Press Release - Northeast Farm to School Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Bellows Falls Union High School Selected for the Northeast Farm to School Institute & Grant Recipient from Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets 

 

Westminster, Vermont  June 2025 — Bellows Falls Union High School is excited to announce its selection as one of nine teams to participate in Vermont FEED’s Northeast Farm to School Institute. The Institute is a unique, year-long professional learning program designed to support schools in building strong and lasting farm to school and early childhood initiatives. Since 2010, it has helped over 100 schools and early childhood programs design and implement projects and programs that connect the cafeteria, classroom, and community.

“Farm to school initiatives create a culture of wellness in our schools, benefiting students while supporting our local farmers. Kids are well nourished with local foods, farmers can serve their local communities, and those communities can build stronger connections to the schools with place-based learning,” says Vermont FEED Project Director Betsy Rosenbluth. The strategies to achieve this shift are: serving fresh, local food in schools, providing hands-on food systems learning opportunities, and developing meaningful relationships between community partners, schools, and students. 

The BFUHS team is comprised of staff and community members, including the following: 

• Farm to School Cafe (Melissa Bacon, WNESU Nutrition Director; Wendy Herbert, BFUHS Nutrition Site Manager), 
• Community Farm Leader & BFUHS Parent, Teresa Janiszyn 
• BFUHS Faculty (Jacqueline Holmes, Rose Monahan)
• BFUHS Administration (Kelly O’Ryan) 

To support the team’s initial vision, they were also just awarded a $5,000 grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. 

Vermont FEED is a farm to school partnership project of Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT). 

 

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Shelburne Farms is an educational nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future through its programs, place, and products. We offer transformative learning experiences to help educators, students, and visitors create a more thriving world. Home to the Institute for Sustainable Schools, our historic campus is a 1,400-acre diversified farm located on the homelands of the Winooskik band of the Abenaki.

 

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) is an association of farmers, gardeners, and consumers promoting an economically viable, ecologically sound, and socially just Vermont food system that benefits all living things.

 

National Farm to School Census Data

• 74.1% of school food authorities reported participating in farm to school activities in the 2022–2023 school year.
• 45.6M students attended school food authorities that participated in farm to school activities in the 2018–2019 school year.
• 74,433 schools are featuring local foods on the menu

 

Media Contacts:

Melissa Bacon, WNESU Nutrition Director, Melissa.Bacon@wnesu.com 
Kelly O’Ryan, BFUHS Principal, Kelly.ORyan@wnesu.com 
Betsy Rosenbluth, Vermont FEED, brosenbluth@shelburnefarms.org