The Marin Organic School Lunch and Gleaning Program is helping to transform the school lunch choices for our kids. Four years ago, Marin Organic saw the potential in creatively connecting local farms to local schools to help our communities thrive. Now this extraordinary program each week enables 12,000 students from more than half of Marin’s schools to eat organic foods grown in Marin, while actively fostering a strong sense of place in children. Please join us in our work.

• Feed Your Students Well
  with the best ingredients possible, delivered to your school


• Glean Food With Us
  from Marin Organic farms to your schools and community centers


• Learn And Teach From Our Farms
  with our Farm Days and Student Internships


• Collaborate With Other School Chefs
  with our School Chef Collaborative


• Join Our Partner Schools
  with over half of all Marin schools participating in our program


• Check Out Our Video
  which shows our program in action: www.marinorganic.tv

Feed Your Students Well
with the best ingredients possible, delivered to your school

Each week, we deliver a combination of purchased and gleaned foods from Marin Organic farms to participating schools throughout the county, serving more than half of our public and private schools in Marin. Each school’s purchase is supplemented with the week’s donated gleaned foods which offsets their costs, enabling all schools to choose the best ingredients possible while staying within their limited budgets.

All Marin Organic foods are certified organic, from farms within a 15 mile radius, and delivered from farms to schools often on the same day and always within 24 hours. Now that's local! Marin Organic acts as the liaison between farmers and schools, as the fiscal sponsor, as well as the distributor. An updated product availability list is sent to participating schools on Thursday mornings, orders are received on Thursdays and Fridays, and all foods are delivered to schools and community centers with our biodiesel-powered truck on the following Tuesdays. For more information, please contact Program Manager Scott Davidson at 415.663.9667 or scott@marinorganic.org.

Glean Food With Us
from Marin Organic farms to your schools and community centers

Gleaned food is produce which would otherwise be left in the fields because it doesn't meet the strict aesthetic requirements of restaurants and retail markets. This can account for up to 20% of what is grown, and throughout the year may include potatoes, squashes, spinach, leeks, beets, carrots, arugula, lettuces, meats, eggs, yogurt, ice cream and more!

So far over 100,000 pounds of local certified organic products have been gleaned and delivered to participating schools, camps, and underserved communities throughout Marin, offsetting their costs and therefore allowing them to serve local and organic options while staying within their limited budgets. Each week the program enables 12,000 children to eat organic foods grown from Marin soils.

Join our Glean Team today! There’s plenty of food to glean and so many people to feed. Many hands make light work. Please contact Program Manager Scott Davidson at 415.663.9667 or scott@marinorganic.org

Learn And Teach From Our Farms
with our Farm Days and Student Internships

Marin Organic Farm Days put students to work, celebrating the abundance by harvesting gleanable foods for donation, while meeting curriculum standards for students of all ages. Our curriculum is modeled after the California Science Standards, creating opportunities for students, teachers, and farmers to work and learn together while building soil and harvesting the bounty. The best way for us to learn about our food is to harvest it ourselves from our neighborhood farms!

A typical Farm Day for first graders may include milking a goat, tasting the garden’s rainbow, role playing the needs of plants, and playing games that engage all of our senses. Sixth graders may investigate the soil ecology and water patterns on the farm, and play the integrated pest management game, while harvesting food for their own school. High school students will learn the ins and outs of organic farming, from compost and soil tending, to inter-planting and crop rotations, all while gleaning real foods for their school or favorite community center.

Download a Marin Organic Farm Day Application
Download a Marin Organic Farm Day Release of Liability Form

For more information, please contact Program Manager Scott Davidson at 415.663.9667 or scott@marinorganic.org.

Marin Organic Student Internships are a great way for students to get hands on experience in the non-profit world.  We are best prepared to take on high school and college students, but are open to working with individuals of all ages. High school and college internships offer an opportunity for students to get creative, work closely with one of our department managers, and develop a project that will assist our work towards social change.

Recently Marin Organic hosted a UC Santa Cruz student who spent 6 months developing more opportunities for kids to have access to healthier foods. Her daily tasks included working closely with Scott, Manger of the Organic School Lunch and Gleaning Program, researching possible opportunities, creating Farm Day curriculum, and supporting the Marin Organic team. For more information, please contact Program Manager Scott Davidson at 415.663.9667 or scott@marinorganic.org.

Collaborate With Other School Chefs
with our School Chef Collaborative

The Marin Organic School Chef Collaborative hosts quarterly potlucks giving school chefs and food service directors an opportunity to share effective strategies that enable them to feed their students well. Dedicated school lunch leaders are now working together to transform school lunch choices, from the inside out. Check out our growing collection of school lunch recipes, time savers, and federal policies that may help you. For more information, please contact Program Manager Scott Davidson at 415.663.9667 or scott@marinorganic.org. (Coming Soon!)

Largest USDA Meat Recall Information:

www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Recall_005-2008_Release.pdf
www.marinij.com/health/ci_8294735
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june08/beef_02-18.html
www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2147517220080221

Become A Partner In Our Work and support the Organic School Lunch and Gleaning Program.

Join Our Partner Schools
with over half of all Marin schools participating in our program