Coming Together in Community for Farm to School in New York
How do you measure the impact of human connection? In the non-profit world, we are often asked to validate our work to funders, demonstrate impact through data, and share facts about how our work is making a difference. As someone who came from public health, I understand the importance of data and the role it should play in programming, policy, and decision-making. But how do you validate personal experiences in a way that resonates with funders and decision makers?
Every year for the last seven years, the Farm to Institution New York State (FINYS) program of American Farmland Trust has hosted the New York Farm to School Institute retreat. Our most recent retreat was held at Mabee Farm Historic Site, but this year was like no other. In the past, we have hosted only school teams who are kicking off their time with us for the nine-month farm to school Institute training program, where they learn about the three C’s – cafeteria, classroom, and community – of farm to school. They gather for two days, meet their coaches, hear from farm to school experts, and form bonds as a team that carry them through the year.
The first morning of the retreat kicked off with a keynote address from Jenny Lester-Moffit, Senior Fellow at American Farmland Trust and former Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jenny shared words of widsom and encouragement with school teams and farmer participants, underscoring why this work to create viable market opportunities for farmers matters. From there, participants split off into morning workshops and reconvened for a locally-sourced lunch with state leaders.
We were honored to be joined by state legislative champions for farm to school on day one of the retreat, including Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, whose leadership on the Senate and Assembly agriculture committees has strengthened support for farm to school, as well as state leaders from our school teams’ districts, including Assemblyman Robert Smullen and Dylan McQuoid, Legislative Director for Assemblyman Phil Stec.
Following an afternoon of farmer and school-focused workshops, the programming concluded with “From Field to Plate: The Farm to School Spectrum,” a panel discussion with Kristy Apostolides of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Harvest NY, Francis Yu of Catskills Agrarian Alliance, Stephanie Lyons-Lawerence of New York State Nutrition Association, and Olivia Fuller of Fuller Acres Farm. The conversation highlighted different perspectives from farmer to food service and nonprofit partners and the opportunities for getting started with New York farm to school at a smaller scale.
On day two, we received a warm welcome address from New York State Commissioner of Agriculture, Richard Ball, who has graciously attended each Institute for the past seven years. Telling his now infamous carrot story, Commissioner Ball shares how he first got involved in farm to school as a farmer in Schoharie when he realized that schools were struggling to procure New York grown vegetables, including the carrots he grew. He took that opportunity to learn about the challenges school food professionals face and how New York State could help schools purchase more food from farms, contributing to a more vibrant farm economy.
This year marked the first time we hosted farmers alongside schools at our retreat. Farmers are a key partner in a successful farm to school program. They can not only provide food for the cafeteria, but they can also be part of the classroom learning experience or host farm-day field trips for schools that want to truly solidify their students’ knowledge of where their food comes from. FINYS has co-hosted farm to school farmer trainings before, but 2025 has been a special year as it was the first time we fully incorporated a Farmer Track into our proven Institute model.
Past farmer trainings that FINYS has hosted have provided a lot of information to farmers about the complex school bidding process and the various ways to address school sales in your business plans. While those trainings have value, the thing we hear most from farmers is that they want to meet the schools – they want help making real connections. This feedback led to the development of the Farmer Track and the Meet and Greet with schools at the retreat.
The Meet and Greet was a time for schools and farmers to connect. They heard from one another about their passion for feeding kids nutritious food, learned about what they produce as farmers and what they purchase as schools, and meet – not over Zoom or email – but face-to-face and handshake to handshake. While you can certainly survey participants and assess what they got out of the event, the impact is not easy to translate into words or onto paper. Being at the event, hearing stories, feeling the buzz in the air – that’s much harder to put into hard data.
Andell Jones of Triple J Farm was one of the FINYS Farmer Track participants who attended the full day of New York Farm to School Institute programming and the Meet and Greet event. Triple J Farm sells New York Grown & Certified eggs and is interested in selling to schools and connecting with students through farm visits to cultivate the next generation of farmers. Read more about Andell and Triple J Farm in the feature from FINYS.
We are grateful to all our farmers, schools, and partners who helped make our seventh annual New York Farm to School Institute Retreat a success, as well as the behind-the-scenes support from our coaches, consultants, and staff. We thank our workshop session leaders from New York Agriculture in the Classroom, New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets and National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT.) While it takes substantial effort and funding to gather in person, there’s just no way to substitute data points for the genuine connections made throughout the retreat.
