Posts for the CEFS Agrophile 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 while preparing the next generation of leaders. High school students from Buncombe, Mitchell, and Yancey counties gained hands-on experience in [...]

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 fresh, local food. Research consistently shows these programs boost meal quality and encourage kids to try new foods—but there’s a [...]

2025-11-13T11:04:58-05:00November 7th, 2025|Agrophile, NC Farm to Early Care and Education, News|

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. Join us October 22, 2025 or anytime this month by crunching into a locally grown fruit or vegetable! Learn more [...]

2025-10-21T14:39:25-04:00October 21st, 2025|Agrophile, NC Farm to Early Care and Education, News|

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 Band of Cherokee Indians. The arrival of Hurricane Helene underscored the importance of this work. Severe disruptions to farms, local [...]

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 Corps experience.  Corps members, their teachers, and the CEFS-based staff all dedicate one Saturday a month to work as [...]

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. A full list of those farms is below. In addition to weeding, planting, fertilizing and mulching, our students have built [...]

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.

2025-10-29T11:39:02-04:00September 4th, 2025|Agrophile, News, Uncategorized|

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 ECE) initiative. Since launching the program a decade ago, WCPC has worked tirelessly to build a stronger, healthier foundation for [...]

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