This fall, Lowell Graded Schooll’s After School Fall Garden Club has been having fun harvesting in the garden and preparing it for the winter! We learned about crops that can be harvested in the fall like corn and potatoes. Up next, we’ll be learning about turning the soil and putting down hay mulch for the winter.

Last Tuesday, we put the school garden to bed for the winter at Barton Graded. Kindergarten, first grade, and fourth grade helped us harvest cabbage and squash, clear the beds, and plant garlic for the spring! We learned about seasons and how they affect what we can grow. Thank you to all the teachers and staff at Barton who make these workshops possible!

Our Cooking Club is off to a great start at Brownington Central School, where middle-school students are preparing meals for the Orleans Food Shelf Orleans Federated Church.🍽️

During the first two weeks of the program, we practiced knife skills, learned how to convert measurements, and thought about seasonality and all the different ways to prepare vegetables.

So far, these students have prepared 40 healthy, delicious meals to give back to their community, including a vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, summer squash casserole, and coleslaw. Each meal features local produce gleaned by @salvationfarmsvt

🌱🍎Meet Our New Farm-to-School Team! 🌱🍎

We’re excited to welcome our new AmeriCorps Farm-to-School Coordinators — Alex, Ella, and Kristen — who are already making an impact this school year! With support from our Farm-to-School Program Manager, Elyse, they’ve been diving into school garden harvests, preparing and serving delicious harvest dinners, and bringing seasonal celebrations to our partner schools. 🥕

This fall, students are proudly sharing the fruits of their labor with their families during open houses - showcasing their cooking skills through a meal or pressing cider at our table while we connect with parents and guardians.

We’re honored to be part of these meaningful moments and to support students as they connect with where their food comes from, share their pride in what they’ve grown and cooked, and build community through food. 💚

#FarmToSchool #AmeriCorps #SchoolGardens #HarvestSeason #FoodEducation

GMFTS was thrilled to host a United Way service group from @communitynationalbankvt at the Newport City Elementary School garden yesterday morning! This dedicated crew poured their energy into the garden and tackled a big list — resetting fence posts, building a new compost bin system, and removing old bin materials. 💪 They also cleared out TWO truckloads of weeds and turned over all the garden beds! Their generosity even extended to donating and installing a new roll of fence wire!

A heartfelt thank you to this amazing volunteer team for their hard work and community spirit 💛🌱

Last week, students from Brownington Central School joined GMFTS and @salvationfarmsvt on a special field trip to @cabotsmithfarm, where they gleaned over 1,300 pounds of summer squash! 💪

This fresh produce will be shared with charitable food distribution sites across the Northeast Kingdom, sent home with students, and used in our Cooking Club program.

This hands-on experience was made possible through a Farm to School Vision Grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture—part of a statewide effort to empower students to tackle real-world challenges in their communities.

During the trip, students learned how gleaning surplus crops can fight local food insecurity. A group of these students will dive deeper through our Cooking Club, preparing meals with gleaned produce for the Orleans Federated Church to share with neighbors in need. 🍽️❤️

Huge thanks to Salvation Farms for leading this inspiring day in the field!

It was a spectacular evening for our community potluck last night at Bluffside Community Garden! Sunny, cool and breezy as 18 community members gathered to share delicious food from their gardens, including stuffed zucchini, cucumber salad, garden salsa, squash soup and rhubarb crisp. It was a beautiful mix of long-time residents, newer faces, seasoned gardeners and food enthusiasts, all with a shared goal of connecting to their community. 🥰

Thank you to the VT Dept of Health and @vermontlandtrust for co-hosting. Let’s do it again!