Farm to Early Care and Education as an Initiative
Farm to early care and education emerged from the farm to school movement, uses the same core ideas, and has grown rapidly over the past decade. Since their inception, both movements have been supported through polices and investments at the federal, state, and local levels. Supports for farm to early care and education include the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program; the CACFP, which also allows for the purchase of gardening supplies in addition to procurement of local foods; and state initiatives such as Michigan’ s 10 Cents a Meal for Michigan’ s Kids & Farms or Washington, DC,’ s farm share bags. Importantly, because early care and education environments vary more than K – 12 schools, a more customized approach is needed to support farm to early care and education’ s core elements, including food procurement.
Late 1990s K – 12 schools begin combining farm, nutrition, and agriculture education with local sourcing and gardening in farm to school programs.
2002 – 2018 A total of 453 bills and resolutions for farm to school efforts are passed spanning most US states, along with legislation related to its three core priorities( Bobronnikov et al. 2021).
State legislation focuses on creating funding streams and sometimes infrastructure for implementation( Bobronnikov et al. 2021).
Mid-2010s The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases the first edition of the Spectrum of Opportunities Framework in 2013 to help guide state-level obesity prevention activities in early care and education settings. The nine standards can also be used to align and integrate state systems supporting children’ s development. Farm to early care and education and local purchasing are part of the framework( CDC 2025).
Information is published about the first farm to early care and education programs implemented. The approach quickly gains traction.
2015 Farm to early care and education programs are active in 48 states( Stephens & Oberholtzer 2016, cited in Lux & Stephens 2020). This rapid expansion illustrates providers’ interest in the movement’ s aims.
2021 The 2021 National Farm to ECE Provider Survey( its third iteration)( Bopp et al. 2022) highlights challenges for local procurement:
› Cost of items and lack of funding › Time and staff needed to prepare fresh, local foods › Logistics of finding reliable suppliers for small quantities › Seasonality of available products
2021 – 2023 Thirty-nine bills and resolutions from 18 states are proposed supporting or relating to farm to early care and education, of which 25 pass( NFSN 2025).
2025 Almost 75,000 schools currently participate in farm to school in some way, representing nearly three-quarters of schools in the US today( USD ERS 2025).
60 Young Children
Winter 2025