Learning Spaces is an early learning initiative designed for caregivers, childcare providers and children birth to five years old.



Through collaboration with local libraries and early childhood professionals, it has been developed to be a preschool program in non-traditional spaces. The program raises awareness about the role of a child’s first teacher and provides meaningful engagement with caregivers.

The "Good Food for the Soul" food box distributions are initiatives designed to provide fresh, nutritious, and culturally relevant foods to communities. These efforts prioritize sourcing fresh produce from local farms and suppliers to support regional agriculture and ecosystems, while honoring traditions and tastes that connect individuals to their roots and to each other. By promoting food equity, the program works to dismantle barriers to access, ensuring everyone has the right to healthy food. Additionally, it fosters community engagement by strengthening connections through nutrition education and resources that encourage healthier living.

Our Farm to early care and education(farm to ECE) program is a natural extension of the Little One's Farm Stand as well as the Farm to Families programs. Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE; formerly Farm to Preschool) connects child care providers to locally grown, healthy foods. As a result, children increase their nutritional awareness while parents are engaged in issues related to child nutrition. Farm to ECE activities includes vegetable taste testing, family celebrations with healthy foods, edible gardens, menu changes, and other planting resources. Through these programs, we are able to offer increased access to healthy, local foods, gardening opportunities, and food-based activities to enhance the quality of the educational experience in our center as well as in the community at large. More about this national movement can be found below.



We hope you’ll join us in learning more about and supporting farm to early care and education, a proven community-based solution that ensures young children’s cognitive, physical and social-emotional development. Through growing, eating and learning about nourishing, farm-fresh food in early care and education settings, farm to early care and education initiatives connect young children with locally produced food and promote healthy eating. It has the added benefits of improving community nutrition and building sustainable local food systems.

During farm stand season, on the first and third Wednesday of each month we present the Little Lions Farm Stand, held at Little Ones Learning Center to increase community access to fresh produce. 

The Jazmin Green Memorial Garden is a source of produce not only for the meals served at Little Ones Learning Center, but also for the community. Other produce from our farmstand is sustainably harvested from local farmers. On every Wednesday of each month, we set up the Little Lion’s Farm Stand to increase community access to fresh produce. The farm stand gives everyone the opportunity to share our garden with the families in our community. Please follow us on our social media sites to keep up with our Farm to Early Childhood Education events that we will host at Little Ones.



The Little Lions Farm Stand has recently gained attention by the city of Forest Park. Click the links below to read more about us.

The Hand, Heart, and Soul Project supports high-quality early education. We also participate in policymaker education awareness events throughout the year which highlights the importance of holistic environments, and the intersectionality between education, health, and nutrition. Focusing on social and emotional competency in children and adults is also critical as we embed our work. 

Family involvement is central to holistic communities. We partner with early learning programs to provide taste test kits as an additional way to initiate or increase family involvement.