Connecting Learning and Play in Farm-to-School Programs: Children’s Culture, Local School Context and Nested Inequalities

This article identifies mechanisms that constrain and enable farm-to-school programs’ success, drawing on evidence from an exploratory case study of a farm-to-school program in the Mid-Atlantic region located in a densely populated urban area. Data are based on observation of eleven farm field trips and six mobile market lessons with third and fourth grade students from ten elementary schools. Fieldnotes were coded for emergent themes and attitudinal and behavioral patterns with attention to variations and contradictions. Findings indicate farm-to-school educators engaged students in nutrition education by crafting a student-centered learning environment that combined education and play. Students from resource-rich environments were better able to take advantage of this learning environment than students who had less access to contexts that combine learning and play. The findings suggest that programs that adopt this approach may exacerbate the social inequalities that manifest health disparities rather than mitigate them.