One of the most important aspects of Farm to School, whether at the K-12 or preschool level, is experiential education and gardening (read more about that here). Oftentimes both schools and preschool childcare centers are limited on resources and space, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get kids into a garden. Visiting a nearby community or school garden can fill that need, or some very simple small-space gardening methods can give kids the satisfaction of seeing a garden from start to finish.
This summer, I helped my preschool-aged daughter grow her very own pot of carrots. We started them sometime in June and they were occasionally subjected to drought when she didn’t remember to water them. We harvested a few carrots when they needed to be thinned during the summer, but waited to harvest the rest until just a few weeks ago. From a second-hand 15″ plastic pot filled with compost, potting soil, and sand, we harvested a whopping 6lbs of carrots. If you’re familiar with serving sizes of preschoolers, that harvest could feed 30 preschoolers!
This just goes to show you, gardening at home and at school doesn’t need to be fancy to be wonderfully productive!
Jim Dyer recently returned from a climate change symposium in Washington D.C., where some of the focus centered on how to inform and engage the public. Unfortunately the discussion did not specifically mention the local food movement, but Jim makes a convincing argument that “local sustainably produced food can engage many ordinary people in this fight” in his latest blog post, 
“Getting Serious Now” is what I firmly believe we must do regarding the state of the world and its future, especially regarding biodiversity and climate change—and for my part, how food systems fit into that work. I believe we must see with fully open eyes what is happening to our world and its future, but retain the ability to act to improve things. We need to hold in our minds both the devastation of our natural world that we have caused, are causing now, and what needs to be done to reduce further impacts, and, the amazing beauty, abundance, resilience, mystery, and enjoyability that remains to be appreciated and preserved. This is essential if we are to evaluate our priorities objectively, gauge the urgency of various actions needed, and avoid the paralysis of denial and hopelessness. Not easy, but I am convinced we can hold both concepts in our minds, and I think we must, in order to help make the changes necessary for our future and that of our grandchildren.