Michigan is home to a rich variety of agricultural resources — wherever you go in our state, there’s a good chance you’re not far from sources for fresh, nutritious, locally grown food. Yet, despite these resources, many Michigan kids live in food-insecure households, and providing all children with equitable access to healthy food continues to be unacceptably difficult.
Forging partnerships between food growers and schools is a promising solution to this challenge, one that benefits kids, families, and farmers alike.
The Health Fund has been proud to support this approach, and we’re fortunate that Michigan has a strong network of “Farm to School” champions, including the 10 Cents a Meal program, which provides schools with matching state funds to leverage their investments in fresh, local food for students.
Healthy food for youngest Michiganders
Extending the Farm to School model to early childhood education (ECE) providers — like preschools and daycare centers — has clear health and developmental benefits for young children. A range of barriers, however, often stand in the way of creating equitable and sustainable “Farm to ECE” programs. Common challenges often relate to scale, staffing, system knowledge, and location.
Considerations of equity underlie all these issues, as preschools and daycares that serve children who are food-insecure are more likely to experience challenges most acutely. Meanwhile, approaches that fail to account for the social determinants of health driving these inequities and incorporate the voices and ideas of communities affected by them are unlikely to succeed.
Engaging communities, developing solutions
To get at the heart of these challenges, a group of Michigan’s largest Farm to ECE stakeholders — convened through the Michigan Farm to Early Care and Education Network — began work in 2022 on a strategic plan for a comprehensive, cooperative, and equitable approach to Farm to ECE for 2023-2028.
Partners in this effort, including academic institutions, government agencies, and nonprofits working in education, agriculture, and public health, sought input from nearly 200 ECE providers, food producers, organizations, and families as they developed the plan, which was published in August.
“As a group of partners, we needed a unified guide for what we all were collectively doing,” said Crystal D’Agostino, a Senior Program Manager with the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan (NKFM) who took part in the planning process. “This brought everyone to the table to make that commitment and have a clear plan with expectations and actions going forward. And it’s a critical steppingstone to potentially securing state funding for Farm to ECE down the road.”
The Health Fund provided funding to the NKFM to contribute to the process, specifically to secure input from ECE providers from underserved communities. The NKFM has a long history of working with ECE providers around the state on nutrition and healthy food access as part of its mission to prevent kidney disease and improve the quality of life for those living with it through early prevention efforts. These connections help bring critical perspectives into the planning process.
“With support from the Health Fund, we were able to provide incentives for childcare providers to come in and participate in a series of focus groups,” D’Agostino said. “That was huge because it helped the plan take a turn and readjust some of the areas we were looking at to figure out how we can continue to support our providers.”
Looking ahead
The strategic plan includes targeted goals and strategies focused on education, stakeholder engagement, policy change, increased access to resources like 10 Cents a Meal and the Go NAPSACC program, and more.
This work gives us a clearer picture of the current state of Farm to ECE efforts in Michigan, as well as articulates shared solutions to the barriers standing in the way of wider and more equitable implementation.
As the partners move forward with executing the new plan, the Health Fund will be monitoring the results, with an eye toward supporting new innovations through our Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles program in the future.