School Farmers’ Markets

Consumption, Waste prevention

Learning Outcome Time required Tools or equipment required Summary of the activity What to do Tips how to implement the topic to school curriculum

Learning Outcome

After finishing this activity a student will have learned how to set up a school farmers’ market. The students will get a chance to immerse themselves in an exciting eight-week enterprise project in which they learn about food and farming. The activity raises awareness of where food comes from.

Students learn:

how to develop transferrable skills such as team work and communication
new growing and cooking skills, understand the story of food production, from planting seeds to harvesting, processing, cooking and eating
use maths skills and creativity to solve real life problems and situations
list some food production systems and describe the process that one production system follows from field to fork
explain what impact producing, processing and distributing food has on the environment.
identify local food producers and invite them to the market
create an effective questionnaire to use at the farmers’ market

The School Farmers’ Markets Curriculum Pack is designed to provide teachers at both primary and secondary levels with a wide range of engaging and informative food and farming related activities.

The school will for a short time become a hub for local community - school farmers’ market can bring people together through food and shared cultural activities, provides opportunities for parents to get more closely involved with the school, and allows small scale farmers and start-up businesses to trial their products.

Time required

8 weeks

A School Farmers’ Market project is designed to run over an eight week period. For each of the eight weeks, you will find the following sections:

Classroom activities that relate to the topic for the week;
Resources which comprise activity sheets and other supporting materials;
Teachers to-do list identifying the key steps to take as you journey towards market day.

Tools or equipment required

Papers, scissors, colours
Sow and grow kit
Seeds and plants to grow produce on the school garden
Ingredients to produce a food item for sale at the farmers’ market

Summary of the activity

School farmers markets are real farmers markets that take place in school gyms, gardens or school playgrounds. They give school staff, pupils and their parents, as well as the general public, the opportunity to come and buy fresh local products. Pupils take part in their preparation and organization under the guidance of teachers. It's a great way to build relationships with artisans and farmers in your region and help students know where food comes from and how much work it takes to produce it.

Setting up a farmers’ market in school has proven to be an exciting way of engaging pupils in key curriculum areas by providing a real-life situation with which pupils take the lead and have the opportunity to take ownership of their very own business enterprise. The students are encouraged to become change makers towards sustainable food production and consumption.

The School Farmers Market is an eight-week project that allows pupils to learn about food and farming while developing curricula in new, exciting ways. Pupils can improve their environmental skills by thinking about where food comes from, how it is produced and distributed. Designing posters and flyers to promote an event can in turn develop their literacy and artistic talents.

Running a market is an exciting journey that combines engaging educational activity in the classroom with a ‘wow day’ event. The whole market journey often takes place over the course of two or three months. Setting up a farmers’ market in school has proven to be an exciting way of engaging pupils in key curriculum areas by providing a real-life situation with which pupils take the lead and have the opportunity to take ownership of their very own business enterprise. School Farmers’ Markets are real world enterprise projects that allow children the opportunity to learn about food and farming, whilst also developing curriculum learning in new and exciting ways.

What to do

Use this structure to describe the activity step by step. Not all steps need to be taken in every activity.

1. Introduction to the topic

Make presentation or show the class a video about the project: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd6kccjm3n4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFEt9YpZFrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofVBTSOg2o
Find out how much the class knows about this topic – use Kahoot application
Possible questions to ask: Where does your family usually buy food?
Do you know where the food comes from? (country, region, farm…?)
Do you know what share of the retail price gets back to the farmer? How can we make sure the farmers’ share is higher?Have you ever visited a farmers market? What did you like, dislike? Why?
Explain what the activity is about and formulate what you expect the students to do and learn

2. Introduce students to information materials and resources to start the project

Resources for teachers

The Field to School: School Farmers’ Markets Teaching Pack is designed to provide teachers with a wide range of engaging and informative food and farming related activities. The pack gives pupils a chance to immerse themselves in an exciting eight week enterprise project in which they learn about food and farming.
https://www.fieldtoschool.eu/school-farmers-markets-teaching-pack-resource
The Planner resource PDF is designed to be used with children in the classroom. Once you have decided to run a market, use it to introduce the concept to the children and to help them think about what they would like to make and grow to sell at their market.
https://www.fieldtoschool.eu/school-farmers-market-planner-resource
This short resource has been designed so that you can provide colleagues and pupils with an introduction to what a school farmers' market is. The resource looks at project timescales and suggests the use of an eight week plan for working towards your first market.
https://www.fieldtoschool.eu/school-farmers-markets-overview-resource
Excursion: you can take the class to an excursion to see a real farmers market in your town. During the excursion students can ask the farmers what production methods they use, what skills they need, what is the most important for selling at the market, as well as whether they would like to take part at your School Farmers’ Markets.

3. Research

Help students formulate research questions to find out more data about the issue. Possible questions to ask:
1. How many family farms are in our region? What crops do they grow, what animals do they raise? What production system do they use?
2. What is the difference between organic and conventional production system?
3. Where does the food their families buy come from?
4. Where does the food used in the school kitchen come from?
Let students do the research: collect and analyse date, make evaluation and draw conclusions

4. Implementation

Use the The Field to School: School Farmers’ Markets Teaching Pack to go through the activity with students.
Plan activities for each week according the Teaching Pack
Celebrate the School farmers market itself

5. Reflexion after the implementation phase

Discuss with students the outcome of the project
1. What have we learned? What went well?
2. What not? Why? What can we do to make it better next time?
Define some conclusions on how to implement it in the following year

6. Presentation

Ask the students to make presentation of the implemented project outcome – they can work in teams or individually according their roles in the School farmers market planning and implementation

7. Survey

Find out how much the students now know about the topic of food production and consumption and their impact on the climate – use Kahoot application

Tips how to implement the topic to school curriculum

The ideas and activities can be used flexibly within your current curriculum. Feel free to use the resources to fit with your scheme of work. The ‘eight week’ layout presented is a framework for you to develop and use to you and the resources in whatever order suits best.

Geography: developing knowledge about your locality
Computing: collecting information on local farmers
Research local farmers/producers in the area
Maths: weighing; profit calculation; money handling etc.
Visual arts: making posters and leaflets