Who We Are?

Island Grown Schools is the Vineyard’s farm-to-school program. We seek to raise a new generation of Vineyarders who are connected to local farms and farmers, empowered to make healthy eating choices, informed about the food system, and engaged in growing food for themselves, their families and community.

Local food in our schools also helps our children grow up with healthier eating habits, healthier bodies, and the ability to shine in the classroom. Studies show that when kids participate in farm to school programs and eat more fresh foods in the cafeteria, they are better able to focus in class, feel better about their school experience, and perform up to 70% better on standardized tests. Students in programs like ours also end up influencing their families eating and buying habits, creating an over-all healthier community that understands the importance of supporting fresh food that is grown close to home.

Island Grown Schools – Planting a Seed for the Next Generation from Film-Truth Productions on Vimeo.

Program Components

IGS has four main program components:

• Cafeterias: We work with the Lunch Teachers (our cafeteria directors and staff) at all seven island schools and with our island farmers to increase the amount of locally grown foods used in school meals and to strengthen the ties between farms and schools.   Our schools are one of the biggest food consumers on the Vineyard. By sourcing locally grown, fresh foods in school cafeterias, we can generate stable year-round demand for the products produced by our family farmers, supporting their livelihoods, preserving the open space they farm, and maintaining the vibrant agricultural heritage of Martha’s Vineyard.
• Classrooms: We work at every school and every grade level to integrate food, farm, and nutrition-based learning to our classrooms.  We work one on one with teachers to find connections to what they are already teaching, and find that every subject area can be taught through the lens of food and in hands-on ways in the garden and on farms.
• Gardens: We have established gardens at all of our schools, and work with our students, teachers, school staff, parents, and community volunteers to maintain them.  We see our gardens as outdoor classrooms, where students not only get to learn their school subjects but where they are also able to deepen their connection to nature.
• Farm connections: Each year we bring as many classes as possible to our working island farms.  This helps our farmers pass some of their knowledge on to the next generation, and helps our children grow up knowing where their food comes from.  Farm visits also help students appreciate farming as a demanding, admirable, rewarding profession that they can aspire to when they grow up.

Accomplishments

We are proud of all we’ve been able to accomplish with the incredible dedication and support of many island teachers, students, school administrators, farmers, food service staff, families and community volunteers.

Since we launched IGS in December of 2007, we have:

• Worked with our school communities to install a garden at all seven public schools on the island, three pre-schools, and an inter-generational garden with teens and low-income seniors from Island Elderly Housing.
• Connected school food service programs with local farms, so that six of our seven island schools now regularly source island-grown produce for school meals and snacks.
• Began and led after school gardening and nutrition programs at two of our schools.
• Worked with more than 100 teachers at every school and every grade level to develop and implement curriculum-tied food and farm-based lessons with their classes.
• Led dozens of farm field trips to many of the family farms on the island.
• Launched a “gleaning” program to harvest food from island farms that would not otherwise be harvested (either due to lack of labor or time) and delivered thousands of pounds of fresh produce free to our school cafeterias and other islanders in need.
• Coordinated teams of family and community volunteers to support the program and our gardens in every island town.
• Mentored other communities across the country and around the world in launching their own Farm to School, gleaning, and school gardening programs.

Get Involved

There are lots of ways for you to become a part of Island Grown Schools:

• Donate funds to support our staff, pay for garden materials, underwrite farm field trips, and bring more local food to our classrooms and cafeterias.
• Help organize fundraising events and run after school gardening and cooking programs.
• Work with us in the school gardens.
• Help lead farm field trips.
• Join our MV Gleaners team to harvest food from island farms to donate to our schools.
• Help lead in-class lessons on everything from cheesemaking to composting.

We need you! Please contact program coordinator Noli Taylor at noli@islandgrown.org to get involved today.

Make an investment in Island Grown Schools and help grow a sustainable future for Martha’s Vineyard.