SMCOE Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Initiative

Solutionary Examples for a Sustainable Food System

Pathways to Action

Looking for ideas to get started? Below are a few examples of solutionary actions that can be taken across the Campus, Curriculum, and Community Engagement. You can also click HERE to see more examples in the One Planet School Challenge Example Levels of Engagement.

Campus

Entry: Assess the school's food system and track the monthly food uses and sources.
Mid Level: Improve the school's food system.
Full Integration: Create a comprehensive plan for achieving a school that obtains 100% of its food from sustainable and/or local sources.

Curriculum

Entry: Provide students with supplemental lessons that examine the importance of local and sustainable food.
Mid Level: Create lessons for students to analyze the food system and identify environmental, social, and economic issues. Students then apply their learning by collecting data from their campuses, developing awareness campaigns, and setting up action plans for their school.
Full Integration: Deliver local and sustainable food curriculum to a majority of students in the school. Ongoing education paired with campus events and exemplary facilities affords students a comprehensive understanding of the food system.

Community Awareness & Action

Entry: Host a one-off school and/or community-wide event about the importance of local and sustainable food with at least 10% participation.
Mid Level: Participate in a short-term awareness or action campaign focusing on local and sustainable food with 20-50% participation in the school community.
Full Integration: Implement an ongoing awareness or action campaign focusing on local and sustainable food with over 50% participation in the school community.

Exemplar community impact projects led by administrators

Not sure which pathway to action is right for you? Browse the Administrator-Led Solutionary Community Impact Project Exemplars to learn about successful and long-lasting environmental action.

Local Solutionary Action Examples

Want to see what other school communities have done to get recognized? Below are a few examples of Solutionary actions that have been recognized by the San Mateo County Office of Education.

South San Francisco High School

South San Francisco Unified School District

2022-2023

Zeenia Najmi, a student at South San Francisco High School (SSFHS), worked with Kyle You, a student at El Camino High School, to implement an on-site composting system for the SSFHS garden for their Youth Climate Ambassadors Community Impact Project.

The Burkard School

Private Independent

2022-2023

Harvest Radich and Michelle Malashevitz, teachers at The Burkard School, nominated their work with students to teach students about the seasonality of different produce across California and why it is important to eat within a food's seasonality for the environment's sake.

YCA: Hillsdale High School Students and Meadow Heights Elementary School

2022-2023

Hillsdale High School students Emily Duncan, Caroline Lim, Olivia Murray, and Roisin Scallon nominated their work at Meadow Heights Elementary School to implement a vegetable garden and sustainability education workshops.

Laurel Elementary School

Menlo Park City Elementary School District

2022-2023

Laurel Elementary School teacher Sandra Horwitz, and Laurel's 5th grade teaching team, developed a project-based learning curriculum unit called “Let It Grow” in 2018-19, and has been using it with their fifth grade classes every year since.

2020-21 SCRS Challenge Financial Award Winner: YCA Students & Arbor Bay School

Youth Climate Ambassadors partners with Arbor Bay, a school for children with mild/moderate learning differences, to start an edible garden. The Youth Ambassadors purchased materials, lead workshops, and have next steps of integrating the garden into annual curriculum and instruction.

2017-18 SCRS Challenge Financial Award Winner: Westlake Elementary

Jefferson Elementary School District

Mid-Level Recognition in Curriculum and Instruction for Local and Sustainable Food

Due to Westlake Elementary's clear steps forward laid out in their Next Steps portion of the submission, they received a $500 award to help build out their food garden program.