MANHATTAN, Kansas — The Kansas Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, is now accepting applications from Kansas licensed early child care facilities to participate in a program to increase child nutrition knowledge and consumption of local fruits and vegetables.
The program, titled “Our Earliest Eaters: Bringing the Farm to Kansas Licensed Early Child Care Facilities,” will provide Kansas licensed early child care facilities with age-appropriate curriculum about Kansas specialty crops and reimbursements for purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables. Through a competitive application process, 50 facilities will be selected to receive agricultural education activities and resource kits developed by the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom at no cost. Upon demonstration of teaching the provided curriculum, the selected facilities will receive reimbursement of up to $250 per growing season to cover the costs of purchasing fruits and vegetables grown by Kansas farmers and producers to use in the provided educational activities as well as serve in their meal programs.
KDA will help the selected licensed early child care facilities identify farmers and producers local to their facility to purchase healthy fruits and vegetables from. By building relationships between licensed early child care facilities and local farmers and producers, this program will increase nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops in our earliest eaters, while creating new market outlets for Kansas specialty crop producers.
Applications are due to KDA no later than 5:00 p.m. CT on Friday, February 28, 2025. For more information, please visit “Our Earliest Eaters at: www.agriculture.ks.gov/grants.
Funding for this program was made possible by the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service.
The vision of the Kansas Department of Agriculture is to provide an ideal environment for long-term, sustainable agricultural prosperity and statewide economic growth. The agency will achieve this by advocating for sectors at all levels and providing industry outreach.
