At UNC Greensboro’s North Drive Child Care Center toddlers – typically known for their “terrible twos” – can be seen planting produce with their teachers, learning about colors while harvesting vegetables, and trying new foods.
Angie Roberson, project director with UNCG’s Education, Quality Improvement, and Professional Development program, also known as EQuIPD, has witnessed this herself.
“I was visiting one day, and the two-year-olds were having egg bites with Swiss chard the children had helped grow in their garden,” Roberson says.
North Drive Child Care Center is one of many centers and family home centers that are part of UNCG’s Farm to ECE Program. The program has introduced gardening, healthy cooking, and local food purchasing to approximately 100 children under 5 in Guilford County.
Nelson (left) and Roberson garden with children, parents, and teachers at UNCG’s North Drive Child Care Center, including UNCG Child Care Education Program Coordinator Becca Young and Human Development and Family Studies student intern Ashley Allen (right).
UNCG’s program is an integral part of the statewide Farm to ECE research and community engagement effort led by NC State’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems. Roberson says Farm to ECE aims to cultivate lifelong healthy habits and help reduce childhood obesity by exposing young children to nourishing foods and increasing outdoor activity.
At UNCG, Farm to ECE is embedded within EQuIPD, which is funded by Guilford County Partnership for Children. EQuIPD supports early child care educators in Guilford County through coaching, technical assistance, and professional development.
“We are responsive to the community’s need, so it’s not one size fits all,” explains Associate Professor and EQuIPD Co-Project Advisor Dr. Harriette Bailey. “It’s the community saying what they need, and our programs being able to adapt.”
Trish Nelson, EQuIPD’s Guiding Healthy Behaviors in Early Childhood Coordinator, says community collaboration is key for Farm to ECE. She works closely with a network of teachers, farmers, funders, and extension specialists to bring gardening and local foods to children.
Collaborating to create onsite gardens
For most people, getting a garden functioning is already a feat. Add a group of enthusiastic children to the process, and gardening is one tall task.
Nelson says relationship-building and research play important roles in streamlining the Farm to ECE process and creating measurable changes at early child care centers.
“It is very relationship-based, so there is time spent to really get to know programs and their own culture,” Nelson says.
Teacher T Andrews is part of the UNCG Child Care Education Program, which provides early childhood education at three sites on campus and serves as a teacher training and research facility.
To help guide their efforts, Nelson teams up with administrators to complete an evaluation tool called GO NAPSACC. The measure has seven subscales, including one focused on Farm to ECE goals.
Some child care centers want to increase gardening space; others are interested in bringing in more local foods. Nelson reviews these findings with administrators and teachers, and together they develop a plan to reach their specific goals.
“I want to focus on what they’re interested in – usually that matches up with the areas that need improvement,” Nelson says. “We make that connection, develop goals, and work on them together over time.”
Some child care programs work with Nelson on a short-term basis – perhaps they have a goal of adding blueberries to their existing garden, which can be accomplished in a few visits.
Another program may have loftier goals, such as establishing a garden, eating more healthy foods, and weaving gardening into their educational curriculum, such as using rulers in the garden to teach measuring skills or honing shapes and colors through harvested produce.
Nelson and her team, which often includes UNCG student interns, visit programs regularly and work alongside teachers, administrators, and children.
“Children are so capable. A lot of times people think they’re not, but that’s not the case in my experience,” Nelson says. “They’re involved in everything from planting seeds to watering and harvesting.”
Afterwards, administrators complete a post-assessment to evaluate how Farm to ECE performed on intended goals.
Connecting farms with child care centers
Research underpins Farm to ECE’s goal to connect local foods with early child care centers.
The National Center for Education Statistics says over half of children under 5 years old spend time away from home, and over half of those children attend center-based care. That’s a big opportunity to introduce healthy foods early.
Think farm to table, with an early child care spin.
The statewide CEFS Farm to ECE program works with farmers and food hubs to source local foods for early child care centers and family home centers – and conducts assessments on this goal’s feasibility. Since child care programs order small volumes of produce and are decentralized, it can be challenging to connect them to local farmers. CEFS worked with ten counties through a three-year USDA grant, including Guilford, to create local food buying models that address these constraints.
Teacher Lindsey Sanders Tyler (right) updates the North Drive Child Care Center bulletin board where families exchange seeds and vote for what they want to plant in the future.
Last year in Guilford County, Nelson connected three child care centers with local food sources to supply their snacks. She also tabled at the local Corner Farmers Market where she taught families and children about what they can do with in-season produce and how to involve young children in the cooking process.
“I anticipate a continued emphasis on local foods purchasing,” Nelson says. “There’s some really good work going on here locally and then across the state. I think we’re just getting going with some of the bigger pieces.”
Planting seeds for the future
As summer settles in, Nelson is recruiting programs for next year’s cohort and continuing to grow existing programs. The UNCG North Drive Child Care Center team is busy putting together loaner backpacks with different cooking materials like child-safe cutting knives and cookbooks families can borrow.
“Farm to ECE really brings in families because they want children to eat foods that really nourish them and create those habits early,” Nelson says.
North Drive Child Care Center recently had a spring “Planting at Pick Up” event where parents were invited to help their children plant for the new season. Families can also exchange seeds and vote for what they want to plant in the future on an interactive bulletin board.
They are also free to just visit the garden – a place where their child can learn, spend time outdoors, harvest new foods, and feel joy in nature.
“The children flock to the garden and ask, ‘What are we going to find today?,” Nelson says. “It’s really fun to see.”
By Rachel Damiani
Photography by Sean Norona
UNCG’s Farm to ECE Program received funding from Center for Environmental Farming Systems and the State Physical Activity and Nutrition grant through the NC Department of Health and Human Services.
