PARTNERSHIPS
Auerfarm partnerships enhance our ability to engage people with agriculture and the environment. Each partner adds to the diversity and programs found daily at Auerfarm.
The mission of 4-H is to assist all youth ages 5-19 in acquiring knowledge, developing leadership and life skills while forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of their families and communities. 4-H has historically been an integral part of Auerfarm and managed the orchard for several decades. Auerfarm has an active 4-H Club that utilizes the farm resources to teach about animal husbandry, agriculture and sustainability. For more information, visit http://s.uconn.edu/4-H
This Hartford Public School utilizes the 120 acres at Auerfarm to enhance inquiry-based STEAM learning to give Annie Fisher Middle School students unique hands-on agricultural experiences. Through the Montessori Method of Education they learn everything from the physics behind splitting wood to the economics of raising egg laying hens. They have a deep understanding of a working agricultural enterprise.
Partnerships with Laurel, Carmen Arace and Metacomet for afterschool programs began in 2022 and preparations for the upcoming school year have been in the works for a few months now. We look forward to building this relationship and the programs we offer.
Farmington Valley Transition Academy
Post-secondary students, aged 18 to 21, have been coming to the farm for over ten years. In 2019, Auerfarm and West Hartford Public Schools collaborated on a pilot program to engage their students in farming to build job skills for students with disabilities. While at the farm, students learn agricultural skills by growing vegetables and herbs in a large hoop house, as well as job culinary skills using the harvested produce to make later employment more likely.
The staff and students of the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources through the Cooperative Extension program offer their expertise and time to support the farm’s fruit and vegetable production and educational activities. Auerfarm hosts the UConn Master Gardener program. Aside from classes and training offered to the community, the food harvested from the Master Gardener vegetable plots are donated to FoodShare. On average over 3,500 pounds of vegetables are donated to needy families per year. Faculty and students of the Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems classes at UConn spend time at Auerfarm and in the classroom evaluating agricultural production systems.
For more information about UConn and their programs, please visit http://4h.uconn.edu/.
WHPS Post-Secondary students, aged 18 to 21, have been coming to the farm for many years. In 2019, Auerfarm and WHPS collaborated on a new high tunnel greenhouse. As a part of a job training program, this pilot program allowed the transition students to expand the number of days on the farm. Their focus on planting, growing and harvesting produce in a greenhouse helps build job skills as well as life skills.
From its inception, the school has incorporated Auerfarm into their curriculum. Students from this Bloomfield school come three days a week throughout the year. Our close collaboration with Wintonbury’s early education staff includes joint curriculum planning and professional development. The partnership between Auerfarm and Wintonbury has created a high degree of expertise in science education for the early childhood age group.