Farm to Community Mentors

children playing with baby chicksThe purpose of the Farm to Community Mentor program is to expand agricultural awareness by developing a community understanding of agriculture and to develop on-going relationships between communities, schools and their local farms. Farm to Community Mentors are farmers and educators who facilitate links between other farmers, gardeners, educators, children, and community in order to reconnect communities to their local agriculture.

 

Farm to Community Mentors are working to make farms and farmers more prominent resources in every community in Vermont. The Mentor project responds to the need in our communities for children and families to understand the important role that farms play in Vermont.

Download the Farm to Community Mentor brochure.

 

Farm To Community Mentor Program Goals And Objectives

  1. Increase community understanding of sustainable agriculture by:
    • Connecting farmers, school-aged children and community members so they can accomplish agricultural projects on farms or in classrooms through lasting relationships; and
    • Identifying agricultural materials and professionals within the community as resources.
  2. Enhance student learning of agriculture by using farms as an educational resource by:
    • Introducing teachers to the diversity of topics that can be explored on the farm, in the garden, or managed forest, and to the richness and realness the experiences can bring to learning; and
    • Developing activities, field studies, or service learning opportunities with farmers so they can gain strategies and confidence to become educators on the farm or in a classroom.
  3. Support the viability of farms by developing community connections to local agriculture by:
    • Working with Vermont Food Education Every Day (VT FEED) to develop marketing relationships with communities and schools to increase the amount of local food served at schools; and
    • Working with institutions and organizations other than public schools to develop marketing and distribution relationships with farmers.

Statewide projects of the Farm to Community Mentors

Farmer Correspondence:

Do you ever wonder what farmers do in the winter months? Farmer pen-pals correspond with classrooms during the winter months across the state to share the events on the farm: from using draft horses in Fairfield to collect sap, to training a working farm dog in Dorset. Mentors match classrooms with farmers based on students’ interests and grade levels. Every subject matter taught in school can be explored through agriculture and be enhanced by corresponding with a farmer.

Farm to Community Mentors

NOFA Vermont has 8 regional Farm to Community Mentors - they are all farmers or educators who have extensive relationships with the schools in their communities and with other farmers.

Please contact the mentor in your region with any questions or ideas. If there is no mentor listed for your area, contact the Farm to Community Mentor Program at NOFA Vermont.