We’re building on existing community work to strengthen local food access for older adults in your county.

We’re excited to share that the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS)/NC State University has received a two-year, $145,200 grant from Dogwood Health Trust to support a collaboration between Farm to Senior Services (F2SS) and Empowering Mountain Food Systems (EMFS), and N.C. Cooperative Extension.

The grant project “Piloting community-based farm-to-senior-services strategies to improve food security for older adults in rural Western North Carolina” will build on existing work in McDowell County and support new F2SS local food purchasing pilot efforts in Burke County, Yancey County, and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).

The work will be guided by County/EBCI F2SS Teams, bringing together Extension, senior services, farmers, older adults, food hubs, and food councils to identify barriers, pilot local food purchasing solutions, and support long-term systems change.

Community partners will include:

Burke County Cooperative Extension, Burke County Senior Center; EBCI Cooperative Extension, EBCI Healthy Eating Action Team, Yancey County Cooperative Extension, TRACTOR Food & Farms, Yancey County Senior Services; McDowell County Cooperative Extension, McDowell County Senior Center, McDowell County Local Food Advisory Council, Foothills Food Hub, and many community-based organizations.

The project grant team at NC State will be co-led by Robyn Stout, NC 10% Campaign Program Director; Laura Lauffer, EMFS Program Director; and Marcello Cappellazzi, CEFS Multimedia Manager; with support from Molly Sandfoss, McDowell County Cooperative Extension Director; and Jennifer Badger, EMFS Area Specialized Agent, Agribusiness, NC Cooperative Extension

Find project updates: cefs.ncsu.edu/farm-to-senior-services

Congratulations to the Recent Graduates of Our Registered Agriculture Apprenticeships!

We’re celebrating the hard work and dedication of recent graduates from CEFS’ Registered Agricultural Apprenticeships and we are also welcoming new applicants for the 2026 growing season!

CEFS apprenticeship graduates worked on farms for two seasons, helping sustainably grow food for their communities. They gained hands-on agriculture skills on farms learning with and from experienced farmers. These graduates have already become integral members of North Carolina’s farming community, contributing fresh food to their local food systems.

Two of our graduating apprentices and their farmer mentors were supported by funding from the Southeast Transition to Organic Partnership Program (SE TOPP). This USDA program supports transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and resources. Adam Smith mentored James Clark in the CEFS apprenticeship. Adam was in turn mentored in the SE TOPP farmer-to-farmer mentorship program as he began the process of transitioning his family’s operation, Tenacious Agrarians, to be certified organic. Juliann Moore worked two seasons as an apprentice on Clem’s Organic Garden, a certified organic operation in Western North Carolina. Both James and Juliann were trained in production techniques and record keeping required for organic certification during their apprenticeship. SE TOPP’s investments in the apprenticeship reflects the importance of farmers as mentors in professionalizing new farmers committed to organic production practices.  As apprentice James explains, “This experience here definitely fits into the career of farming, because it gives you hands-on experience and that’s probably the best you can get.”

Farmer mentors are the heart of apprenticeship-based training. They don’t just teach new growers how to farm—they model how to think, adapt, and access critical resources on a working landscape. Their guidance shapes the next generation of skilled farm managers, while their own operations benefit from hosting apprentices who bring enthusiasm, commitment, and a deep interest in sustainable agriculture. James’ farmer mentor, Adam, reinforced the value of on-farm mentorship programs, noting that the program supports and invests in NC producers as critical trainers of the next generation of farmers. SE TOPP funding plays a vital role in supporting farmer mentors and expanding the production of certified organic produce across our state.

Participants are being recruited for the SE TOPP Farmer-to-Farmer mentorship program. Farmer mentors and mentees are both compensated for their participation. More information about the program can be found here.

If you’re interested in becoming a farm mentor, please visit our website to learn more and apply. Applications are now open for both farmer mentors and apprentices for the 2026 CEFS Registered Apprenticeship growing season.

Apply to be a CEFS Farm Host here.  Apply to be a CEFS  Apprentice here

Meet the 2025 CEFS Apprenticeship Graduates

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 catch. Getting small volumes of local produce to dozens of scattered preschools and childcare homes is a tough logistical puzzle for local farmers.

Researchers from CEFS and the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at NC State worked with county partners to address this gap, asking: How can we design local food systems that are easy for ECE centers to use and viable for farmers?

We used funding from a USDA Regional Food Systems Partnership Program grant from 2021-2024 to explore this challenge through case studies in eight NC counties, piloting three core strategies based on local input:

1. Aggregating Orders: Combining purchases from multiple ECE centers to reach volumes that work for farmers/food hubs and offer wholesale prices for ECEs.
2. Selling to Families: Offering local food for purchase directly to parents and caregivers, increasing the total purchase volume at the site.
3. Working with Caterers: Partnering with a caterer to handle the sourcing and preparation of local ingredients.

Our findings show that solutions are possible! Success in aggregating orders often hinges on logistical factors like separate ordering systems for ECEs through food hubs. For families, offering multiple purchasing methods proved important, such as offering a mobile market during community events, and following up with an option to order local food boxes for pick up at child care sites. While caterers often face challenges in staff turnover and capacity, this model has the potential to reach multiple community sites, such as Meals on Wheels programs, in addition to child care.

The takeaway is clear: it is possible to design local food procurement systems that expand the market for farmers while meeting the needs of ECE providers. However, these systems require extra labor for technical assistance providers and food hubs to organize ordering systems, and for ECE staff to incorporate local food in meals and snacks.

Building on this research, we’ve developed a practical set of local food buying guides for child care programs, technical assistance providers, and farmers/food hubs. These guides are designed to support child care programs as they integrate local food in menus, TA providers as they organize child care programs at a regional level, and farmers/food hubs as they create new ordering systems for ECEs. Download the guides here: go.ncsu.edu/farm2ecelocalfood.

Our ongoing research projects continue to refine these practical models and support systems, bringing us closer to a future where farm-fresh food is a simple and standard part of early childhood education.

CEFS and NC State would like to thank all of our project partners who contributed to this project, including: NC Smart Start Partnerships for Children (in Wake, Wayne, Wilkes, Buncombe, Lee, and Moore counties); NC Cooperative Extension (in Lee, Wayne, Guilford, Buncombe, Wake; Nash, and Edgecombe counties), farmers and food hubs (including Farmer Foodshare; Working Landscapes; High Country Food Hub in Watauga County; Wilkes Recovery Revolution in Wilkes County; Growing High Point in Guilford County; Sandhills Ag Innovation Center in Richmond County; Golden Organic Farms in Edgecombe County; and Nash County Farmers Market in Nash County), child care programs (including Little Jewels Home Child Care and Lucy Brock Child Development Lab in Watauga County; Blue Ridge DayCare in Wake County; Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool and Kingdom Kids in Guilford County; West Asheville Academy Inc and Black Mountain Montessori in Buncombe County; C and L Child Development Center in Wayne County; and Helen’s Day Care, Kountry Kids Family Child Care Home, and Robin’s Nest Family Child Care in Moore County); and other partners (including the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project- ASAP- Growing Mind Program; researchers at Appalachian State University; the EQuIPD program with University of North Carolina at Greensboro; WAGES Community Action Center in Wayne County; the North Raleigh Providers Network and The Family Child Care Association of Wake County; and Eliada in Buncombe County).

To stay up to date with NC Farm to Early Care and Education, visit go.ncsu.edu/f2ece

This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service Regional Food System Partnership Program Grant number AM21RFSPNC1006-01 (contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of the USDA).