Presentation Type

Presentation

Track

Research

Keywords

farm to early care and education, agriculture education, gardening, early childhood education, local food system

Brief Summary

This baseline study examined how [State] early care and education (ECE) providers implemented activities and access to locally grown foods, gardening, and learning about food, nutrition, water use, composting, and agriculture. Over the past three years, 254 respondents participated in farm to ECE, with many providers cooking or holding taste tests, doing agriculture/nutrition education, and conducting field trips. Universities, farmers, community organizations, and Extension agents could alleviate the primary barriers and support ECE providers through curriculum, website content, or trainings on how to teach 3-5 year olds agriculture, gardening, plant life cycle, water, the environment, or composting.

Comments

The abstract aligns to early childhood to K, higher education, and informal/nonformal education, specifically Extension education, as we want to train early care and education providers about food, water, agriculture, and energy-related topics.

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Integrating Food, Water, and Agriculture Education in Early Childhood: A Baseline Study of Farm to ECE Programming

This baseline study examined how [State] early care and education (ECE) providers implemented activities and access to locally grown foods, gardening, and learning about food, nutrition, water use, composting, and agriculture. Over the past three years, 254 respondents participated in farm to ECE, with many providers cooking or holding taste tests, doing agriculture/nutrition education, and conducting field trips. Universities, farmers, community organizations, and Extension agents could alleviate the primary barriers and support ECE providers through curriculum, website content, or trainings on how to teach 3-5 year olds agriculture, gardening, plant life cycle, water, the environment, or composting.