Skip to content

Additional Kentucky Proud Programs

Whether it’s giving kids hands-on learning experiences about agriculture, providing important information on regulations, or encouraging healthy eating with “fresh from the farm” ingredients, Kentucky Proud offers a number of additional programs that benefit Kentucky farms, our farm families, and consumers across the Commonwealth.

teenage farmer holding bins of eggplants in field

Eat to Win Kentucky

The Kentucky Proud Eat to Win Program encourages all K–12 students across the Commonwealth to incorporate more locally grown fruits and vegetables into their diets as part of a healthful lifestyle.

From aspiring scientists to athletes and artists, Kentucky’s students take steps, large and small, every day to reach their goals. A nutrient-packed, balanced diet will help Kentucky’s future leaders achieve their passions, talents, and dreams.

A few tips to a healthier life:

  • Don’t Skip Breakfast: Over 50% of middle and high school-aged athletes skip breakfast three or more times per week, and over 15% skip breakfast daily. The overnight “fasting” effect lowers glycogen levels in the body and impairs performance, especially when engaging in prolonged endurance activity. Remember, carbohydrates equal energy. When you restrict carbohydrates, you restrict energy. If you’re in a hurry, grab a serving of fruit every morning before you leave your house.

  • Variety Matters: Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables to ensure you are getting proper amounts of different vitamins and minerals. This will help fuel your body as well as replace what you have depleted throughout the day.

  • Don’t Cram: Eat healthy portions of carbohydrates every day rather than trying to “cram” all your carbohydrates into a pre-game or post-game meal. Make sure to add appropriate levels of protein, essential fats, and fluids to all meals to meet your total nutrition needs.

  • During physical activity (especially activity lasting longer than an hour), it’s important to eat a small amount of carbohydrates (30–60grams) to maintain vital energy levels. While sports drinks provide carbohydrates, they are also loaded with sugar. Mixing in a medium-sized portion of fruit along with sports drinks prevents feelings of hunger and weakness.

  • For post-game meals, athletes should eat carbohydrate-focused meals within 60 to 90 minutes after the completion of activity to replenish muscles. Athletes should also add an adequate amount of protein to their post-game meals to repair tissues.

campus group of students cooking

Farm to Campus

The Kentucky Proud Farm to Campus Program helps participating higher education institutions place farm-fresh, Kentucky Proud foods in their food-service systems and shelf-stable Kentucky Proud products around campus.

young girl with green beans

Farm to School

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is committed to bringing fresh, high-quality Kentucky Proud products to Kentucky’s school systems. Farm-fresh food helps students grow into strong, healthy young men and women who understand the importance of nutrition and buying local while helping Kentucky farmers find new markets for their products. Be Kentucky Proud – and learn more about how we’re helping students and farm families all over Kentucky.

Keep Reading
hemp closeup of leaves

Hemp

Industrial hemp is a variety of Cannabis sativa that is grown primarily as an agricultural crop. A vast variety of products can be made from industrial hemp using the seed, oil, and fiber.

Want to know more about the benefits of growing hemp? Get all details for the Hemp Licensing Program, applications, regulations, and more.

If you’re interested in Kentucky’s Hemp Licensing Program and not already on the email notification list, please email us with your name and contact information to receive periodic updates. Notifications will include announcements for hemp field days, conferences, application releases, etc.

Learn about Hemp
Junior Chef Team preparing Kentucky Proud dish

Junior Chef

Farm to School Junior Chef pits high school cooking teams in a statewide competition, with the state champion decided at the Kentucky State Fair. The program is designed to offer youth the opportunity to learn valuable skills in recipe development, food preparation, marketing, public presentation, organization, teamwork and community involvement.

Junior Chef aims to stimulate interest in local agriculture, create a non-traditional market for Kentucky producers, and improve the quality of products available to school cafeterias. Ultimately, the goal of the program is to increase consumption of farm-fresh food by Kentucky’s students. Not to mention, valuable scholarship opportunities provided by Sullivan University are available to the top three winning teams each year!

Do it for the win. Do it for Kentucky.

Get Involved
woman crushing wine grapes

Kentucky Wine

Ready for a bold statement? The foundation of America’s wine industry is largely planted in Kentucky. That’s right, the fourth largest wine producing country in the entire world owes quite a bit to the Commonwealth. While it’s true that California is now responsible for roughly 85% of the total US wine production, that wasn’t always the case.

America’s commercial wine industry was born in Kentucky in 1798 when Swiss vine-dresser, Jean-Jacques (John James) Dufour established the first commercial winery in the United States on steep banks of the Kentucky River in modern-day Jessamine County.

Since 2000, the number of Kentucky wineries has grown from less than 10 to more than 75, and that number continues to grow each year. Vineyard acreage is on the rise and the future of Kentucky’s grape and wine industry looks like there will be many very good vintages to come!

To read more about Kentucky wine (and craft beer) and to start planning your weekend adventures, check out Drink KY. It’s your personal guide to Kentucky’s wineries and craft breweries.

Explore Drink KY
two cows grazing

Livestock Tag

The Kentucky Proud Livestock Tag Program promotes animals that are born in Kentucky and enrolled in the program. One of the main goals of the program is to increase sales opportunities for quality Kentucky animals and market those animals at premium prices.

These tags are a visual tool that will identify all animals in the Kentucky Proud Program and assist with issuing Kentucky Proud premiums to youth livestock exhibitors. Learn more about how the Kentucky Proud Livestock Tag Program is benefiting all of Kentucky.

Program details
woman at local booth selling bouquets of flowers

Ready, Set, Grow

Ready, Set, Grow – a Kentucky Proud program – is a fun educational tool to help teach children how to grow their own produce.

Many schools across the Commonwealth have constructed gardens on their school grounds and are looking for easy-to-implement lessons that meet the Kentucky Academic Standards for all grades. Ready, Set, Grow projects provide students life skills and hands-on learning across multiple subject areas. The goal of the program is to educate students about the natural world and teach Kentucky’s youths how to grow fruit and vegetable crops on their own for personal consumption or for possible business enterprises.

Get the Dirt
farmer in red truck with dog in front seat

Any questions about these programs, or interested in learning more?