WISCASSET – A Focus on Agriculture in Rural Maine Schools (FARMS) Farm-to-School Conference will be held from 8:30 to 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 28, at the Chewonki Center for Environmental Education.

The FARMS organization connects classrooms, cafeterias, local farms and communities. Its mission is to educate students about good nutrition and the role of local farms in promoting healthy, sustainable communities as well as to promote and facilitate farm-to-institution purchasing. FARMS is dedicated to food security and to rebuilding a healthy food system.

The conference objective is to bring together farmers and other local food producers with educators and school administrators, school food service personnel, parents, students, community organizers, legislators and policymakers in order to replicate and expand new and established farm-to-school projects and to build support for bringing local foods into schools as an educational, economic development and community health strategy.

The conference will provide a venue for networking, story sharing and training, with a keynote by Dana Hudson, Vermont Food Education Every Day (FEED).

Registration materials will be available online at www.mefarms.org. For more information or to offer suggestions, contact Amy Winston at 882-7552, ext. 172, or Brady Hatch at [email protected].