Back for its second year, Rooted is getting set to host “Farm to School Aid,” a family-friendly music festival fundraiser to raise money for hands-on school garden education at local public schools. The event will take place Saturday, Sept. 12, from 2-7:30 p.m. at Troy Farm and Gardens on Madison’s North Side.
Erica Krug, Rooted’s Farm to School director, tells Madison365 how the event came about.
“I’m a big music fan, and the idea came to me last year when I was out for a run thinking about Willie Nelson for some reason. Then Farm Aid popped into my head,” she remembers. “I love that Farm to School Aid is a community event and that it’s free. We want people to be able to come regardless of whether they can afford to pay.
“We hope people will come and donate a little, but more than anything, it’s an opportunity for people to come together,” she continues. “It’s been a challenging time for a lot of people, so having a chance to eat some food, listen to live music and enjoy a beautiful outdoor setting is really good for the soul.”
Rooted connects Madison communities with local food access, food production, and urban agriculture education. Rooted focuses on three core areas — growing local food, expanding land access, and delivering garden-based education.
The Farm to School Aid event will feature live music performances by Currach Irish Trio, Mane, Kitty Butler, and the Dan Walkner Band.
“We’re going to have free live music. There will be kids’ activities. We’re going to have some kids karaoke at 2 p.m., and then we’ll have some nature-based activities happening for the rest of the afternoon,” Krug says.
Food will be provided from local restaurants like Banzo, Just Veggiez, and The Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, and craft beer will be available from Delta Beer Lab and Working Draft Beer Company.
“Delta Beer Lab has designed a label just for the event, so that’s really fun. So we’ve got a very special IPA with a special Farm to School Aid logo. That will be cool,” Krug says.
(Photos courtesy of Rooted)
Rooted plans to host its second annual “Farm to School Aid” event after a successful inaugural event last year.
“We had over 600 people come last year, and it was a gorgeous day. What was really cool was that many of the people who attended had never been to Troy Gardens before. They had heard of it but weren’t exactly sure what it was. They were thrilled to discover this beautiful community garden and kids’ garden,” Krug says. “It was fun to see their kids running around freely and having fun.
“The first event last year was an opportunity to introduce a lot of people in our community to a spot that they hadn’t been before, because it is an area where people can come and just walk and look at the gardens, and go into the back and walk the prairie,” she continues. “The event is a fundraiser. It’s a free event, but we do ask for donations. And we did ultimately raise over $20,000 last year for our school garden program. It was an amazing inaugural event.”
Farm to School programming connects schools with local food, farming and gardening. Students learn about healthy food and agriculture while gaining hands-on experience gardening and cooking. The program has three main focus areas: procuring local food, growing school gardens and providing garden-based education.
“Farm to School works to get more local foods into school meals by working with local farmers and school districts to make that connection. There is also education and school gardens, the other two components of Farm to School,” Krug says. “So Rooted does a lot with urban agriculture education. We have our programming at Madison School Farm and Troy Kids Garden and Badger Rock Middle School, but then we also wanted to be able to provide education at schools that have school gardens, and so that is our gardener-in-residence program.”
All proceeds and donations from the Farm to School Aid event will directly fund Rooted’s gardener-in-residence program, keeping garden-based education accessible across Madison public schools regardless of a school’s ability to pay. Rooted is the only organization providing school garden education within the Madison Metropolitan School District, currently placing garden educators across those eight local schools.
“This coming school year, we’re currently working with eight elementary schools, and we will be staffing them with a school garden educator who will be there for 10 weeks in the fall … getting kids outside, getting them into the garden,” Krug says. “They have the opportunity to grow food, harvest food, eat fresh food, do simple cooking recipes, and just really get out into the dirt and learn how to grow food and just have that time with their peers in the sunshine. It’s a really great opportunity for community building, and so we provide those opportunities.”
The program introduces students to healthy eating, cooking, and agricultural science, while subsidizing costs for schools in underserved communities so no child misses out due to budget constraints.
As federal grants became an uncertain funding source for agricultural and food-focused education, Farm to School aid works to bridge the financial gap between program costs and what local schools can afford.
“We saw the cancelation of some grants and a lot of changes at the federal level with funding for Farm to School work, and then with the cancelation of the AmeriCorps program last April, that really made it a pretty urgent situation,” Krug remembers.
Farm To School Aid is a free community event, and all are welcome. Troy Farm and Gardens is located at 502 Troy Dr. on Madison’s North Side. “We are hoping for some beautiful weather for the event,” Krug says. “I absolutely love September and this time of year.”
For more information about Farm To School Aid, click here.
