The Center for Environmental Farming Systems’ Blog
WNC Strong Youth Service Corps Celebration
On November 8, 2025, we celebrated the amazing work and growth of our WNCStrong Youth Service Corps participants! We launched the WNCStrong Youth Service Corps to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene [...]
Growing Up Local: How Strategic Systems Are Bringing Farm-Fresh Food to Preschools
Imagine a plate of vibrant, local fruits and vegetables served to a curious three-year-old. That’s the core of Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE), which connects children aged 0-5 with gardening, cooking, and [...]
Celebrating 2025 North Carolina Crunch
Farm to ECE Institute participants celebrating NC Crunch! The North Carolina Crunch promotes healthy eating and supports farm to school, farm to early care and education (ECE), and other local food initiatives throughout the state. [...]
EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems: Recovery After Hurricane Helene
EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems (EMFS), an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), works to strengthen the local food system across 12 Western North Carolina counties and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern [...]
WNCStrong: Shaping Youth Service After Hurricane Helene
On September 22, 2025, the North Carolina State University CALS News featured the WNCStrong Youth Service Corps in this article.
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems Announces Recipients of 2025-2026 NC State Graduate Student Fellowships
We are pleased to announce the recipients of our 2023-2024 North Carolina State University Graduate Student Fellowships. Read about the Fellows and their research.
The Impact of Service Corps Workdays
The backbone of the Service Corps is the internships that our 22 members are doing on nine farms across the three counties we serve. However, our Workdays are a meaningful and impactful component of [...]
The Plane has Left the Tarmac
In four short months we’ve gone from ideas sketched out in a grant proposal to twenty-two high schoolers receiving paychecks for internships they’ve been doing on nine farms across Buncombe, Mitchell and Yancey Counties. [...]
CEFS Events Associate
CEFS is hiring an Events Associate to provide technical day-to-day customer service and support of the operations of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) in particular, providing event management support services to program staff.
Farm to ECE 2025 Garden Interns
For the past ten years, Wake County Partnership for Children (WCPC) has been a dedicated leader in connecting local food and nutrition education through its impactful Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to [...]
National Leaders Visit NC to See Farm to ECE in Action
Earlier this month, representatives from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, along with partners working in early childhood education (ECE), community gardening, and local food systems in Detroit, Michigan, visited North Carolina to learn more about [...]
New Publication: Soil Microbial Composition Responds to Diverse Long-Term Management Systems
A June 2025 article, published in Pedosphere, examines soil microbial activity, diversity, composition, and predicted functionality across a 24-year experimental period at CEFS Field Research, Education, and Outreach Facility located at Cherry Research Farm in Goldsboro, NC.