School Farms
- Pre-Seed
School Farms ensure the availability, utilization, and access to school meals by empowering community schools to grow their own food.
Community schools are increasingly faced with the challenge of funding school meals due to limited government support, the rise in food cost and market failures.
School Farms seeks to ensure the availability, utilization, and access to school meals. It recognizes the link between education, nutrition and skill development and is improving access to all.
School Meals increases school attendance, retention and active teaching and learning activities in schools by more than 25 percent. It is helping achieve SDGs (2, 3, 4 and 10)
School Farms provides a cost effective and sustainable solution to school meals. Its core elements: Farms, Meals, and Skills help achieve its goal.
Community schools are supported by School Farms and key stakeholders to grow their own organic food. School Farms prioritizes the growing of staple crops, vegetables, and fruits. With produce from the farm, schoolchildren are offered sustainable in-school nutritious meal for healthy growth and mental development
Schoolchildren are offered the opportunity to gain practical agricultural skills for future prosperity. To achieve this, schoolchildren signup to School Farms Club for training and mentoring and an opportunity to undertake an independent agriculture project for the Best Student Famer Award.
Community schools are increasingly faced with the challenge of funding school meals due to;
- Limited and delay in the release of government feeding grant to schools.
- The continuous rise in food cost.
- Market failures that affect access and availability of food.
- High cost to education.
- The perennial problem of schools closing down over some period or delay in reopening after every academic break.
School Farms collaborate with key stakeholders in providing a cost effective and sustainable access to nutritious in-school meals from the school farm whilst using the same space to help schoolchildren acquire practical agriculture skills in agriculture.
70 percent of the harvest is used as school meals and 30 percent is sold out. Of this 30%, sold out, 20 percent is reinvested into the farm and 10 percent is used as farm management cost.
Output/Results:
Provision of Nutritious in-school meals and practical agriculture skills acquisition.
Reduce the feeding cost of schools that will eventually result in the reduction in the cost of accessing quality education.
Effective teaching and learning activities.
Increased concentration on schoolwork.
Increased enrollment, attendance, retention of schoolchildren.
Increased community cohesion for local development.
The percentage reduction in the school's feeding budget will also reflect the percentage reduction in the cost of accessing education - The availability, utilization and access to nutritious in-school meals for schoolchildren and reduced cost of accessing quality education.
The anthropometric and clinical methods of assessing nutritional status to assess the students with collaboration from the local Nutrition Office and the local Ministry of Health. - Provision of Nutritious in-school meals. Promote good health and mental development of schoolchildren.
The school's daily attendance record will be monitored. - Increase in enrollment, interest and attendance to school.
- Adolescent
- Secondary
- Male
- Female
- Rural
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Agricultural technology
It provides 100% organic farm produce and makes use of smart agriculture for climate adaptation.
Drip irrigation system
Organic pesticide
Organic manure
School Farms collaborate with key stakeholders in providing a cost effective and sustainable access to nutritious in-school meals from the school farm whilst using the same space to help schoolchildren acquire practical agriculture skills in agriculture.
Access to free land and low-cost labor from the community.
Access to extension service from the local Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Ghana Health Service will design nutrition program at no cost.
- Community schools are supported to grow their own organic food. School Farms prioritizes the growing of staple crops, vegetables, and fruits.
- With produce from the farm, schoolchildren are offered a sustainable in-school nutritious meal for healthy growth and mental development.
- Schoolchildren are offered the opportunity to gain practical agricultural skills for future prosperity. To achieve this, schoolchildren are signed-up to School Farms Club for training and mentoring. The training kit is School Farms Manual. Schoolchildren get the opportunity to undertake an independent agriculture project during school vacation to enter into School Farms’ Best Student Famer Award Program.
- 6-8 (Demonstration)
- Non-Profit
- Ghana
70 percent of the harvest is used as school meals. 30 percent is sold of which 20 percent is reinvested into the farms and 10 percent is used as management cost for the project.
Climate Change impact and mitigation/adaptation.
Community development and awareness about the local food system and economic development.
- 3 years
- 6-12 months
- 6-12 months
https://www.instagram.com/schoolfarms/
https://www.facebook.com/schoolfarms/
https://twitter.com/_SchoolFarms
- Secondary Education
- Food Production
- Supply Chain Management
- Resilient Design
To ensure the availability, utilization, and access to nutritious in-school meals for schoolchildren.
Provision of Nutritious in-school meals and practical agriculture skills acquisition.
Reduce the feeding cost of schools that will eventually result in the reduction in the cost of accessing quality education.
Local community leaders/School/Local government
Local Ghana Education Service, Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS)
Local Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Parent-Teacher Association
Local Ghana Health Service
NA
Executive Director