Contact: Amanda Frew

• Mobile: (530) 300-6167
• amanda.frew@fleishman.com

Sacramento, Calif. (January 21, 2016) – Tonight, the Sacramento City Unified School District unanimously approved Food Literacy Center to serve as program manager of the Leataata Floyd Farms Project, a 2.5-acre urban farm on the Leataata Floyd Elementary School campus in the Northwest Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento. The landmark plan includes establishing a “Broccoli Headquarters” for Food Literacy Center, an organization dedicated to educating the youth of Sacramento on the importance of healthy cooking and eating.

The new location is instrumental in allowing Food Literacy Center to expand upon its mission to inspire kids to eat their vegetables and improve the health of the community. For the first time ever Food Literacy Center will serve high school students in addition to elementary school students and daytime education will be added to the curriculum.

“We were thrilled to be chosen to be a part of this project. It will allow us to move from being a solely after school program to serving 600 elementary and high school students during the day,” said Amber Stott, Founder and Executive Director of Food Literacy Center. “Food literacy education has shown to improve the health and overall academic performance of students. We feel that this curriculum is as important as reading and math, and should be incorporated into daytime education.”

Food Literacy Center will continue to operate—and expand—its current successful programming. The approval enables Food Literacy Center to serve an additional 800 students per year in the Sacramento City Unified School District, doubling their reach from the 800 students in the eight schools they now serve to 1,600 students in 16 schools in the first year. They anticipate continued school growth year to year.

After a community-wide search conducted over several years, Food Literacy Center was chosen for this project because their educational goals most strongly aligned with the goals of the project partners, including the school district.

“Having a well-established food literacy program like Food Literacy Center is critical to the success of the Leataata Floyd Farms Project,” added Jay Hansen, Sacramento Unified School District board member. “Amber and her team have built a strong, academically challenging curriculum and with the added resources of a farm and access to students throughout the day more of our students can benefit from this outstanding program.”

In addition to the students of the Sacramento Unified School District, the greater Sacramento community and region will also have access to the new facility and its resources through food literacy programming such as cooking classes and garden education.

The new site will include indoor teaching kitchens and a production agriculture parcel with the goal of providing food for the elementary school cafeteria. Students will receive food literacy curriculum including hands-on, inquiry-based classes that are tied to academic standards, including cooking and nutrition classes such as the chemistry of cooking, history/culture through cuisine and food science. Additionally, the students will receive garden/farm curriculum including hands-on classes to learn the parts of a plant, the science of growing food, composting and insect biology. The garden and farm will include drought-tolerant and native edible plants and will be organic.

The Leataata Floyd Farms Project was approved for development in 2012 and is made possible because of the first ever collaboration between The Mill at Broadway, the City of Sacramento Parks and Recreation Department, and the Sacramento City Unified School District. The Mill at Broadway and the Setzer Family Foundation are each providing a $100,000 startup donation to seed the project.

“This project has blossomed due to the unique partnership forged by the city, the school district and the development team at The Mill. The working farm and community garden will have a positive impact to the surrounding community,” said City of Sacramento Councilmember Steve Hansen. “Providing access to healthy local ingredients is a necessity to serving disadvantaged neighborhoods and I’m proud of the work that will come from the Food Literacy Center at this site.”

Food Literacy Center programming provided at Leataata Floyd Elementary School will be partially funded by the Community Facilities District funds, earmarked in partnership with the project developer, The Mill at Broadway, Sacramento City Unified School District, and the City of Sacramento. However, the majority of project funding will come directly from Food Literacy Center’s own community outreach and fundraising from local donors. The organization is actively seeking additional donations from the community to help pay for necessary programming and equipment. To donate, visit www.foodliteracy.org.

Over the next several months, the project will continue to take shape as program details are finalized, and it is expected to be completed and open by late 2017. Meanwhile, the organization has been delivering afterschool programming at the elementary school since 2015 thanks to funding from Raley’s.

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About Food Literacy Center

Food Literacy Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) established in 2011 in Sacramento, California, with the mission of inspiring kids to eat their vegetables. The organization provides low-income elementary children with after school programming at 8+ schools throughout the Sacramento County Unified School District that teaches cooking and nutrition to improve health, economy and the environment. For more information about Food Literacy Center, visit http://www.foodliteracycenter.org/.