October is Farm to School month, and is celebrated both nationally and statewide. The team talks with Abby Getman Skillicorn, Special Projects Manager of Massachusetts Farm to School, and Mistelle Hannah, Nutrition Director of Freshampton, the school nutrition program of Northampton Public Schools.

Many local schools currently receive this support through existing grant programs, like the Local Food for Schools Grant, that awarded $3.5M in 2023 to the Bay State, and was cancelled this year with the new administration. Our state legislature has passed a bill in the Senate to codify a formal farm-to-school program, to permanently establish a local food incentive and rebate for schools to purchase ingredients from local farms.

Says Getman Skillicorn, “Farm to school is a holistic methodology that needs the classroom, the cafeteria, and the community (CCC) to be really successful.” Hannah shares how the Northampton Public School system receives the Mass Fresh grant, and integrates these three C’s with monthly taste tests. They offer in-classroom nutrition education with hands-on exercises, like making tea bags, grinding wheat into flour to make dough, or harvesting tomatoes to make sauce. Students visit the farm at Grow Food Northampton, start hydroponic towers, and start seeds as community partners support students.

This episode aired on 10/22/25