Sprouting Healthy Kids is Sustainable Food Center's farm-to-school and food systems education project. Sprouting Healthy Kids includes three main components: locally-grown, fresh fruits and vegetables served in school cafeterias, classroom lessons designed to introduce students to healthy food and food systems, and a hands-on afterschool gardening and cooking program.

Sprouting Healthy Kids builds on Sustainable Food Center's successes in Farm Direct, Grow Local, and The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre®.

The knowledge of food systems and the relationship with food that young people develop through Sprouting Healthy Kids empowers them to make positive decisions concerning their own health and nutrition and the health of their families and their communities.

Sprouting Healthy Kids began in the Austin area as SFC worked to refine its educational tools and resources, and worked with food service staff to institute local food purchasing procedures and policies.  SFC is committed to a continuation and expansion of this programming in Central Texas, and now offers support to other entities, including districts, school health advisory councils, PTA organizations, and state governments, in planning and implementing other farm-to-school and food systems-education programs.

For more information on SFC's Sprouting Healthy Kids project, contact Andrew W. Smiley, andrew AT sustainablefoodcenter DOT org.