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Monthly Farm to School News from Growing Minds
March 2025
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Growing Minds in the Spring
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I don’t know about you, but my hands are itching to get in the dirt and start planting! In this newsletter we are sharing tips on planning your edible gardens, the importance of teaching children where their food comes from, and highlighting our Meet Your Farmer video series!
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Spring is right around the corner and planning your edible garden is a helpful way to ensure you maximize your space and your efforts! The more time you dedicate to planning, the more you’ll get out of it. For example, local farm to school champion from Weaverville Primary School (Buncombe County, NC), Heather Gast, shared with us that, last year, she planted cucumber seeds in March and was able to harvest cucumbers with her students before the end of the year! This month, Growing Minds recommends the following resources to help jump start edible garden planning:
- Free Seeds! One of the ways that we support school gardens in the region is by providing them with free seeds—which we pay for through grants and donations. We’re fortunate to have a partnership with Sow True Seed, an Asheville-based company to make this happen. Are you an educator in Western North Carolina? Contact us to find out how you can get free seeds for your school garden.
- Planning Resources: Growing Minds created a when to plant/when to eat calendar for the crops featured in our I Tried Local… Toolkit. For those of you using raised beds for your edible gardens, here’s a great tool for engaging older students in designing and plotting their crops for raised beds.
- Tips for Gardening with Kids: If you are new to gardening with children or just want a refresher, check out Growing Minds tips for gardening with children!
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A video featuring Growing Minds was created in partnership with the Extension Farm to School program. This video is part of their farm to school online training series, and they wanted to highlight some of the great work happening in Western North Carolina for their local food connections module. Check out Haywood County Kindergarten Ag Day, where Growing Minds partnered with CTE teachers and the School Nutrition Director, Alison Francis, to do an engagement activity, as well as the Oakley Elementary Block Party in Buncombe County, where Growing Minds worked with Flying Cloud Farm to host a mini farmers market. Learn more and view here!
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Meet Your Farmer Video Series
While educators, children, and families can’t always visit a wide variety of farms, our videos bring the farmers to you. We chose farmers representing a variety of backgrounds and experiences to tell stories unique to their communities and help kids better connect to the people growing their food. We have paired the videos with recommended books, resource lists, recipes, and lesson plans. Learn more and explore here!
If you are located in Western North Carolina and are interested in hanging Meet Your Farmer banners in your school cafeteria reach out to Suzi Palladino at
spalladino@asapconnections.org.
Pictured left to right: Buncombe County School Nutrition Director Lisa Payne and Stacy Dean, former Deputy Undersecretary for USDA's Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
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National CACFP Week
March 16-22, 2025
National CACFP Week, sponsored by the National CACFP Sponsors Association, is celebrated each year during the third week of March. This important week raises awareness of how the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) works to combat hunger. This year, CACFP Week's theme is “Trying New Foods.” Visit www.cacfpweek.org to explore the many resources available to learn more about, promote, and celebrate CACFP Week within your network. If you are interested in participating in the NC CACFP, click here for more information on how to apply.
Vocational Horticulture and Transition with Exceptional Students
March 15th, 11 am PT/ 2 pm ET
This webinar details the innovative techniques designed to accommodate students with disabilities using differentiated methods and adaptive equipment carefully chosen to provide each student the opportunity to participate and gain valuable vocational horticulture skills leading to possible employment. Learn more and register here.
Growing Minds Farm to School Mini-Grant
Deadline: March 31, 2025
ASAP’s Growing Minds mini-grants help early childhood education (ECE) centers and K-12 schools throughout the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina provide children positive
experiences with healthy local foods through these components of farm to school: school gardens, farm field trips and farmer classroom visits, and local foods served in meals, snacks, and/or taste tests. Learn more and apply here!
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Our office is located at 306 West Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801. We are open to the public Tuesday through Thursday from 9am to 5 pm. Call 828-236-1282 or email
Growing Minds is a program of ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project). ASAP's mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.
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