蜜桃影视

As child care centers, preschools and other early education settings strive to stretch every penny, they often face daunting challenges in providing nutrient-rich food with limited resources. The default for many programs is to head to Costco or other big retailers and buy in bulk, which often means processed, 鈥渃onvenient鈥� food and snacks. According to Kelly Etter, Ph.D., vice president of the Policy Equity Group鈥檚 Early Childhood Equity Initiatives, many children in these settings get as much as two-thirds of their daily nutrient needs in child care settings. That adds up to a lot of processed food, often with an equity component of who gets better, fresher food.

Fortunately, Etter says, there鈥檚 a delicious alternative to this situation and it pretty much defines win-win-win: Farm to Early Care and Education.

Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) programs have been around for more than a decade and can be found in all types of early childhood settings, from preschools and family child care homes to Head Start/Early Head Start programs and in K-12 school districts. The programs provide nutrient-dense, minimally processed, local foods, and help small children develop food literacy through school gardens, cooking, field trips and a plethora of other activities aimed at helping them understand where their food comes from. Adapting the community-based models found in the (NFSN), Farm to ECE programs teach young kids about food and nutrition, and, by working with local farmers and food producers, boost the local farm economy, build community and help improve public health outcomes. By investing in local producers who are women, Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC), Farm to ECE programs provide a powerful pathway to advance racial and social equity.

鈥淔arm to ECE is such a natural fit for kids in this age group,鈥� Etter says. 鈥淭he approach is all about hands-on exploration and learning, and kids love that. They love cooking. They love dressing up as farmers or bakers and acting out stories like 鈥淭he Little Red Hen.鈥� They love exploring dirt and learning about animals.

鈥淭he focus of Farm to ECE is promoting access to local, nutrient dense foods for children in child care settings, with a specific eye toward connecting woman-owned farmer or BIPOC-owned farms or producers. The other piece is educating them about where their food comes from,鈥� she says. 鈥淓ven if a program doesn鈥檛 have the space or resources to have a big, outdoor garden, this model can help them do smaller-scale container gardens and let the children watch the magical process of plants growing.鈥�

The idea of Farm to ECE has developed over the past decade from a few scattered providers growing gardens at their preschools, to a movement with thriving programs across the country. Some states now integrate Farm to ECE into their statewide early childhood plans. The aim of these programs is to develop the next generation of responsible food consumers and to support sustainable, equitable and just local food systems. Though the benefits of these programs seem intuitive (little kids, local food, community involvement: What鈥檚 not to love?), until now, the actual impacts had not been quantified or evaluated extensively.

It鈥檚 one thing to believe that a program is wonderful, but funders and policymakers often want more quantitative evidence. Good metrics drive good strategy.

For the past six years, the Policy Equity Group, a national consultancy devoted to the well-being of children, has provided technical assistance to nine states that are implementing Farm to ECE programs, supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Late this summer, the group, in partnership with the National Farm to School Network (NFSN), released the , a powerful resource for families, providers, funders, policymakers and others interested in seeing this sensible model take root in local communities. The resource was two years in the making, headed by former NFSN Program Director Lacy Stephens and Etter, with a team of 13 contributors.

鈥淎s Farm to ECE is still growing as a movement and the evidence base is still developing, NFSN and the Policy Equity Group saw a need to identify and refine priority areas both in research and programing,鈥� says Sophia Riemer, Farm to ECE associate at NFSN and one of the project鈥檚 contributors. 鈥淲e developed the resource as a toolkit to help guide and advance the movement and to spotlight priorities, such as a focus on equity, and to identify gaps within existing research and strategy.鈥�

The outcomes and indicators that underpin the toolkit were stakeholder-driven from the beginning, says Etter, based on conversations with those in the Farm to ECE trenches.

鈥淭hree years ago, at our last in-person convening before the pandemic, we had all our partners together in a room and we did a Mad Libs-like activity,鈥� Etter says. 鈥淲e asked them to complete the sentence: When we implement Farm to ECE programs, we expect that [who?]  will experience [what changes?]. We asked them to fill in the blanks, and they put up hundreds of sticky notes showing who they thought their work benefits and in what ways. All those sticky notes became the birth of this framework.

鈥淲e wanted to give them a tool where they could say, 鈥業 think this work is helping shape children鈥檚 food preferences at an early age and is increasing market opportunities for local food purveyors,鈥� and then find the tools and measures they need to prove it.鈥�

To this end, the authors of the shared metrics resource, set about identifying existing metrics 鈥� such as surveys for families or child care providers, classroom observation tools, etc. 鈥� and compiled them into one easy-to-use toolkit.

The Farm to ECE Shared Metrics resource is organized according to outcomes for the intended beneficiaries of the program including children; families; ECE providers; farmers and food producers; and communities/systems.

The document then organizes each of these areas into priority outcomes 鈥� the desired 鈥渆nds鈥� 鈥� and the evidence-based indicators and measures that show whether those outcomes have been achieved.

The authors say the toolkit is useful to all stakeholders in the ECE landscape: program administrators and partner organizations seeking to design, implement and expand Farm to ECE programs; researchers and program evaluators wanting to shape their research; evaluators building evidence for funding and suggesting ways programs can refine their offerings; grant program administrators and funders to align funding priorities and reporting requirements. The resource is truly a one-stop shop for taking the guesswork out of how to thoughtfully evaluate whether and how Farm to ECE programs are working so programs are set up to succeed.

For those who want to start a Farm to ECE program from scratch, NFSN has created a library of 鈥済etting started鈥� that provide a roadmap of best practices and lessons learned 鈥� including . Farm to ECE with babies! The shared metrics鈥� accompanying 鈥淯ser Guide and Framing Resource鈥� also can serve as an instruction manual for potential users.

The resource is not intended to be used in its entirety by any stakeholder or community, but to serve as a menu of options depending on the program, policy goals or community interests. Etter stresses that the resource is intended to be a 鈥渓iving document鈥� that will continue to be updated with new information and new resources as the work of evaluating Farm to ECE continues to evolve. It is both inspirational and aspirational, she says, and the hope is that gaps identified in evaluating the programs will help drive development of new approaches to assessing the movement鈥檚 impact and outcomes.

Because Farm to ECE comprises many different stakeholders, from children and families to child care providers and local farmers, foundations, and funders to policymakers, codifying its many values is a complicated project. Giving form and substance to those values through this well-thought-out shared metrics toolkit represents a giant step toward developing a vibrant, equitable, community-based food system that begins with the nation鈥檚 youngest children and their families.

鈥淲orking toward shared priorities and language can help unify the Farm to ECE field toward common goals, which can help us build the argument for continued and greater funding and support,鈥� Riemer says. 鈥淯ltimately, this will lead to higher quality, more equitable, and more expansive Farm to ECE programming throughout the country.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.