About

Who We Are

Core Values

The Alabama Farm to ECE (Early Care and Education) Coalition wants to improve access to healthy, local foods for children, providing them with the best possible start in life while supporting the Alabama economy.

The AL Farm to ECE Coalition works to expand healthy food access, promote family and community engagement, provide additional market opportunities for farmers, and support local communities.

Farm to Early Care and Education is a set of strategies and activities that promote increased access to healthy, local foods through local procurement, gardening opportunities, and food and agriculture education activities to enhance the quality of educational experience.

You can join us in our mission to give children in Alabama a healthy start!

Interested in Partnering with Alabama Farm to ECE?

What Motivates Us

Our vision is that all ECE programs in Alabama are empowered to:

Successfully source healthy local food, build gardens, and offer food and agriculture activities that enrich the quality of early learning experiences for children and families while supporting the Alabama food economy.

Source Local Food

Grow Gardens

Promote Agriculture Activities

Foster Early Learning Opportunities

The mission of the Alabama Farm to ECE Coalition is to create more equitable access to healthy foods for children, families, and ECE providers, while building new markets for Alabama farmers to sell their produce.

We cultivate and implement community-informed solutions that build capacity for local and statewide initiatives. These initiatives maintain the goal of promoting local food sourcing, gardening, and food and agriculture education in all ECE programs, regardless of geographic location, program type or socioeconomic status of families served.

Looking for Child Care Programs Promoting Farm to ECE?

What We Do

The Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) Coalition encompasses efforts that bring locally or regionally produced foods into ECE programs using three core strategies: local food sourcing, gardening, and food and agriculture education.

The goal is to enhance the quality of the educational experience in all types of ECE settings (e.g., preschools, child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start/Early Head Start, programs in K-12 school districts).

The early care and education field includes a wide variety of home-based and center-based early learning providers. Each of these settings offer unique opportunities to incorporate Farm to Early Care and Education strategies into child care program environments, curriculums, and menus.

Starting in 2017, this initiative began as a collaboration between Alabama Partnership for Children, the Farm Food Collaborative, Childcare Resources, Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, and VOICES for Alabama’s Children.

Educating Alabama

Agriculture is one of the largest industries in the state of Alabama. To address the high rates of poverty, food deserts, obesity, and food insecurity in Alabama, our partners use Farm to ECE as an opportunity to provide fresh produce to ECE providers in areas where there is low access, as well as support the local agricultural economy by engaging small and minority farmers.

About

Who We Are

Core Values

You can join us in our mission to give children in Alabama a healthy start!

Interested in Partnering with Alabama Farm to ECE?

What Motivates Us

Our vision is that all ECE programs in Alabama are empowered to:

Source Local Food

Grow Gardens

Promote Agriculture Activities

Foster Early Learning Opportunities

Looking for Child Care Programs Promoting Farm to ECE?

What We Do

Educating Alabama

Partners

Who We Are

Get in Touch