FAQs: Farm to School Institute Adaptation Program

The program is designed for states who have had some experience with farm to school training, professional development, and/or technical assistance. This is a comprehensive program and usually not the first step towards starting farm to school programs.Teams that would most benefit from this program should be considering launching their own Institute within two years and would use this opportunity as a  springboard to success. For states not accepted into the Adaptation Program, we will still offer access to our resources and an invitation to our quarterly Farm to School Institute Community of Practice.

The Adaptation Program has monthly points of contact of 1–1.5 hours, which includes:

• Quarterly direct technical assistance calls
• Quarterly all adaptation team calls
• Optional quarterly calls with Institute Adapters from across the country

The biggest time commitment of the program is June 23–27, 2025 during our in-person Northeast Farm to School Institute. The Adaptation Program requires two team members to travel to Shelburne Farms to observe the Institute in action, learn about the framework behind it, and begin your own Institute planning.

The Farm to School Institute model is being adapted at the level of school districts, counties, states, and regions. For this particular Adaptation Program, we are looking for state-level teams, but will consider a partnership of multiple states if collaboration can improve your success.

Yes, we are interested in adaptations of the model for early childhood providers or including ECE providers in your program. Several states are working on this adaptation specifically for early childhood sites.

We look for teams that include participants with different racial and cultural identities, and varying skills, experience, and organizations. We highly encourage you to partner with organizations/individuals that contribute to the diversity of leadership and have complementary skill sets. We encourage teams to use this program as an opportunity to demonstrate the leadership of BIPOC team members and organizations.

In the Institute model, equity is embedded in many components: school team selection, community partner relationships, programming (e.g. topics, content, and speakers), logistical details (e.g. food sourcing and transportation arrangements, scholarships), and more. In the application, share your thoughts, efforts, failures, ideas, or plans around equity in your Institute program. Let us know what support could be most useful to you.

Research and evaluation show that coaching school teams to support action planning and implementation leads to more robust and sustainable farm to school programs. In fact, our coaching model is a key element of success for school transformation efforts, generally. The Adaptation Program will include how to support successful coaching. More information is available in Vermont FEED’s Coaching Guide for Farm to School Action Planning.

Each team receives a $7500 travel stipend for the year that can also be applied to planning your own Institutes. Depending on the program you design​ and the number of schools​ and the resources/partners you have​,​ the costs of hosting a Farm to School Institute can vary greatly. Some states have budgeted about $25,000 for the​ir​ program. ​Here is a sample of budget line items to consider. We encourage you to think about both funding and other resources that your partners can offer.

We accept teams from all regions of the US  that are looking to expand their farm to school professional learning programs with  K-12 schools and early childhood. The application is used to gain an understanding of each state's existing farm to school efforts, with the intent of forming a cohort of adaptation teams that have both similarities and opportunities to share lessons learned with others. We are looking for states that have offered some farm to school training or professional learning, but are looking to bring that support to a new level that builds long-term sustainability of programs to connect  classrooms, cafeterias, and communities. We are looking for teams consisting of diverse members (racial, gender, experience, and program roles) and teams interested in making their programs, policies, and processes inclusive of diverse participants.

Resources are available on the Adaptation Program page, including a recorded informational webinar (Driving Sustainable Farm to School Initiatives Through the Farm to School Institute Model) and links to the application.