School District Farms?
Daniel Barrera Ortega
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Nirit Tayas Zamir
Hi Daniel and everyone,
Thank you for raising this topic—it’s inspiring to see the growing interest in school-based farms and living classrooms.
I run Jordan’s Garden, a school garden education program based in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where we partner with schools to design and operate edible gardens that function as outdoor classrooms.
While our district does not currently operate a centralized “district farm” model like the wonderful example of the Hub Farm in Durham Public Schools, we support a network of school-based gardens that bring many of the same educational and community benefits directly onto campuses.
Our programs typically include:
• School garden curriculum integrated into the school day, where students learn plant science, soil ecosystems, pollination, and food systems through hands-on gardening.
• After-school garden clubs and enrichment programs that allow students to deepen their engagement with growing food and environmental stewardship.
• Seasonal camps and workshops, where children explore gardening, cooking with fresh produce, and ecological learning.
• Community and family garden events, which invite parents and neighbors to participate in planting days, harvest celebrations, and garden workshops.
• Garden installation and maintenance, helping schools create and sustain productive learning gardens adapted to South Florida’s tropical growing conditions.
Many of our school gardens also function as small campus “micro-farms,” where students participate in planting, harvesting, and seasonal crop planning. These spaces become hubs for science learning, nutrition education, and community engagement.
We’re very interested in the district farm model and would love to see something similar develop in South Florida in the future. It would be exciting to connect our network of school gardens with a larger educational farm that could support internships, teacher training, and expanded farm-to-school programming.
I’d be happy to share more about our approach or connect with others working on similar initiatives.
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HISDAg Houston
daniel
Hi All,
We’re about to launch our next school garden survey in Oregon. The last time we did this was 2019, and we found we had these school farms.
A school farm can be somewhat subjective, but is more than a handful of raised beds or a small plot. Our criteria was more or less an acre or more of fully integrated production farm operation, on school property - with producing/selling food to the public.
A good story was Bethel farm. The barn shown there was built by student labor. Terra Nova is a CTE school that serves six Beaverton High Schools. The CREST farm was on property that eventually became a school, so we lost that one. We also lost Schoolyard Farms. It’s a good testament that the absolute best school gardens (or farms in this case) can go away at some point, so there needs to be a plan to ensure they continue.
Rick
Rick Sherman
Farm to Child Nutrition Programs Analyst
Child Nutrition Programs
daniel
REBEKKA HENRIKSEN
Farm to School Project Manager
Schenectady City School District
https://www.instagram.com/schenectadyf2s/
518-949-0520 (work mobile)
518-929-8590 (personal mobile)
1880 Lancaster Street
Schenectady, NY 12308
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Erin Maidlow
John Fisher
Farm: LOSD Nutrition and Education Farm ("Field of Dreams")
Note: This is the Live Oak School District in Santa Cruz (distinct from the Unified district in Sutter County), which is famous for its "Harvest to Health" model.
Production: The district converted 1.1 acres of an unused baseball field at Del Mar Elementary into an organic farm. Because the district’s central kitchen is on the same campus, produce is often wheelbarrowed directly from the field to the kitchen for processing.
Education: It hosts a "Food Lab" elective where high school students earn credit by helping professional staff process and cook the farm’s harvest into meals for the entire district.
Farm: Rio Regenerative Farm
Production: This district-operated farm focuses on regenerative organic practices to produce a variety of fruits and vegetables for the district’s Child Nutrition Services. The produce is used directly in school salad bars and scratch-made meals.
Education: The farm acts as a "land-based classroom" for K–8 students. It features unique events like "Compost Tea Parties" to teach soil health and provides standard-aligned STEAM curriculum that focuses on ethnobotany and local ecosystems.
Farm: Farm Lab DREAMS Campus
Production: This site holds the distinction of being the first CCOF-certified organic farm owned by a public school district in the U.S. It produces over 12,000 pounds of organic produce annually (including heirloom tomatoes, kale, and stone fruit) for the district’s nine schools.
Education: The "DREAMS" campus (Design, Research, Engineering, Art, Math, and Science) hosts all 4,300+ K–6 students in the district for hands-on sustainability modules. Students participate in "Nutrition Expeditions" where they harvest and prepare their own healthy snacks.
Morgan Hill’s program is a national leader in high-yield production. Managed by the Student Nutrition Department, it focuses on "industrial-scale" growing to achieve self-sufficiency for specific crops.
Production: The district operates FarmTECH, a 20-acre program that includes an 18-acre production farm and a 2-acre educational site.
Hydroponics: They utilize "Freight Farms" (hydroponic shipping containers) and a 40-foot hydroponic greenhouse to grow 100% of the lettuce served across the entire district.
Yield: They produce approximately 450 pounds of fresh spring mix per week, ensuring that salads in the cafeteria are harvested and served often on the same day.
Education: * CTE Pathways: The farm is a lab for Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways, including Agriscience, Agricultural Business, and Plant Science.
Ag-Tech: Students learn about nutrient film technique (NFT), climate control automation, and regenerative soil practices.
Harvest Experiences: Elementary students participate in "seed-to-plate" tours where they harvest the very lettuce they eat for lunch that day.
Oakland’s model, known as The Center, is a $71 million "hub" that combines a massive central kitchen with an Instructional Farm. Its primary focus is on urban food systems and community health.
Production: The site at 2850 West Street features a 1.5 to 2-acre urban farm and greenhouse.
Seedling Production: The greenhouse is a "nursery for the district," growing over 9,000 plant starts annually that are distributed to school gardens across 77 different Oakland campuses.
Integration: While the farm doesn't provide the bulk of the 50,000 daily meals (those are sourced from local/BIPOC-owned farms), the produce grown on-site is used for Harvest of the Month tastings and the "Market Off West" community farm stand.
Education:
Field Trips: The Center hosts over 2,000 students per year for hands-on STEAM lessons. Students watch professional chefs in the central kitchen and then work in the instructional garden.
Internships: OUSD offers high school internships where students help manage the urban farm, learning about food justice, urban ecology, and large-scale composting.
Culinary Training: The facility includes a teaching kitchen where students and staff learn to cook with the seasonal produce grown on-site
Farm: CHS Student-Run Farm
Production: Unlike the elementary-focused models, this is a student-led production hub. The farm supports the "Fresh Friday" program, where students in the "Farm to Fork" elective harvest and prepare a meal from the farm to serve to the entire student body once a month.
Education: The program is heavily integrated with FFA (Future Farmers of America). Students manage the business side of agriculture, running a vegetable box (CSA) program and selling produce at local farmers' markets. Students also graduate with ServSafe certifications, making them career-ready for the culinary and agricultural industries.
Farm: Drew Farm
Production: This 2.5-acre farm, located at the Drew Transition Center, produces over 20,000 pounds of organic produce annually (including leafy greens, tomatoes, and peppers) specifically for the district's school cafeterias.
Education: The farm is a primary vocational training site for students ages 18–26 with physical and cognitive disabilities. It also hosts district-wide STEAM field trips and summer internships for high schoolers.
Farm: The Farm to School to Work Hub
Production: The district operates the "Growing Educational Training" (GET) Campus, which includes a hydroponic greenhouse producing roughly 150 heads of lettuce per week and an acre of outdoor fruits and vegetables.
Education: The program is designed as a pipeline for students with disabilities to gain credentials in food safety and horticulture, with many graduates eventually being hired into the district’s food service department.
While not a district-owned farm, JVTF operates in a deep, permanent partnership with Birmingham City Schools (BCS) through a "hub and spoke" model that transforms urban spaces into productive classrooms.
Production: The system consists of a 3-acre downtown "Hub" (The Center for Food Education) and 8 campus "spoke" farms located directly at elementary, middle, and high schools. They produce over 21,000 pounds of organic produce annually.
Distribution: Produce is distributed through student-run markets and "Farm Stands," with a heavy focus on free distribution to students and families. A 2024 expansion added hydroponic systems to eight schools to provide year-round fresh greens for culinary programs and cafeterias.
Education: Their "Good School Food" model embeds full-time farm instructors into schools to lead standards-based STEM and ELA lessons. They also offer a paid High School Apprenticeship, providing vocational training and career pathways in agriculture and culinary arts for BCS graduates.
Anne Rosenthal
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