New Lebanon School is expanding the only farm-to-school program in Greenwich Public Schools. The Byram elementary school enters its second year of "Harvest of the Season," an initiative that weaves gardening, cooking and local-farm visits into the curriculum for 363 pre-K through fifth-grade students.

More than 12 educators voluntarily attended a two-day professional development retreat in mid-August to prepare, according to the Greenwich Alliance for Education. Principal Dr. Daniel Russo led the retreat alongside Jen Cirillo, director of professional learning at Shelburne Farms in Vermont, and Jen Rothman, executive director at Yellow Farmhouse.

Sessions covered classroom curriculum planning around featured vegetables for the 2026–27 school year and strategies for deepening the program. Attendees shared a seasonal meal in the school garden with food from Kalenauskas Farm & Market and Smith's Acres.

A Reaching Out Grant from the Greenwich Alliance for Education funded the retreat.

Harvest of the Season launched in fall 2025 after a New Lebanon team attended VT FEED's three-day Northeast Farm to School Institute in June 2025, Greenwich Free Press reported. Each season, students focus on one fruit or vegetable through hands-on activities including sowing seeds, harvesting, composting and cooking demonstrations.

The school garden anchoring the program dates back years. Geoff Lazlo, who led math, science and gardening activities with students, designed and maintained a garden at New Lebanon's previous campus before it was demolished in 2019. A 2018 grant helped expand the space into a full vegetable and flower garden behind the current building. The PTA has run an after-school garden club for grades K–5 since spring 2024.

The Greenwich Foodshed Alliance, a program of The Foodshed Network, selected New Lebanon as its Greenwich partner in 2025. Ali Ghiorse, who co-leads the alliance, wrote in a Sept. 21 op-ed that the program aims to model best practices for other Greenwich schools.

"Greenwich is fortunate to have New Lebanon School pioneering this work, and we hope it will support other schools in adopting their own programs …" Ghiorse wrote.

All New Lebanon students receive free breakfast and lunch for the 2026–27 school year through the federal Community Eligibility Program (CEP), with no household applications required, according to Patch. Nearly 60% of the school's students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Greenwich Public Schools serves about 8,465 students across 15 schools. New Lebanon's program remains the district's only farm-to-school initiative.