What to know
Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) programs increase children's access to fresh, healthy food. They can also help children learn more about food and how it is grown. Read how CDC-funded programs across the country are advancing Farm to ECE.
Background
CDC supports Farm to ECE through several state and local programs. Those featured below are the result of a cooperative agreement with the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists from 2018 to 2023. This work helped advance 20 Farm to ECE coalitions across the United States and reached more than 218,000 children, 8,300 providers, and 3,800 ECE programs.
About 12.5 million U.S. children up to age 5 and not yet in kindergarten spend at least once a week in a nonparental care arrangement. This makes the ECE setting one of the best places to help young children build a foundation for healthy living.
State examples
Mississippi
The state ECE plan included developing resources and holding cooking demonstrations and farmer visits at 55 ECE sites. The state team piloted farm share deliveries, bringing local farmers to ECE providers to deliver fresh produce. Together, efforts reached nearly 150 ECE providers and benefited nearly 3,000 children.
Colorado
Leaders created a roadmap and 3-year action plan. They also created more than 30 resources in multiple languages. These resources include Colorado's Farm to Child Guide and a set of videos.
Iowa
A pilot project increased Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimbursements to 27 ECE providers. This allowed ECE sites to use CACFP funding to buy $30,000 in local foods from 73 local food producers and farmers.
As a result, 500 children have better access to affordable, locally grown fruits and vegetables. The success of this pilot helped the Iowa Farm to School and Early Care Coalition to secure $1 million in state funding to expand the program statewide.
Washington State
The state's Farm to ECE Coalition is working to grow equitable and sustainable programs. Its online library hosts free training, success stories, and resources, including Spanish language and tribal resources. So far, 1,330 ECE providers and 1,200 partners have taken the training.
Locally, the work has directly benefited 2,414 children and 1,040 ECE sites. For example, Viva Farms in Skagit County partnered with Child Care Aware of NW Washington and a local public health organization. Together they brought gardening, Farm to ECE curriculum, and fresh produce to 33 family home childcare programs. Nineteen of these serve children from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Michigan
Building upon Michigan's Ten Cents a Meal program, the Michigan Farm to ECE team expanded a pilot program with a focus on equity. The team removed jargon from the applications to make them easier to complete. Michigan received 65 applicants for 31 awards.
As of 2021, the pilot provided $14,479 in Farm to ECE funding and reached 1,148 children. The pilot extended across 17 Michigan counties. Initial results show that more than half of the sites improved best practices in Farm to ECE using a national, validated self-assessment tool. This pilot encouraged more Farm to ECE providers to enroll in Michigan's Ten Cents a Meal program, laying the groundwork for long-term benefits for Michigan's children and its food system.
District of Columbia (DC)
DC leaders developed several innovative programs and tools.
Farm share bags are weekly collections of seasonal, local produce designed to provide families access to fresh foods at home. Families and ECE staff can buy these bags at a low cost. People can buy the bags with cash, a credit card, and federal nutrition benefits, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Childcare shares provide low-cost, weekly deliveries of seasonal fruits and vegetables to ECE centers. ECEs use this food to prepare meals and snacks for their centers.
The Market Share blog is linked to a QR code on produce delivery bags. The blog contains information about the bag's weekly produce, including recipes that can be created with each week's contents. In addition, the Produce 101 booklet helps ECE providers identify, store, and prepare local vegetables. In 6 months, more than 56,000 pounds of local food were delivered to ECE sites and to families living in DC, benefiting 500 children and their families.