Join CEFS at the 2026 Farm to Fork Kids Fest at Marbles Kids Museum!

For many years, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) has celebrated the bounty of North Carolina through our signature Farm to Fork Picnic. This year, we’re excited to introduce Grounded and Growing: A CEFS Farm to Fork Series, a year-long initiative designed to bridge the gap between high-level research and community action. As part of this series, we are transforming Marbles Kids Museum into a living, breathing farm to fork discovery zone for our Grounded and Growing: Farm to Fork Kids Fest.

Join us for activations throughout the museum’s first floor and Marbles’ Playway (outdoor courtyard). Kids become “Junior Insiders” as they navigate the journey from seed to smoothie through hands-on labs, high-tech farm exhibits and interactive play! This event is included with museum admission.

Location: Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh, NC

Date and Time: Saturday, July 18, 2026 from 10am to 2pm

Tickets are on sale on the Marbles website.

Guests can expect a wide range of high-energy, kid-friendly activations throughout the museum, including:

Seed-to-Smoothie Marketplace:

• • Juicekeys: Smoothie exhibit featuring signature smoothie and two featured books.
  • Carrboro Coffee: Coffee display exploring where beans come from and sampling Coffee Cool-Ada 
  • NC Sweetpotato Commission: Smoothie exhibit featuring NC’s signature vegetable – Sweet Potato Creamsicle 
  • CEFS Farm to Early Care and Education: Healthy smoothie discovery for young learners and sampling Shamrock Shake
  • Glenn Lozuke, Executive Chef Weaver Street Market Co-op, Farmer Foodshare and Happy Dirt: Blueberry Chocolate Farm Shake

Discovery Stations & Interactive Labs:

• • Center for Environmental Farming Systems: Learn about CEFS farming and food systems initiatives, grab buttons, stickers, a coloring page and join our scavenger hunt around the event!  
  • Agroecology Education Farm at NC State: Create your own tea station with lemon balm and mint.
  • Carolina Farm Stewardship Association: Join the “seed detectives” to solve agricultural mysteries.
  • Raleigh City Farm: Get creative at a soil painting station.
  • NC 10% Campaign: Play the “Ugly & Wild” fishing game.

Technology & Heavy Machinery:

• • Tractor exhibit: A close-up look at real farming equipment.

Soil, Compost & Pollinators:

• • Fork to Farm: The fan-favorite worm racing exhibit.
  • Green Waste Company: Learn how to “feed farms, not landfills”.
  • Sensory Soil Lab: A “touch and feel” exploration of creatures that live in NC soil.
  • CEFS Soil & Career Pathways Teams: Tic-tac-toe vegetable toss, “what’s in the soil” activity, create your own cover crop seed packet, seed collages and seed necklace making.

Arts, Crafts & Storytimes:

• • Savannah Williams: Storytime featuring the book Muddy Maddie’s Garden.
  • Juicekeys: Storytime featuring Ollie the Oopskey Monster Adventures Children’s Books. Inspired by Juicekey’s innovative approach to re-purposing smoothie leftovers into what they call an Oopskey.
  • Photo Ops: Take your picture with giant vegetables!

THANK YOU to our 2026 Grounded and Growing Sponsors! 

Join leaders from NC State University, NC Cooperative Extension, and the EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems Initiative for a tour of their shared kitchen facilities, hear real success stories and gain food safety insights. Special guests include the Got To Be NC Program and local food safety regulators.

Get the new food safety implementation guide and network with food safety professionals in your area. Walk away with insight, tools, templates and logs to implement and optimize your food safety systems.

Core focus areas that we’ll cover:

• Personnel and Hygiene: What does a written policy look like?
• Supplier Programs: Verifying where your ingredients come from
• Process Controls: Managing critical steps, e.g., temperature and pH
• Sanitation: Procedures:Where sanitation matters most in an operation
• Allergen Programs: Essentials of allergen labeling and preventing cross-contact
• Labeling Essentials: Outline the mandatory elements of a food label
• Recall plans: Tracking your product if something goes wrong

***This event has been cancelled. We hope you’ll join us for our October lunch and learn. You can also join our Lunch and Learn email list or visit this page to find out about other upcoming lunch and learns.***

Join Melissa Bell, CEFS Field Research, Education, and Outreach Liaison for our 2026 Lunch & Learn Webinar Series.

When: 12 p.m. -1 p.m., Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Where: Zoom

Register here.

Please note: All registrants will receive the webinar recording by email following the event.

Go behind the scenes with NC’s top food system experts for a roadmap on sourcing sustainably, supporting local meat systems and understanding the future of NC ag with The Grounded Table webinar.

In this session, Melissa Bell will host a conversation with guest speakers Sarah Blacklin and Lee Menius from NC Choices as well as Noah Ranells, NC FarmLink Director & Extension Associate, as they explore the role of pasture-raised meat in supporting farms, food systems, and land stewardship. Participants will gain insight into the “why” behind pasture-raised systems, along with an insider’s perspective on how to find, source, and buy directly from local farmers. This session is ideal for anyone looking to better understand and support North Carolina’s local meat economy.

When: 12 p.m. -1 p.m., Thursday, August 6, 2026

Where: Zoom

Register here. Please note: All registrants will receive the webinar recording by email following the event.

Sign up for our email list to be notified when registration opens for other The Grounded Table webinars.

Join NC Choices’ for a producer-oriented program, Ensuring Quality from Pasture to Plate: A Meat Quality & Marketing Training, taking you from pasture to package – covering live animal evaluation, nutrition, carcass assessment, and bulk sales strategy. We’ll examine every stage of the process to understand how farm management and nutrition decisions directly impact product quality. Leave with the practical knowledge to understand your product at every step, and the confidence to market it successfully to bulk buyers and build a thriving local meat business.

This intensive features a full day of classroom instruction led by Dr. Jennifer Martin (Colorado State University) and some of the field’s top experts in nutrition, meat quality, and marketing. We’ll examine every stage of the process to understand how farm management and nutrition decisions directly impact product quality. Leave with the practical knowledge to understand your product at every step, and the confidence to market it successfully to bulk buyers and build a thriving local meat business.

Attendees also have the option to add a pre-tour on Tuesday, August 25. This all-day tour will include on-farm live animal evaluation followed by meat cutting demos at a USDA-inspected processor to evaluate meat quality from pasture to package. Pre-workshop tour space is very limited and first come, first served.

Dates: Tuesday, August 25 (optional pre-workshop tour), 8:00am-5:00pm

Wednesday, August 26, 2026 (workshop), 8:00am-5:00pm

Location:

N.C. Cooperative Extension, Randolph County Center,
1880 US Hwy 64E, Asheboro, NC

Tickets: Space is limited. Register here.

This NC Choices’ training is part of the Meat Summit’s national effort to strengthen local meat systems through focused supply chain conferences and summits. Read more about Meat Summits at www.MeatSummits.com

Support for this program is provided by USDA NIFA sponsorship award #20227042038269 to Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) & this material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award # 2021-70027-34722.

Funding for this work was also made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant I 25LFPPNC1283. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.

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Speaker: Carol Coulter, Appalachian State University

Join the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) for an inspiring, interactive hour with James Beard Award-winning chef, author and food advocate Andrea Reusing (owner of Lantern in Chapel Hill). During this session, Chef Andrea will share her journey of connecting local restaurants with North Carolina farmers and show us how simple, intentional everyday choices in our own kitchens can strengthen local farms, reduce waste and build healthier communities.

When: 12 p.m. -1 p.m., Monday, September 21, 2026

Where: Zoom

Register here. Please note: All registrants will receive the webinar recording by email following the event.

What You’ll Learn & Experience:

• Live Culinary Demonstration: Learn how to make quick-pickled local vegetables using seasonal North Carolina produce. Chef Andrea will break down simple preservation techniques that instantly extend the shelf life of your groceries and cut down on household waste.
• Accessible Sustainability: Discover how mastering basic kitchen skills—like seasonal shopping and quick-preserving—makes eating local affordable and highly approachable.
• Behind the Scenes: Hear firsthand how deep relationships with local farmers shape sustainable menus and why home kitchens are a powerful launchpad for food system change.

Whether you are a seasoned home cook, a local food advocate or a beginner looking to reduce your environmental footprint, this webinar will give you the practical tools and inspiration to cook with purpose.

A live Q&A session will follow the cooking demonstration. Register today to secure your spot and receive the live broadcast link!

Join us at the 2026 Farm to Early Care and Education Institute! CEFS is happy to honor the hard work from the Farm to Early Childhood Education Local Food Purchasing Collaborative, as well as look to the future and continue incorporating agriculture, farming and gardening in the lives of children and in childcare development centers.

Institute: Saturday, September 26, 2026, 9:00am-4:30pm

– Network with Farm to ECE leaders and continue growing our movement in NC!

– Better understand the importance of community outreach, collaboration and mentoring relationships in Farm to ECE programming

– Participate in dynamic learning opportunities, including keynote speakers and hands-on learning experiences

Who’s invited?

ECE administrators and teachers, technical assistance providers, NC Cooperative Extension Agents and all those that want to help end childhood hunger and promote healthy eating habits in young children

For more information, contact:

Shironda Brown, sewilli3@ncsu.edu

The Institute is generously sponsored by:

Join Melissa Bell, CEFS Field Research, Education, and Outreach Liaison for our 2026 Lunch & Learn Webinar Series to learn about season extension methods. This webinar will be geared towards backyard growers of all sizes. Learn ways to start growing earlier and keep growing later in the season.

When: 12 p.m. -1 p.m., Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Where: Zoom

Register here.

Please note: All registrants will receive the webinar recording by email following the event.

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