Community Possibilities
Community Possibilities
How Farm to ECE Programs Help Grow Healthy Kids: Meet Dr. Emia Oppenheim
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Dr. Emia Oppenheim shares the powerful impact of Farm to Early Care and Education programs that connect young children with local food systems through gardening, hands-on learning, and fresh local foods.
• Public health nutrition focuses on population-level changes rather than individual interventions
• Children's food preferences often develop before age three, making early exposure to fruits and vegetables critical
• Farm to ECE uses three core strategies: buying local foods, teaching about agriculture, and hands-on learning
• Purchasing local foods creates ripple effects by supporting farmers and strengthening community food systems
• ASPHN's FarmWise initiative brings states together through collaborative learning to develop Farm to ECE programs
• Strong coalitions with diverse stakeholders drive innovation and sustainability in public health initiatives
• Despite funding challenges, states have found creative ways to implement local food purchasing incentives
• The next generation of public health professionals brings systems thinking and compassion to food system work
Visit asphn.org to learn more about ASPHN's Farm to ECE work, sign up for their newsletter, or join their upcoming webinars and training opportunities.
Guest Bio
Emia Oppenheim, PhD, MPhil, RD, Public Health Consultant and Farm to ECE Programs Director, Association of State Public Health Nutritionists,
Dr. Emia Oppenheim is a seasoned public health nutritionist and consultant currently working with the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists (ASPHN) on federal public health initiatives. With a career spanning several decades, she has extensive expertise in nutrition, early childhood health and development, chronic disease prevention and population health. Dr. Oppenheim completed her PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry in 2001, at Cornell University, following an MPhil in Immunology from the University of Sheffield (UK) and a clinical internship for a dietetic registration at the University of Virginia. Dr. Oppenheim was an adjunct lecturer at Cornell and has presented widely on nutrition and child development in the US and UK. Dr. Oppenheim’s career has shifted over the years from nutritional biochemistry to public health nutrition with a focus on transforming policies, systems and programs to support healthier environments for children. She began working on public health programs in school districts, later serving as the lead for early childhood obesity prevention programs at the Ohio Department of Health. She now leads ASPHN’s national efforts with Federal partners to expand and strengthen Farm to Child initiatives, helping states crea
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Welcome to Community Possibilities
Speaker 2Welcome to Community Possibilities, where we talk about what's possible when people come together to create healthier, more equitable communities. I'm your host, anne Price, and I'm thrilled to welcome Dr Amiya Oppenheim to the show. Dr Oppenheim is a seasoned public health nutritionist with a deep background in nutrition, early childhood development and chronic disease prevention. Currently, she serves as a consultant with the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists, otherwise known as ASPHN, where she leads national initiatives focused on transforming food systems and learning environments for young children. Warming food systems and learning environments for young children. Fun fact, asphn has been a client of mine since 2014. We are proud to support some of their public health nutrition work. Amiya's journey began in nutritional biochemistry, but over the years, her focus has shifted to public health nutrition, with a passion for supporting healthier programs and policies, especially for our youngest learners. In this episode, we explore ASPHN's FarmWise initiative and its unique learning collaborative supporting, farm-to-early care and education, or farm-to-ECE efforts. These programs connect young children to local foods through gardening, taste tests, hands-on learning and so much more, all while also strengthening local food systems and engaging families and communities. In this episode, we talk about collaborative learning and what makes it so powerful, the outcomes seen across the states and why initiatives like FarmWise are essential for building strong, healthy foundation for kids.
From Lab Research to Public Health
Speaker 2Let's dive in. Hi everybody, welcome to Community Possibilities. Today, my guest is Amia Oppenheim. Dr Amia Oppenheim, I should say Hello, amia, how are you? Hi there, nice to be with you, hey. So Amia and I go way back now. You are a consultant with ASPHN, the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists that's a mouthful and I have been working with ASPHN, I want to say, since 2014. I always have to look it up it's either 2014 or 2016. But let's just go with a long time, and that's how you and I have met through the work with ASPHN. That's right Yay.
Speaker 2Yay, awesome Great organization in the public health nutrition space, and that's what I want to talk to you about, friend. So that's how we know each other. But before we kind of jump in, why don't you just tell the audience a little bit about yourself, and not necessarily your business bio, but just you know how you came to be who you are?
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, thanks, anne. Hmm, well, let's see, I have always been interested in nutrition but really my interests were more on the chemistry side, sort of the application of you know, how does omega-3 fatty acid modulate immune systems and how does vitamin D play such an important role in cell metabolism? So I actually did undergraduate research and then master's and then a PhD in nutritional biochemistry, looking at if I could manipulate these cells to really mess up their folic acid cycle, what happens to them and does that look like what is happening in a pregnant woman when they have neural tube defects? So some crazy stuff.
Speaker 3But then we had a family and that, like so often changes for so many women, changed my professional focus because working in a lab takes a lot of time and energy and life and so I was kind of looking for a career change, but I was mostly teaching and still doing research when my partner got a position in Scotland and we decided to actually move the whole family.
Speaker 3We decided to actually move the whole family and while we were there I had all these opportunities kind of open up related to teaching teachers, you know, both K through 12, but also child care, about healthy development and what kind of nutrition really launches children in the best possible way on a healthy trajectory.
Speaker 3I'm not sure like why they fell into my lap when I was trying to think about this last night. It just I was in the right place at the right time and this opportunity just kind of grew over the course of our stay in Scotland and then eventually, when we had to move back because we did I was very sad to leave my dear friend that was living here sent my resume, based on all this work that I had done, to the Ohio Department of Health, the state that we were moving to and eventually I became the state's early childhood obesity prevention manager, kind of overseeing that for the state, and from there I connected to ASPHN and I really started to work in the realm of public health, learning actually as I went, kind of getting my MPH on the job, so to speak. But yeah, that's how I got to where I am, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2Well one, scotland is on my bucket list. I have a very long bucket list but I have not been to Scotland. Now my older sister actually has been, I want to say like three or four times, and is planning another trip. So there's that. And then the other thing is Lord have mercy, girl. I can't even imagine, because I took college chemistry in junior college and I can't remember, god. What was that woman's name? She was originally from Germany, her accent was so thick Everybody get out your balsam burners right and I had this idea that I wanted to study cytotechnology or be a medical technologist. I'd had a friend in high school that died of leukemia, another one died of bone cancer. I really wanted to do cancer research until I met chemistry and then I went to my advisor, who happened to be a psychologist, and said please, I'll do anything, just get me out. I want to do the next semester and I can't even imagine because you had to do like organic chemistry and all the things I bet. Yeah.
Speaker 3I have to say I did not dig organic chemistry but anything where there was an application like if I manipulate this, what happens in the human body? Like that stuff is so cool.
Speaker 2Oh, my gosh University of Alabama at Birmingham, and she is studying the effects of stress on the body, especially like autoimmune diseases and ACEs. You know adverse childhood experiences on the body. You would so love to talk to her, I know. But anyway, I know I'm all over the place, but I got to ask you, okay. So that's like the career piece and I love it when people say I don't know how I got here. I think we all get here for a reason, right. I actually think we're all called to the work we do. At least that's the story I tell myself Spiritually. That makes sense to me. Who was the chef in your family? Or was there a gardener or somebody who kind of lit this fire for you? Oh interesting, oh my God. Or somebody wasn't a cook, like in my case, Right, like oh, I think I'll cook.
Speaker 3So funny. My mom, I mean, she was amazing. We did not have much money but she would produce some amazing food from nothing, and maybe that was the catalyst. But yeah, and my dad was a physician and he did cancer research. You know, I remember when I was little he had some project on walnut oil, which I think is butyric acid.
Speaker 2Walnut oil, which I think is butyric acid, you made the girl out of the lab.
Speaker 3I remember sitting in my dad's lab and we had to the four of us, the four children had to crack pounds and pounds of walnuts to get the damn walnuts so he could extract the oil. I mean, this is like fricking olden days, man. But yeah, so maybe it was also him, and like he was making those connections too. We had so many things on the we cannot eat list because he decided that it was definitely the cause of all cancers. It was like we cannot eat ice cream, that's it, never again. The next year it was anything crustacean. Yeah, so maybe, now that I think about it, it was a combination of mom and dad.
Understanding Public Health Nutrition
Speaker 2Yeah, probably was. I would imagine not just ice cream, but any sugar. I hear a lot about sugar.
Speaker 3I mean for sure that's the consensus now, but when my dad was doing it it was like fat and it was the additives. At that point already, okay Well let's.
Speaker 2I'm quite sure there is a connection there, friend, right, it just makes sense. But now you're in the public health nutrition space particularly, let's just. Well, let me back up. Let's talk about the public health, right. I've had a couple of folks on the podcast who are in public health. But for those of you who maybe have not listened to that, can you just give us like a very broad definition of public health and then let's dive into public health nutrition?
Speaker 3Oh yeah. So let's see. For me, you know, it's always in the context of nutrition, so thinking about public health, nutrition I'm not sure if this would be your textbook answer, but for me it's really sort of getting up on the ladder and climbing up and starting to look at the population as a whole and no longer looking at the individual and thinking about individual counseling or individual experiences, but looking at populations, at communities, at nations, and figuring out what levers exist in the culture, in the infrastructure, in the community that we can use to impact population health. So it's that larger piece. You're looking at a larger scope and you're also really thinking about the policies, the systems and the infrastructures that exist.
Speaker 2Right, absolutely so. I don't know if you've ever heard me say this before, but when I'm talking about like public health in particular and this applies to public health, nutrition too I show a picture of my son with a big hook. We'd gone shark fishing and he had caught a shark. Of course, the shark got away, right, but he's holding this big hook and the next to it I have a picture of a big shrimp boat with a big net right, and that's how I think about public health. Right, we can try to like not literally hook, but you know what I mean. We can try to affect people one at a time or just, like you said, we can try to think about what are the things in place that are making people unhealthy or keeping them unhealthy? Right, so we think about community gardens and sidewalks and accessible healthy food, food that's grown locally, right Versus. I'm just going to educate you about what you should put in your mouth when you don't have the ability to get those healthy things right.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean you can think of it in terms of chronic disease, which is the focus of much of what we do at ASPHN. You can think of it as like sitting there at a health fair trying to talk to someone about the sugar levels in a particular drink. Or you can think about it as okay, let's back it up and see if we can start when that person's really young, they're in preschool and changing the foods that they're exposed to through policy change, through what's coming into the systems that are bringing the food into the child care, training the educator that's educating the child, and so forth. So you see a much longer, greater impacts when you're working with that child and that young, all the systems that care for that child as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely that adult Right, when those habits are so, you know, ingrained, right? I remember when my kids were little and occasionally we would go to McDonald's, there was no apple slices as an option, right. So we have made progress, but we have a long way to go and you opened up that door, so let's go there. Farm to ECE, early childhood education right. Let's talk about that and your work, because that's where you spend most of your time.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, thanks. My portfolio at ASPHN is 90% farm to early care and education, farm to ECE. Yeah, and I do think this is a great example of public health. I think you can start by just talking about the 0 to 5 population, you know, rather than talking about those adults shifting to the 0 to 5. Shifting to the zero to five and, as you said, much easier to change health habits that are really young or non-existent, like those among zero to five-year-olds, versus those among adults.
Speaker 3It's also interesting that some studies that we need more data to back this up, but some data does suggest that actually our preferences for food and physical activity are set at very young ages, some say even before three. So it's kind of this critical window that we get in there and we expose these young children to lots of tastes, textures, smells all fruits and vegetable taste, texture, smells. Let me be clear about that and just expose them so that they have just a greater palate. They prefer fruits and vegetables. They're more readily consuming fruits and vegetables. And farm to early care and education, unlike so many interventions that are launched in early care settings, actually does seem to do this. So it does shift what's being served in the early care site and it shifts what children are actually eating and they're increasing their fruit and vegetable consumption.
Speaker 3But I should probably back up a little bit. So when we talk about farm to early care, it's similar to farm to school, which is a little bit better known, and both of these programs are really just a term to describe three strategies that you bring into a school or a childcare setting, and those three strategies are buying and serving local foods, and local foods are predominantly going to be those fresh fruits and vegetables. It's teaching children about food and agriculture, so they're learning how food grows and then giving them lots and lots of opportunities to learn hands-on. And I would say I would even go one step further in childcare it's really getting those children outside to do that further in childcare it's really getting those children outside to do that hands-on learning. So they're getting that exposure not only to growing food but they're outside, which we know is critically important for children too.
Speaker 2You know, that makes me think of my friend. Diana started a community garden at church and you know, this little plot of land produces quite a lot of food. But they will get the preschoolers out there and they, you know, this little plot of land produces quite a lot of food, but they will get the preschoolers out there and they, you know, they planted potatoes. I think they planted sweet potatoes actually, and they had never, you know, she'd never tried it before. She didn't know if it would work. And the kids got out there and helped plant the sweet potatoes. And then they come harvest time and these kids were so excited to pull these sweet potatoes out of the ground, they just squealed, they were so excited. So let's talk about that local. I mean, maybe that's a silly question, but why is that important to have that food produced locally and what does that do for that community?
Speaker 3Yeah, I think so. There's kind of multiple reasons why local is so important. I think on the nutrition side of things, a lot of people think it's oh, because there's more nutrient density when things are fresh. Yes, that's true, but like we're talking about children eating no fruits and vegetables to moving to eating some fruits and vegetables, so it being a little bit fresher although great is not really we're just trying to get them from zero to some. I think it's more really focusing in on local, because then we're talking about foods that are typically not highly processed. We're talking about either raw you know, fresh from the ground, fruits or vegetables, or mildly processed, meaning, like you said, sliced apples being the big processing piece to it.
Speaker 3The other side of things not so much on the nutritional side but on the more community side and this is a big public health piece is that when it's local A, you're keeping local dollars in the community, you're shortening the farmer's supply chain, so they're getting more dollars in their pocket. But from a public health perspective it is critically valuable because then you're also creating the opportunity for families and community members to also access that farmer. If you keep that farmer in business by providing early care and education business for them. They're going to be able to stay in the community. They often can invest more in the community. They tend to then show up at the farmer's market and so on, so there's this sort of ripple effect that's really important.
Speaker 2Yeah, I love that really, that you're talking about community change. That's exactly that. You're talking about community change, that's exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2So, yes, it has benefits for that child. Side note, when you were talking about introducing foods early, I might have made a mistake with my first. My friend Charlene calls number one the test crust dummy. I know that's not very kind, but there's some truth to that. I remember being at the mall with him when he was like probably three-ish or something and I decided today was the day I was going to introduce Joshua to tuna fish. Oh my gosh which, as we all know, is a pretty pungent fish. Right, he was not having it to this day. He's 35 now. He does not like seafood, right? Uh, clearly I should have introduced him to a milder fish to start, probably earlier. Yeah, perfect example of what you're talking about.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh. In the same vein, I you know, I have three children, and my my oldest was the one who was in preschool in Scotland. Right, and we're a big peanut butter family, we love peanut butter. But that child went to preschool in Scotland. Oh, they do not like peanut butter there, they do not eat peanut butter there, and to this day she thinks it is probably one of the most disgusting foods. But she probably eats haggis, right, oh God, they don't eat that much haggis. No, but she probably would eat bovril or whatever marmite.
Speaker 2Oh, I don't think I know what that is. All right, okay, back to back to PharmDEC. So those are the benefits. Let's talk about how ASPHN supports this work. What does that look like?
ASPHN's FarmWise Initiative
Speaker 3Yeah, so we've been super lucky. We we work in collaboration with two federal partners CDC, specifically their center for their center for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as usda's community food division system, and separately both of those groups have been funding asphn to help states stand up more farm to early care and education programs and, um, you know, having the public health focus that we do. We work with states to really focus in on what policy, systems and environment change can they make at the state level to make this work easier for educators. I think one of the things that's really important to point out is that early care and education providers I kind of use the term providers and educators interchangeably they're probably one of the most underpaid professions in our country. You know the average salary across the US for educators for early care educators is about $14 an hour, so, and often that doesn't come with benefits. So it's critically important when we do this work that we're not just sort of handing it over to them to say, here's another thing that you can do, along with your laundry list of licensing requirements and other paper and child nutrition program, but instead the state needs to figure out okay, what policies can I put into place so that there's funding for local foods, there's training for educators, there's infrastructure to make this work easy. So that's really the focus of the work that we do.
Speaker 3I think we also another piece of it and this is where I've really learned from you, Anne, and utilize so many of your resources is that we help states put together coalitions to work on this work, because we have learned that, like in all things public health, really the work is just so much more impactful when there's a strong state coalition. And I don't it seems to me and I'm probably everybody thinks this about their work, but it seems to me, with farm to early care and farm to school, it's like even more important to have that coalition, because it's these three sectors of early childhood development, food systems and then public health that you're trying to bring together in one intervention. So having the coalition is just critical, because you need to bring all that expertise to the table to make things really impactful.
Speaker 2Right, awesome. Yeah, you and I both have a love for coalitions. Do you want to talk about the FarmWise as a kind of a way to enter into this conversation? Yeah, tell us about FarmWise.
Speaker 3Yeah. So USDA asked that we do this work, looking at states that are specifically interested in doing farm to early care in child care states participating in a child nutrition program, so kind of like the National School Lunch Program there's a version for meals served in child care sites. So USDA wanted us to work with states that wanted to build that out and so we actually put out a competitive grant sorry for states who were interested in working with us on this and we had 14 states who wanted to join in. We couldn't fund them all, so we funded, you know, as many as we could, and then actually the remaining states still wanted to participate and get technical assistance and learn from other states.
Speaker 3So we have all 14 states joining in and really it's the same thing that you and I have been talking about. We meet with these states. We really encourage them and help them and provide TA to them to develop their coalitions, to think about their coalition's health, kind of almost like they're thinking about a child and nurturing a child. We really teach them what are the best things to make sure that coalition is strong, that it's diverse, that it's sustainable things to make sure that coalition is strong, that it's diverse, that it's sustainable. And then we also work with them to really dig into their specific state policy systems and environments and figure out what they could change, tweak, create to make farm to EC.
Speaker 2So what is the collaborative learning? Look like you all offer a lot of trainings. I know you do calls with your folks. What are they learning?
Speaker 3Yeah, so yeah, I guess you're right. I didn't even mention that that FarmWise is, at the heart of it, a learning collaborative, so that we really do emphasize that opportunity that they're learning in collaboration with other states and that so we do as consultants at ASPHM. We do offer coaching, but we have learned, like in almost every aspect of public health that we do, every aspect of public health that we do that the states learn so much from each other and so we try to elevate that in every way possible. We offer monthly coaching with the states, but we do it with two to three states at a time so that we're talking through how to identify a mission and vision in a coalition and the states are sharing about the work that they're doing.
Speaker 3And Georgia's learning from Hawaii or Rhode Island, who's partnered with New York is modeling some of the things they're doing in New York, so we bring it into our coaching sessions. We also we do institutes. This is built on a Shelburne Farms model where we really take that collaborative piece and bring it into a multi-day or multi-hour training where they get to talk through a challenge with another state and have that other state just kind of problem solve and bring in their own experiences, their own ideas and help the two states together basically innovate and work through a challenge together. Yeah, and then we also hold regular networking calls so they can just get kind of regular updates on what everybody else is doing and, again, often just rip off what another state is doing and use it and make it their own too, which we highly encourage Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2They learn so much from each other. It's like having you know, having just trusted critical friends, right? Have you tried this? Have you tried that?
Coalition Building and Challenges
Speaker 3Yeah, I think that's a really good point and I think that's a lot of what the membership basis of ASPHN is about too. It's just bringing peers, colleagues, together from across different sectors for sure.
Speaker 2So what have you learned about coalitions, would you say, from doing this work? I'll let you interpret that any way you want.
Speaker 3Oh, my goodness, what have I learned? Hmm, gosh, I often think of, like coalitions as being the turtle, you know, for the shell, like I used to think they were. Just, they were kind of the shell, they were this inert thing that maybe you reported into, but in this work what I've seen is they're actually the turtle part of the shell that they really give the work mobility, focus, drive. You know, public health is just never going to be flush with money and staffing. I wish we were going to, you know, if we could only be at full capacity, but we're always going to be kind of having less than we need.
Speaker 3So it's absolutely critical with public health initiatives to collate the resources and staffing, and coalitions really offer you that opportunity. Yeah, I guess what I've learned is just how valuable they are and how much more you know when you have a diversity of stakeholders. So diversity in race, culture, expertise, geography, within the state you just you have you come up with something so much more innovative and valuable to the work you're doing. I just see it time and again with the coalitions we get to work with.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's magic. Yeah, Dan's mom used to have this jar. I have it up in my kitchen right now and it says magic. On the outside it's just a little clay pot and when the kids were little and she would make them breakfast, she would sprinkle the magic on their eggs. Right, it was just salt. And when she died the magic pot goes from house to house among the brothers and the grands were over a couple of weeks ago and me and I made them breakfast and little Ellie looks at me and says did you put the magic on it, Nana? Of course I'd totally forgotten about the magic jar. But to bring it back to coalitions, coalitions are that magic right, when we can get that diversity of thought, something amazing really happens. What are some of the challenges that your state coalitions have had? Obviously not mentioning a state by name, because coalitions struggle no matter who or what they are or where they are. It's an up and down cycle. What kind of challenges have you seen?
Speaker 3Well, okay. So we said this wasn't going to get political, but I think I have to. I think for us. So in October of last year, usda announced actually on one of our webinars that they were releasing close to a billion dollars in local food for schools and child care funding, close to 200 million of which was completely designated for child care. So first time ever to have that kind of a fusion of funds into child care. So really exciting.
Speaker 3And what we witnessed over the next three months from, like I guess, October until March more than three months was so exciting. I mean the breaking down of silos like I've never seen before. So we've had pretty amazing coalitions, but all of a sudden, these coalitions were talking to people at the Department of Ag who they could never get to the table, or the folks at the Department of Ag who were in another state who were at the table. Finally got the Department of Ed folks to the table, and same with nonprofits. So there was just a lot of great stuff happening. That funding was canceled.
Speaker 3So that was a huge, huge blow, and I think that's the heart of what I would say is the biggest challenge right now is just a lack of funding for this work. However, I will say the positive to it is that these people, you know, in public health, despite the stereotype of bureaucrats, they are so darn passionate, aged and hardworking, like some of those relationships that were made even though the funding's not there, they're like trying to figure out oh, what else could we do? Like Vermont actually ended up pushing through a bill in their state legislature that just got passed and they got a half a million to put towards schools and child care, local foods towards schools and child care. So some good things have happened, but I would say the biggest challenge is the lack of recognition of how valuable this work is, and so then, therefore, there's a lack of capacity. You know, there's just not enough FTEs, enough funding.
Speaker 2Public health. Folks are scrappy, there is no doubt about it, because they have to be. And to your point, I mean it really behooves all of us to be concerned about public health because there's not. And public health nutrition in particular, because there's not a chronic disease that we can name that is not impacted by nutrition. Yeah, yeah, I can't think of one.
Speaker 3Agree, yeah, and so why are we not funding this?
Speaker 2like crazy it's yeah, it's in our own best interest, not only for people that we know and care about. But you know our finances right. You know just nationally it affects everything cost-wise. What outcomes have you seen among your farm to ECE coalitions?
Speaker 3Yeah, we've seen so much good stuff. It's just amazing.
Speaker 2Yeah, is there a story in particular, or two, that you could share? Yeah, well let's see.
Success Stories and Future Hope
Speaker 3So we have a couple states that exist already outside of the work that we've done that have something called the local food purchasing incentive where they the state puts money towards extra reimbursement to the child care when they buy local foods. That's kind of an oversimplification but that gives you the general gist Like they're rewarded with more reimbursement for their child nutrition program funds when they buy local. And we've seen huge benefits in that, both for farm to school and farm to preschool. And there's only for a long time. There were only like two of those states New Mexico, michigan, maybe one or two others, but we have seen more and more states recognizing this might be the way they have to go if they want to get this program moving, expanded and really impacting child nutrition.
Speaker 3So we watched a few states put in grant programs or pilot programs to kind of test this idea out. We saw this in Iowa where they had, because of funding that we provided them, they had an opportunity to put out a grant program. I think they had like 30 spots. They ended up having over 200 applicants. I mean the interest is huge in this work. They had to turn people away but regardless they still had a wildly successful program had to turn people away but regardless they still had a wildly successful program. The state recognized the value of the work and they actually the state ended up putting a million towards someone to do farm to early care coordination not for local foods, but still a huge win. And they're still doing great work in Iowa, in part because of that funding. And they're still doing great work in Iowa in part because of that funding.
Speaker 3Also in North Carolina we've seen them do similar work. They're really trying to figure out how to get those local foods to child care. You know it's not like schools where you have a bigger volume and a bigger kind of purchase price. Volume and a bigger kind of purchase price. It's a little bit more economically beneficial for the farmer in an obvious way, just because school systems are larger. So sometimes it's a little trickier to figure out. How do you get local food to these 10 family child care providers in Raleigh area or something.
Speaker 3So we've worked with the coalition in North Carolina and they've piloted all sorts of different approaches to figure out what is the best way to get local foods into childcare, and they've created wonderful materials to help childcare sites do that, as well as to help extension folks through their extension at the state level, help extension folks be that coordinator on the ground and help those child care, and the list goes on and on. I could talk for hours. They've really done amazing work, created fantastic resources for child care providers and launched a lot of farm to ECE programs, that being the most important thing, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2Farmers build their business, kids and families benefit and communities are healthier overall. Yeah, yeah. Win win, win. Yeah, triple overall. Yeah, yeah, win, win win. Triple win, yeah, triple win. So yeah, I think that's a good illustration of why these programs are so important. Is there anything about your work with ASPHN that you would like to share that we haven't already kind of touched on?
Speaker 3Oh my, goodness, hmm, share, that we haven't already kind of touched on, oh my goodness. Well, I think I mentioned that a lot of our funding for the farm to early care work is funded by the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. But I actually a lot of ASPHNs our total portfolio is funded by that division, that center at CDC, and it's worth mentioning that they are zeroed out in the current reconciliation budget, so they're not in the budget, which means a lot of our work's not in the budget, so forth. So I do think it's really important to stay tuned to what's happening, to write to your representatives, let them know. You know you want this kind of work to continue. But yeah, I guess I also think about.
Speaker 3Lately I've been really trying to hold on to songs that are kind of helping me through and I like that Beatles song, the Blackbird song, just thinking about, like you said, public health. Folks are scrappy, like we're really resilient and we'll keep on keeping on. Folks are scrappy, like we're really resilient and we'll keep on keeping on. We'll find those paths that are available and keep walking them and doing the best we can.
Speaker 2Well, actually, one of my rapid fire questions which is where I was going next was what is giving you hope? So it sounds like Blackbird by the Beatles is giving you hope. Is there anything else that's giving you hope or joy right now?
Speaker 3Oh, you know, I think one of the greatest things about doing farm to early care and farm to school is it attracts, I think, some of the younger, newer public health professionals, Like they're really seeing the importance of the food system, so they're diving in and I think, working with them, oh my gosh, I just feel like if we could, just the rest of us could retire and just hand things over to this next generation. They just they have it. They really have that big systems picture. They understand the levers that are going to make a difference and make a change and I think that to me, I'm really encouraged by the next generation. I think they really have compassion at the center of what they do.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, me too. So what's one piece of advice you have for community leaders doing the?
Speaker 3I don't think I. I guess what I've seen with my states, even with all these blows that they've had in terms of funding and changes in terms of losing federal partners, I guess what I've seen them do is what I guess I would recommend is just really lean in on your community. You know there's so much around you resource-wise. This is like the time that we need to be working together and collaborating and consolidating and, yeah, there's just always more to learn and you can learn from the folks just around you how to move forward.
Speaker 2So my garden is right out there. I finally got it planted a few weeks ago. I'm very tardy this year. What do you have growing in your garden this year?
Speaker 3Oh, my gosh, my garden's so cold, because it's about 45 degrees here in Ohio. Oh, you're still chilly, but no, I've got my greens going. I've got the peas. They're pretty stunted, but I have never tried peas before. You're in Georgia. Everything grows in Georgia.
Speaker 2Green yellow squash man. Let's talk about those vine borer beetles. I know I have friends that have given up, but I have not given up. I've got yellow squash out there, but peas. I've got green beans, yes, but I've not tried peas.
Speaker 3I bet you could put peas in. I bet you could put them in in February In Georgia, Because it's like I don't do cold weather.
Speaker 2Oh, there's a reason why I live here.
Speaker 3It's heartening to see things growing in like March and April. It makes you happy.
Speaker 2I'm hoping the bunny rabbits stay out of my lettuce this year. Oh man, yeah, they tore it up. So anything else growing in your garden?
Speaker 3Oh yeah, I mean I'm an herb fanatic, so I've got, you know, thyme, mint, basil chives, all of it's going.
Speaker 2You're mincing a pot, though, right.
Speaker 3Actually I have this hack. So I took a huge ceramic pot, I dug a major hole, put that ceramic pot in the ground and, where my mint is Okay, continues. It's like a really happy plant. It hasn't broken the ceramic pot yet, so it's not spreading.
Speaker 2All right. And for those of you who are wondering, why am I asking about that? Because, like oregano, mint is what's the word for it it's like invasive, it will take over your garden. And a friend of mine laughed at me and just said, yeah, rookie mistake, there are certain things that have to grow in a pot, and I do love some oregano and mint and all the things. So well, happy gardening this summer. You, you too. Yeah, I don't do winter gardens, though I don't do cold weather, but good for you, very good. So before I let you go, I want to ask you the question I ask all of my guests when you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?
Speaker 3Oh my gosh. Well, oh gosh, I'm too quiet for too long on this one. Huh, you're fine, you're perfectly fine. My crystal ball is a little dark these days. You know it's been tough, but I guess I've been thinking a lot today about the Make America Healthy Again report that was just released last night. So that's kind of in my lens right now and I guess to me the community possibilities for local foods and investing in local foods were kind of a little brighter today, because that report really does highlight how important that is. So I guess that's my hope is that we start really putting our money where our mouth is and like recognizing that low processed foods are fruits and vegetables and we need to start getting them into babes mouths. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2And we need to start getting them into babes mouths. Yeah, absolutely, amia. How can people get in touch with you or learn more about you or asphn?
Speaker 3yeah, um, they should feel free to reach out to me at my email, which is amia, at asphnorg. Or they can go to our website, asphn iN, I think. Or, yeah, if you just Google ASPHN, you'd find us. There's not many of us with that acronym and then if you explore there, you'll find the Farm to Early Care webpage with a lot of contact information and a lot of resources.
Closing Thoughts and Resources
Speaker 2Yeah, there's so many resources, really great tools and you know I mentioned the webinars and the trainings that you all do so many great resources that you put out there for public health, nutrition in particular. So everybody go on over and check it out. Well, amiya, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, anne.
Speaker 3Always nice to have fun time with you, yeah it's been fun.
Speaker 2Thanks for joining me on today's episode. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Amiya and I hope you gained a deeper understanding of how Farm to Early Care and Education Programs and ASPHN's FarmWise initiative are helping to shape healthier futures for all our kids, supporting local food systems and strengthening communities through collaboration. Asphn's work with Farm to ECEs is a great example of how coalitions and collaboratives help our community. If you're interested in learning more, be sure to check out ASPHN's upcoming webinars, sign up for the free monthly Farm to ECE newsletter or connect during their open office hours. Whether you're just getting started or looking to expand your efforts, there are numerous ways to get involved and access support. You'll find a link to all these resources in the show notes.
Speaker 2If you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider supporting Community Possibilities by subscribing, rating or yes, leaving a review. Your support helps others find the show. And don't forget to visit our resource page at communityevaluationsolutionscom. Slash resources for free tools, guides and more support for your work to build healthy, thriving communities. In fact, we have a brand new template to help you understand what kind of community leader you are. Please be sure and check it out. Until next time, keep imagining and building what's possible in your community. Thank you.