We offer spring & fall field trips and in-class workshops to local public elementary school classes. Connect the hands-on experience to your educational curriculum!

Field Trips

Grow Food Northampton offers free field trips in the spring to our Giving Garden and Community Garden, and in the fall field to Crimson & Clover Farm. The field trip package provides bus transportation and includes one hour of hands-on activities. Students have the opportunity to prepare soil, plant seeds, or harvest crops, as well as learn about what happens on an organic farm, and gain a deeper understanding of where their food comes from and why it is important that everyone in the community have access to local food. Grow Food Northampton offers a limited number of field trips – valued at $500 and including bus tranportation – to local public elementary school classrooms.

• Spring field trips visit our Giving Garden and Community Garden, and focus on learning about food access and hunger issues in our community and give students a chance to give back to their community by helping to prepare soil or plant seeds that will produce vegetables for soup kitchens and food pantries.
• Fall field trips focus on learning about organic farming. Classes visit Crimson & Clover, the “anchor farm” on our community farm, where students get the chance to harvest seasonal vegetables and learn about the value of local food and farms.

Classroom Workshops

We offer classroom workshops throughout the school year.

• In our cooking workshops, students learn how to prepare healthy dishes with local produce.
• In our science workshops, students learn about plant biology and where their food comes from.

Last year, over 800 students enjoyed these fantastic programs, which are 100% funded by Grow Food Northampton, thanks to generous donor support, including from the Northampton Education Foundation, Bunny Rattner Foundation, and Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Northampton schools are our first priority, but we also serve Easthampton, Holyoke, and Springfield schools. Because we want to improve our programming each year, and because continued funding depends upon demonstrated success, we expect all participating teachers to complete an online evaluation form after the field trip or workshop. We also ask for usable photos and hand-written thank-you’s from the class whenever possible.

Questions?
Email: michael[at]growfoodnorthampton.com
Phone: (413) 320-4799