Farm to School

Viva Farms is committed to bringing the farm to schools across our region via healthy food and farming education. With a group of accomplished, regional partners, we are proud and excited to engage in this work of educating future consumers, bringing kids closer to the land, and ensuring that organic, locally-grown produce is available to local youth. Viva Farms’ Farm to School program operates in collaboration with many partners primarily in Skagit County and is actively working to expand regionally. 

Our focus is on bridging the gap between farmers and schools, supporting school garden curricula and increasing the integration of fresh produce and nutrient-dense grains in our schools and early learning centers. Currently we are working to: 

• Support school food service departments to improve systems and practices for scratch cooking and local sourcing; 
• Collaborate with Harvest for Healthy Kids efforts in Head Start and Early Childhood Education programs across the country;
• Assist and educate new and existing schools gardens in Skagit County. 

 To learn more about Farm to School or connect with this area of our work, please contact our Farm to School Coordinator. 

Buyers, School Foodservice Directors and others implementing Child Nutrition Programs are invited to connect with our Sales team and sign up to receive our Fresh Sheets here. 

We are fortunate to have many different entities supporting this work. To learn more about statewide Farm to School efforts, visit the WSDA Farm to School website, the Washington Farm to School network page, and contact your local WSU Extension office and inquire about their SNAP-Ed work. 

This work is supported in part by the USDA’s National Center for Appropriate Technologies, award #: USDA-FNS-F2S-Ctech-24-MT2 and Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, #2021-68012-35955. And in partnership with the following entities: