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June 16, 2026
LANSING – Students at an Upper Peninsula school will learn how to grow healthy food that can be served through the USDA National School Lunch Program and School Lunch Program after their school received a federal grant.
The Michigan Department of Education and its Office of Nutrition Services is recognizing Copper Island Academy, recipient of $118,408 from the 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program. The rural grades K–10 public charter school, located in Calumet in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula, was awarded the grant funds to turn unused parts of campus spaces into a hands-on learning garden that shows how sustainable, natural ecosystems work.
“This project puts Students First by giving children at Copper Island Academy an opportunity to learn how to grow healthy food that provides locally grown nutritious school meals so the participants and their peers develop healthy eating habits,” said State Superintendent Dr. Glenn Maleyko. “School gardens help achieve Goal 3 in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, to improve the health, safety and wellness of all learners.”
Through its Permaculture Campus: Farm to Child Nutrition Programs Expansion Project, the school will install a year-round controlled-environment growing system in the high school atrium and establish three extensive outdoor permaculture zones—edible landscaping, layered food forest and pollinator habitat. The program will supply fresh produce for school meals at the academy.
The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program funds projects that promote the use of local foods served through Child Nutrition Programs, teach children about food and agriculture through garden- and classroom-based education and build the capacity of schools and farmers to buy and sell local foods. For fiscal year 2026, the USDA will award nearly $20 million across the United States to support projects that bring more nutritious, local food to America's schoolchildren while expanding economic opportunities for farmers and food producers.
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