Headwaters Food & Farming Alliance (HFFA) was busy in the classroom this past school year, helping students across Dufferin County learn to grow food from seed… and the results bloomed and thrived!
Their Grounded & Growing program, funded by the Dufferin Vision Fund Grant, gave 210 students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 an experiential learning opportunity at 5 elementary schools across Dufferin County, between Oct 2025 and June 2026.
Over the school year, each class received three rounds of classroom visits from HFFA.
The first round of visits introduced students to the basics of food and farming through mindful discussions about seeds, growth, and where food comes from. Students eagerly shared stories about gardens at home or family farms, while others discovered the excitement of planting for the very first time. Together, classes explored the parts of a plant before voting on and planting seeds of their choice. Each classroom was left with supplies, care instructions, and the confidence to help their plants thrive.
By the second round of visits, students were eagerly checking on the progress of their seedlings. The excitement was unmistakable. When asked how they imagined they would feel eating food they had grown themselves, students responded with words like “happy,” “excited,” “tickly,” “fluttery,” and even “like a firecracker.”
The visits also brought science and food systems to life through creative, curriculum-connected activities. Students explored how plants drink water through a colourful capillary action experiment using twine flowers and food-coloured water. They learned about the different edible parts of plants by sorting vegetables into categories such as roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
“Watching these critically important farm-to-fork connections happen in real time is a delight,” said Diane Walmsley, Grounded & Growing Lead. “It’s like witnessing magic.”
Older students expanded their understanding even further by examining food systems and the journey food takes to reach our plates – from production and processing to transportation, retail, and consumers. Younger students enjoyed story time, featuring Pancakes by Eric Carle, while older classes wrapped up activities with a lively game of “LOCAL” bingo, exploring how food can be preserved and sourced locally
The third and final set of classroom visits brought students’ learning together in a fun, hands-on celebration of local food. Using the Farm Fresh Map, they explored what is grown close to home before working in teams to create an imaginary farewell feast using only local ingredients. From pizza and pancakes to roasted chicken, salads, cakes, and homemade ice cream flavours, their menus showcased both creativity and a new appreciation for Ontario-grown foods. Students then put their knowledge to the test in a blind Ontario-versus-imported strawberry taste test, using sight, touch, smell, and taste to decide which berries were local.
In this last round of classroom visits, many students proudly shared that they had started growing food at home. Even more rewarding was when they revisited their opening question, “Where does food come from?”, the change was remarkable. Early answers like “McDonald’s” and “the fridge” had been replaced with thoughtful discussions about farms, apiaries, and the journey food takes from field to plate.
If you’re wondering what happened to the seedlings the students planted in the very first round of visits, the classrooms were allowed to keep their bins until the last week of school. This allowed them to maximize time for growth and resulted in more harvest for more classrooms. The plants were then transplanted, and either went home with teachers, were auctioned off, or were planted in the school garden.
“We aimed to develop mindfulness and food literacy through hands-on experiences,” said Walmsley. “I am so grateful that we were able to do this – something that would not have been possible without the support of the Dufferin Community Foundation.”
Programs like these are only possible thanks to a network of dedicated partners, volunteers, educators, and community supporters. HFFA’s Farm to School initiative is a project of Headwaters Communities in Action, and partners with other organizations including Branching Out Support Services, Dufferin Federation of Agriculture, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, local school boards, teachers, farmers, and producers throughout the Headwaters Region.
The Dufferin Community Foundation is proud to see the Dufferin Vision Fund Grant help to grow curiosity, confidence, and food literacy in local classrooms. Through programs like Grounded & Growing, students are learning where food comes from while also building deeper connections to their community, their environment, and their own well-being.
We look forward to seeing these young growers continue to flourish.
