At San Marcos Unified School District (SMUSD) in San Diego County, farm to school is about more than what is served on the lunch tray. Through the district’s 2023-24 CA Farm to School Incubator Grant project called “Healing Harvest,” all 17,912 Transitional Kindergarten –12th grade students in the district have access to intentional food, agriculture and wellness experiences designed to help young minds connect, learn and thrive.
These experiences include: eating California-grown foods, visiting Stehly Farms and the Ecology Center, exploring Indigenous grains and milpa agriculture with university biology partners, and participating in culinary therapy. The three wellness-focused agricultural spaces that anchor this work across the district are Grizzly Grove at Mission Hills High School, El Huerto de los Sueños / Orchard of Dreams at Twin Oaks Elementary, and the Love and Kindness Garden at Double Peak School, with additional spaces in development.
What makes SMUSD’s farm to school project unique is its intentional connection between food, farms and social-emotional wellness. Grant funding supports a school social worker who helps facilitate these experiences, ensuring that food- and farm-based wellness activities are guided by trained mental health staff.
“When we arrive at the farm, I just feel like I can breathe good there—like I am peaceful,” one Mission Hills High School student shared. “Even when we taste the food, it makes me feel healthier just tasting it. Those days at the farm are my best school days.”
That connection between personal well-being, food and the land is also central to SMUSD’s community partnerships.
“Many of the youth of today while carrying a value system for the ecology of the earth do not always carry this over to their food,” Jack Ford of Stehly Farms said. “Food is not a product or a thing, but a direct relationship with Mother Nature. It’s essential for their health and the health of the planet that we extend these values and practices to our diet.”
And the work continues to grow. The developing Agricultural Innovation Center and student-led farm stand will create new opportunities to connect agriculture, nutrition, career technical education, student enterprise and farm to school experiences.
October is National Farm to School Month! Join us and thousands of schools, early care and education sites, farms, communities and organizations across the country as we celebrate food education, school gardens and lunch trays filled with healthy, local ingredients.
Click here to view this original CDFA Planting Seeds blog.