Field-to-Fork is a 6-10 week after school club offered to students grades 3-5 that aims to empower youth through growing and cooking their own fresh food. We offer this club to schools around Louisville and other local community partners. This club fosters curiosity and discovery of the natural world through the senses. With gardening, cooking, and hands-on nutrition activities, we learn about nourishing and celebrating ourselves, the planet, and our communities. Together, we dig in the dirt at school gardens, cook farm-fresh recipes, move our bodies, create nature-based art, and explore the world around us.
At the end of each club-meeting, students take home a share of vegetables grown by the Youth Community Agricultural Program (YCAP) crew members at the Food Literacy Project Farm as well as donated pantry items from Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Markets, to practice their newfound culinary skills at home with their families. The last day of each club is a celebration; students choose their favorite recipes and cook a community meal to share with their family and community members.
Our main goal with Field-to-Fork clubs is to encourage learning through the exploration of growing, preparing, and eating healthy foods while weaving together play and wonder. This allows students to uncover the power of food, culture, and curiosity about the world around them.
We also offer options for short-term programming with in-school visits and after school programs.
Food Stories is an in-class program that can be adapted to all ages, grades, and school subjects. The foundation of this program is storytelling through food, in which we offer a reading and/or writing activity followed by a related recipe that we prepare together.
Family Cooking Nights are also offered where our team collaborates with school/community partner staff to invite up to 10-12 families to come in and cook a meal together, fostering community and a shared space for creativity with food.
Sun Sprouts is a cooking and gardening program designed for Pre-K aged students, getting them engaged with their senses through making snacks and digging in the soil.
For more information about our Field-to-Fork extension programs, please see the one-page documents below for more information.
Over the years, we have had the privilege of learning by discovery with students of all ages throughout Louisville, Play Cousins Collective, YMCA of Greater Louisville’s Child Development Center’s, Ridgewood Baptist Church and the Backside Learning Center.
Interested in learning more about Field-to-Fork Club? Please reach out to the School & Community Programs Manager, Arabella Paulovich, at arabella@foodliteracyproject.org
You can also check out these informational flyers below: