school? Students in Conway do it every day.

Governor Asa Hutchinson proclaimed October Arkansas Farm to School Month.

It’s a nationwide effort to connect schools with local farms and the goal is to provide children healthy meals in cafeterias while improving nutrition.

“They get to harvest carrots, sweat potatoes and okra right now,” said Sarah Lane, an AmeriCorps Teacher at Carolyn Lewis Elementary in Conway.

She’s helping to expand the way kids learn with a hands-on approach. Students at Carolyn Lewis have had their school garden for nearly two years.

Watch Video

The post WATCH: Arkansas students grow their own food appeared first on FoodCorps.

It’s in the Bronx that she serves with FoodCorps and strives to give her students similar “a-ha!” moments.

Watch Rosanne’s story about falling in love with food, and discovering that by serving with FoodCorps, she can make a difference for the young people in her community. “Hey,” she realizes, “maybe I can change the world through food.”

Want to be like Roeanne and inspire students in your community to take charge of what they eat and fall in love with food? Apply to be an AmeriCorps service member with FoodCorps before 6 PM PT tomorrow!

Donate

Let’s change the world through food together,
The team at FoodCorps

P.S. Inspire others with Rosanne’s story by forwarding or sharing on Facebook or Twitter.

The post Change the World Through Food appeared first on FoodCorps.