What is Farm to Early Care?
Farm to Early Care is dedicated to the incorporation of 3 main components in early childhood settings:
Food and agriculture education: exploring and talking about food and farming
Local purchasing: buying locally grown products
Gardening: growing food
See our Resources tab for some of our favorite relevant resources. The National Farm to School Network also keeps a database of resources and tools, and are a great resource for further learning about Farm to Early Care: https://www.farmtoschool.org/our-work/early-care-and-education
Minnesota Farm to Early Care Advisory Group
Farm to Early Care advocates from around the state began meeting together in 2014 to support and grow Farm to Early Care in Minnesota.
We aim to:
Coordinate, streamline and leverage our work to advance Farm to Early Care in Minnesota
Strengthen and advocate for supportiveprograms and policies
Share Farm to Early Care resources, tools and best practices
Educate about the benefits of Farm to Early Care for children, farmers and communities
Focus on systems-change opportunities
If you are interested in joining us, please reach out to us at hello@farmtoearlycaremn.org. We would love to have you join us!
In 2023, the group was able to receive some support to document the landscape of Farm to Early Care in Minnesota, as well as potential future efforts. This process resulted in this Action Planning Document for Minnesota’s Farm to Early Care efforts. We hope future planning can incorporate a range of provider voices, to move funding and support forward for the wide range of early care providers in Minnesota.
Network Materials
Agendas, notes and video recordings from previous virtual MN Farm to Early Care meetings can be found in a public-facing shared MN Farm to Early Care Google folder.