October Celebrations 2025

October offers many opportunities to showcase your school meal program’s achievements. We hope you’ll celebrate and share with your community the wonderful work you do to serve quality, nutritious meals to your students!

National Farm to School Month

October is National Farm to School (F2S) Month, a perfect time to recognize and celebrate the connections between school and local agriculture. You can participate by offering local produce, planting seeds, conducting taste tests, sending home recipes featuring seasonal or locally grown fruits and vegetables, or preparing classroom soups or applesauce. For more ideas, see the National F2S Network Celebration Toolkit . Learn more about F2S on the California Department of Education’s (CDE) F2S web page.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Observed on Monday, October 13, 2025, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an opportunity to honor traditional Indigenous foods through your school menus, cafeterias, gardens, and classrooms. The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Buying Guide web page , includes many Indigenous foods and their contribution to reimbursable meals. USDA also provides recipes and tips on the Serving Traditional Indigenous Foods in Child Nutrition Programs web page .

National School Lunch Week (NSLW)

NSLW is celebrated October 13–17, 2025 and this year’s theme is Taste the World: Your School Lunch Passport! Engage students with contests, menu illustrations, recipe development, taste testing, or meal preparation. For more ideas, activity guides, and resources, visit the School Nutrition Association’s NSLW web page .

National Farmer Day

Celebrate National Farmer Day on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, by featuring them and their products in a NSLW meal. This day marks the close of harvest season and offers an excellent opportunity for farmers to participate in celebrations.

California Crunch

Also celebrated during NSLW celebrate California Crunch Day on Thursday, October 16, 2025, by joining schools, staff, and students across California in taking a big collective bite of locally grown fruits and vegetables to honor local farms and healthy eating. To register, receive the event guide, stickers, educational videos, and more, visit the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) California Crunch web page .

Celebrating California School Meals Photo Contest

Are you passionate about school meals? Please share photos that highlight your school meal programs, farm to school activities, students, staff and more! There are seven categories. Enter our photo contest before November 3, 2025. Learn more about the photo contest here: Celebrating California School Meals Photo Contest.

Resources

For F2S Program resources, visit the CDE’s F2S web page.

To find local food producers in California by county, consult the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Certified Producers by County (PDF).

For technical assistance and marketing resources from CAFF Farm to Cafeteria web page .

For information on procuring local foods for child nutrition programs, review the Procuring Local Foods Guide .

Contacts

For questions about F2S, contact the CDE Farm to School Team by email at Farm2School@cde.ca.gov.

For questions related to procurement and procurement resources, email the CDE Procurement Team at NSDProcurementReview@cde.ca.gov.

For assistance locating farms to procure local foods, contact the F2S Network Team at the California Department of Food and Agriculture by email at cafarmtoschool@cdfa.ca.gov.