Farm & Garden Learning Center

What is Farm-to-School?

Farm-to-school is a national movement, where Falmouth Public Schools is a leader in the state for the Farm and Sea to School programming.

Core elements of the Farm-to-School program include:

Procurement - Local foods are purchased, promoted and served in the cafeteria or as a snack or taste-test.
School gardens - Students engage in hands-on learning through gardening.
Education - Students participate in educational activities related to agriculture, food, health or nutrition.

What Does the Farm-to-School Program Look Like at Falmouth?

Falmouth Public Schools has built a strong farm-to-school program rooted in its school gardens with the help of staff, students, and the community. The gardens serve as the keystone of the program, connecting learning in classrooms, hands-on experiences in the garden, food served in the school cafeterias, and the community. Guided by an annually updated Action Plan, which was developed by the district’s initial farm-to-school team, the garden program focuses on the three core pillars of farm-to-school: classroom, cafeteria, and community. The garden program currently serves all Pre-K–12 students across the district, with classes visiting daily.

History of the Garden

The Falmouth school garden program began in 2001 with the planting of an orchard at Falmouth High School, initiated by students and supported by English teacher Mark Melnicove. The program expanded in 2013 when elementary school nurse, Susan Raatikainen, championed the creation of a garden at Falmouth Elementary School. In 2015, a district team representing school nutrition, administration, and teachers attended the Farm to School Institute at Shelburne Farms, helping to shape a more coordinated farm-to-school vision. A substantial grant from the Falmouth Education Foundation helped to fund construction of the greenhouse site during the 2016 school year. The program truly set roots in the spring of 2016, when the garden educator position became full-time and construction began on the hoophouse and gardens at the Farm & Garden Learning Center adjacent to the district office. In 2021, the program transitioned from an opt-in teacher model to a garden-based instructional staff model, expanding staffing and allowing more consistent integration of garden learning that ensures equitable access and consistent programming for students.

Connecting Learning Standards and Curriculum in the Garden

The garden program serves all Pre-K–12 students across the district. Its most consistent impact is in grades Pre-K–3, where nearly 600 students—representing approximately 30% of the district—participate in regular hands-on experiential garden-based learning, with classes visiting for lessons held weekly and biweekly throughout the school year. Over the past five years, these lessons have been refined to align with grade-level standards while incorporating the seasonal rhythms and local ecology of Falmouth, Maine. In grades K-3, each grade has a plant/vegetable that is an anchor for lessons during the year where students may study the plant's lifecycle, try taste tests, focus on its pollination process, or use it for an art project. The garden classes are meant to integrate in with existing grade level scope and sequence and standards. For example, second grade focuses on the allium, or onion plant, family. Starting in the fall with a lesson on planting garlic that integrates measuring (2.MD.A.1 and 2.MD.A.2) and graphing (2.MD.D.10) and enjoy a taste test of black garlic made with school grown garlic; in the winter, students use the Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog as a non-fiction book and identify key parts (e.g. index, sidebars, charts/graphs, etc) to learn about different types of onions and then seed two types of onions; in the spring, students then trim their onions and get to taste test those greens and subsequently plant those plants with correct spacing (2.MD.A.1) and depth. Find out more about the Farm to School curriculum.

Curriculum and Classroom Support Projects by the Garden Team

Where Does Produce from the Garden Go?

Unlike a typical community garden or small diverse vegetable farm, plantings are timed for educational use. Due to climate, weather, and day-length in Maine, our school garden team needs to rethink planting times for harvests and plant interactions to properly align with classes, especially in the fall.

Garden harvests are distributed across three primary areas: student taste tests, school cafeterias, and the Falmouth Food Pantry. In accordance with organic certification requirements, all produce distributed beyond taste tests is documented through a harvest log. The program prioritizes growing high-quality, nutrient-dense crops that meet cafeteria needs and maximize both nutritional and economic value.

Taste Tests

Three students try celery in the school garden

Taste tests are a core part of the garden program, ensuring that the approximately 600 Pre-K–3 students who participate in regular garden lessons have repeated opportunities to try fresh, student-grown food. For example, a single lesson may distribute the equivalent of roughly 30 pints of cherry tomatoes, valued at approximately $120, illustrating the scale of direct student access. In addition to these core classes, older students and visiting classes often participate in informal, self-serve tastings. Taste tests occur year-round, with items like hoophouse-grown greens and herbs as well as storage crops during the winter months.

Cafeteria Produce

A student holds a tray with a salad with red bell pepper, pickled red onion, cucumber, and leafy greens

The garden program maintains a growing partnership with district nutrition services, with Falmouth High School as the primary recipient of produce. Efforts are ongoing to better align crop planning with kitchen needs and to steadily increase both consistency and volume. A notable expansion in 2025 included collaboration with Falmouth Elementary School to provide fresh vegetables for summer school meals. From April through December 2025, produce provided to Falmouth Public Schools cafeterias saved a total of $2,643.50 by providing fresh herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, kale, Swiss chard, and other crops.

Falmouth Food Pantry

A lush garden growing kale, greens, and other edible plants

The garden program also contributes fresh produce to the Falmouth Food Pantry, supporting local food access. In 2025, donations were limited due to a temporary closure of the pantry for mold remediation; however, the program still contributed $419 worth of high-quality produce during the summer months, including greens, lettuce, celery, cabbage, and summer squash.

Produce Cart

Falmouth Farm to School Staff

The garden team is composed of three full-time positions—the Program Manager and two Assistant Program Managers—who are certified for content delivery and work during the school year and summers to maintain the garden space. Click on the staff title to learn more about their role.