Promoting local food with a face, a place and a taste in the Chesapeake Bay region FOODPRINTS FoodPrints, FRESHFARM Markets' local foods school program, builds an edible garden and integrates the garden into the school curriculum so that children are learning about where their food comes from and how important it is to eat fresh, healthy seasonal foods. The original funding for the FoodPrints program was a gift in 2005 from a young couple who shopped regularly at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market. They asked if we were interested in starting a school program for elementary students. With their initial gift of $5,000 we reached out to several DC public schools and found several individual teachers who were interested in working with us. From 2005-2008, we reached more than 300 children in six DC schools by bringing farmers into the classroom to talk about farming in our region and chefs to cook with seasonal foods harvested from our edible gardens. We took classes on nearby farm field trips, primarily to the National Colonial Farm and Ecosystem Farm at Accokeek and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Clagett Farm. The name "FoodPrints" is based on the concept of the carbon footprint. For FoodPrints, we want children to learn about their food "prints"—like a footprint in the garden, a hand print in the soil and fingerprints in the kitchen— all of which are essential to growing and eating fresh, seasonal foods that are good for personal health and the health of our planet. In 2009, our FoodPrints program found a home at Watkins Elementary School (Ward 6, Capitol Hill), where the principal was interested in expanding the edible school garden and having the first- and third-grade teachers integrate the garden into their art to science, math, social studies, physical education and writing instruction. Essential to our FoodPrints program at Watkins Elementary School is Master Gardener Barbara Percival who has been the school's "garden lady" for more than 10 years. Our FoodPrints Coordinator is Jennifer Mampara, who works with the first and third grade teachers to use the garden and local foods in their lesson plans. At Watkins, we have classroom space for lessons about local foods (sometimes including a farmer or two) and cooking demonstrations. FRESHFARM Markets provides additional food from our producer-only farmers markets when the school garden does not have enough produce for the weekly cooking programs. The FoodPrints program has received funding from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, the Philip Graham Fund and generous individual donors. An outdoor classroom space, complete with a new fence, will be completed in 2010. Our kid-friendly FoodPrints recipes and classroom lessons will be available online in fall 2010. For more information about FoodPrints, contact bernieprince@freshfarmmarkets.org. P.O. Box 15691, Washington, DC 20003    tel 202.362.8889    fax 202.244.2131    info@freshfarmmarket.org