Bringing fresh, local, sustainably grown food to students

We make good food, grown well, accessible to all.

What We Do

REAP’s Farm to School crew has finally introduced the Garden Bar into every MMSD elementary school as of the 2018/19 school year! These garden bars are not just your typical salad bar: every day, they have at least one local option. Students who receive school lunch are required to take at least one fruit or vegetable with their lunch option every day from the garden bar, and we can now ensure that they have the choice of a local fruit or veggie every day. Garden bars are just one way REAP and MMSD are working together to ensure quality nutrition and access to local foods for all Madison students.

The main job of REAP’s Farm to School specialists is to teach! We bring local foods, nutrition, and garden education into Madison schools all year long through our lesson series. Our lessons are geared for 3rd through 5th grades, but we teach adapted versions in 4K through 2nd grade classrooms as well. Each series usually lasts 6 weeks, and includes 30-45 minutes of hands on instruction with a fresh and healthy snack at the end. All of our lessons, including activities and lesson plans adaptable to any classroom, can be found in our lessons tab. For more information about bringing REAP Farm to School education into your classroom, contact our coordinator!

Every Thursday, REAP sources a locally grown, fresh and healthy snack for 12 Madison elementary schools. Our weekly snacks help promote local foods in Madison as well as support local farmers! Some example snack bites (the nifty little info sheets we ship with each snack) can be found here

We Love Local

Our Work in Numbers

140

thousand pounds of local fruits and vegetables served in MMSD school meals last year

1012

students taught during food, nutrition, and agriculture lessons

4675

students served local snacks in Madison area schools

48

Madison public schools in the Farm to School Project

Ways to Get Involved

We believe in us! Together we can create change in our communities and support the Farm to School Movement within our state. You can get involved by

Donating to our organization
Volunteering with our Fresh Snack Processing Program
Volunteering with our Nutrition and Agriculture Education Program
Have our AmeriCorps come teach in your classroom, daycare, after school program, etc.
Talk to your legislators about the Farm to School Movement

“Our teachers and students love the opportunity to learn new information presented in new ways”

“I greatly appreciate these lessons”

“Thank you for having this program”

What’s going on with Farm to School?

Read Our Blog Posts!

Teleschool KitMarch 30, 2020
Hello everyone! Welcome back to our Farm to School website. It has been a while since we have been active here but we have decided to relaunch this site as a resource for parents and students to access farm toContinue reading “Teleschool Kit”
Native NutritionJune 21, 2019
The Great Lakes Intertribal Council (GLITC) has a very cool website from 2014-2015 for their Nutrition/SNAP-Ed program! Posts/pages include a range of topics about great-lakes-area native american food cultures and the nutritional information that goes with them. There’s recipes forContinue reading “Native Nutrition”
Wisconsin School Garden Day: May 23rdMay 3, 2019
Have you heard? Tony Evers announced that May 23rd is officially Wisconsin School Garden day. From the WI School Garden Network activity guide: “You can participate in Wisconsin School Garden Day by engaging in some type of garden-based education activityContinue reading “Wisconsin School Garden Day: May 23rd”