Letter from the ANCS School Farm

Greetings, school family! My name is Nichole Lupo, I use she/her pronouns, and I have the honor of serving as our K-8 School Farm Specialist. Together with our outstanding farm crew, which includes K-8 School Farmer Zoe Spencer (she/her) and K-5 Farm Associate Maya Ferguson (she/her), I work to integrate growing food and caring for living things into our curriculum and culture here at ANCS.

While this marks the start of my 17th year as a farm- and garden-based educator, I didn’t always teach outdoors. I began my teaching career 24 years ago as a K-5 music teacher in my home state of South Carolina (Go, Gamecocks!). Food has always been an important part of my family, and the combined influences of growing up gardening with my dad and working in restaurants for a couple of decades inspired me to find a way to combine my love of teaching with my passion for sustainable, delicious food. When I learned about the National Farm to School Network, I knew I’d found my true calling.

Before joining the staff at ANCS, I spent a decade at Wylde Center managing the Farm to School program in City Schools of Decatur, supervising FoodCorps service members in four APS elementary schools, and teaching in gardens and kitchen classrooms throughout the metro Atlanta area. As much as I loved that work, I was always hoping for a place to put down roots and focus on one school family. As a parent at ANCS, I volunteered each year with my daughter’s class and grade level in the garden spaces across campuses. When the ANCS farm was installed in the summer of 2021, I knew that the school family I wanted to dig deep with was my own.

My job looks different from day to day, as I get the joy of working with all 628 of our awesome students. My responsibilities can include teaching outside on the farm sites at both campuses; farming with students, teachers, parents, and community members; partnering directly with other teams at school, including Nutrition, Facilities, Leadership, Instructional Coaches, and our DEI Co-Directors; leading and supporting events on the farm; speaking regularly at Morning Meetings at each campus; adding food- and farm-based experiences to meaningful learning opportunities like our Black History Month Teach-In, Lunar New Year celebration, and many other culturally significant gatherings throughout the school year; and generally holding safe space at the farm for every living thing that wants or needs to be there. When I tell you it’s my dream job, it’s not hyperbole—as full as it is, I honestly can’t believe I get to do this important work, here, with my favorite school family. If you would like to join me for a farm workday, volunteer for an event, or have ideas for other innovative ways to support our farm program, please reach out and let me know how you’d like to get involved – nlupo@atlncs.org.