Farm to Desk DC

At Farm to Desk, we believe that schools can instill in students an understanding of what they eat and where it comes from. Building on the documented success of Alice Water’s Edible Schoolyard, our approach includes a dining hall that serves tasty, from-scratch food; a garden where students grow fruits and vegetables; and a curricular component that gives students the know-how to seek delicious, real, and nutritious foods.

Our program utilizes the Farm to Desk wiki, where teachers obtain food and ecology content tailored to the curriculum they already teach. The resources available on the wiki build students’ fruit and vegetable vocabulary and make healthful choices a daily conversation in math and language arts classes. The program also aims to restore mealtime as a communal, shared experience that draws on tradition and culture to celebrate homemade food. Currently, the pilot project at E.W. Stokes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. directly affects over 100 students, and indirectly impacts the entire school.