Grant Helps Schools Bring Local Food Closer to Students

And sometimes, that seed grows into something much bigger.

Across the state, charter schools are finding innovative ways to connect students, families, and communities with fresh, local food. With support from a CDE Harvest of Innovation Grant, The STEAD School and Steamboat Montessori are expanding programs that bring locally grown food directly into their schools and surrounding communities.

Their approaches are different, but the goal is the same: helping students understand where their food comes from while making fresh, healthy food more accessible.

STEAD’s Farm-to-Community Model

At The STEAD School, agriculture is already woven into daily learning. On its one acre farm and in its two greenhouses, students and staff grow a wide variety of crops including peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, flowers, squash, lettuce, greens, and kale, many of the same foods found at a farmers market.

With the help of a $16,500 Harvest Innovation Grant, the is school is strengthening the systems behind the work already underway. The funding will support staff stipends for work on the farm, including harvesting produce, managing sales, and developing marketing and outreach. Students will also play a role, using their skills to design promotional materials and represent the school at community events.

Reducing waste + expanding access

Soon, fresh produce grown at STEAD will be available through a small farm stand and farmers market, bringing locally grown food directly into nearby neighborhoods. It’s a simple idea with a powerful impact: food grown by the school helping nourish the community around it.

For Culinary and Farm Director Dain Holland, the goal is simple: to help more families experience the value of fresh, local food.

“Our hope is to get more of our neighbors and community members to put a focus on fresh, local, and healthy food, and to buy those ingredients for their homes.”

STEAD is also launching a food pantry designed to ensure that food grown on campus benefits as many people as possible. Located inside one of the school’s welcome center buildings, it will offer both raw ingredients and prepared foods. A refrigerator stocked with food will allow students, families, and neighbors to take what they need—no questions asked.

A chef + farmer perspective

Holland brings a unique perspective to the work. Raised in a small agricultural community in southwestern Montana, he grew up helping his family maintain a mini-homestead. After attending culinary school and working in restaurants, he began farming more intentionally in 2020, managing a farm with a friend in Boulder County. Today, those two worlds connect at STEAD, where students learn how food moves from soil to plate.

“I’m excited about getting Colorado ingredients and products into more homes and schools while helping to showcase how important local agriculture is to everyone,” shares Holland.

At STEAD, these lessons are growing in soil and greenhouses. Nearly 200 miles west, another school is growing them in hydroponic towers.

Growing Food — and Curiosity — in Steamboat

Nearly 200 miles west, at Steamboat Montessori, the Harvest Innovation Grant is helping launch a different type of growing program, one built around hydroponic towers. According to Head of School Emily Barnhart, the school had been gifted four hydroponic towers but lacked the staff and resources to fully launch a program. The grant allowed them to purchase additional towers and hire a staff member to oversee the project.

“We want to offer more healthy options in our meal program as well as educational opportunities for students to grow their own foods,” says Barnhart. “Now we have resources to explore growing food when seasons and spaces don’t seem conducive.”

Tower to classroom connections

The program is led by the school’s social emotional learning (SEL) teacher, who has integrated gardening into her class curriculum. Local families now share their ranching and food production experiences with students. A partnership with the Community Agriculture Alliance is taking root, and field trips may soon help students explore the region’s food system firsthand. 

School leaders are also exploring new ways to expand, including the potential use of a geodesic dome through a partnership with the Emily Tintrup Dealy Foundation.

This spring, the school will host a Harvest Celebration, bringing together local producers, students, and families who will have a chance to taste the school's hydroponically grown greens, which they hope will soon make their way to school lunches. The event will also unveil a new cafeteria mural.

Planting seeds for the future

From Commerce City to Routt County, these two charter schools are building lasting connections between students, food, and the communities around them.

“Our hope is to grow a greater awareness of the local producers and the opportunities that are available locally for our students and for families,” says Barnhart. “ We want them to know how to connect with these local food resources.”

In classrooms, greenhouses, and hydroponic towers across the state, students are learning that the journey from seed to table grows more than food—it grows community.