Kids at the Farm!

For the 6th year, we are fundraising to make this awesome field trip possible. This event is a big beautiful collaboration between Lucy Craft Laney educators, Western WI farmers/producers, local environmental educators, and YOU! our incredible community of donors who make this opportunity happen.

This is an educational event where local, Polk County area farmers and educators provide hands-on learning experiences and a picnic lunch for the Lucy Laney 4th grade students. Read on for more details about our planning and collaboration efforts. Your contribution covers direct expenses: bus transportation, food for lunch, providing bathroom facilities at the farm, and pollinator + reptile educator fees).

Approximately 90 fourth-grade students travel from Lucy Laney Community School in North Minneapolis to Turnip Rock Farm near Clear Lake, WI. Students rotate through various workshops before having free choice time and picnic lunch on the farm. Our workshops cover everything from growing vegetables to cooking them; recognizing native grains to baking bread; understanding cows to cheese making; pollinator education to beekeeping; grazing sheep to herding; salamanders to snakes to native reptiles, oh my! It truly is an amazing day with our young Laney leaders! Inquisitive, curious, and open-minded, we enjoy bringing City kids to the Country for a day.

In their own words, Laney's teaching team shared why Kids at the Farm is an important event for Laney students:

“Lucy Laney students generally have far fewer experiences that connect them to the sources of their foods. While there are a few community gardens in their North Minneapolis community, most have no experience with plants or growing. Visiting the farm allows the students to begin to connect what they eat with how that food is grown and produced. It makes it much more likely for them to see growing and producing food as something understandable and relevant.

Until recently the housing area that serves Lucy Laney School has been a “food desert” with few options for healthy grocery shopping. The community action by Steady Hand Farm, the actions of programs like Appetite for Change, and healthy school food programs are starting to turn eating habits in our community from quick and convenient to diverse and healthy and delicious.

Help us make this exciting day of learning possible by donating what you can. Every bit helps - small and large. Thank you for your support.