The five-session Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) Learning Collaborative brings together early childcare educators to promote young children's healthy eating and access to fresh local produce through this interactive educator training. The educators will explore ways of introducing children to where our food comes from. The collaborative emphasizes experiential learning opportunities, community engagement, and life-long health and wellness for children, families, and caregivers. Educators will assess their program to identify opportunities for growing, planting, harvesting produce, and creating solutions to solve everyday challenges that may arise. Exploring community resources such as local farms, farmers markets, and food forests that provide access to local produce will enhance the educator's Farm to ECE curriculum. Educators will create a plan that ensures they make programmatic and systemic changes that address food and health equity and farm education in their programs. 

1.  Recognize the importance of offering healthy food choices in their program.  

2.  Identify the role of the Early Childcare Educator in promoting locally grown food for children birth to five.

3.  Identify ways to include farm-to-ECE in all their curriculum areas.  

4.  Create a plan that will work within the context of their program for how they can grow food with their children.

5.  Identify opportunities for communicating with families and incorporating culturally responsive recipes. 

6. Set policies that follow best practices for locally grown food in the Early Childhood Settings

7. Identify opportunities for change and develop an action plan.