Start a chapter

Four things come first, in this order: the principal’s written approval, a Teacher Advisor, the Chapter Application to HQ, and the signed Chapter Agreement. Nobody beyond the founding students is recruited until the Chapter Agreement is signed.

The Teacher Advisor is a staff member at your school. They are copied on every outside message, from every farm email to every email with HQ, they sign forms, and they are the first person to go to with a concern. It takes them about 30 minutes a month. The Startup Playbook: The First 12 Weeks covers each step. Ask HQ for it.

Before the first session

The first session happens once those four are in place, not before.

• The principal’s written approval
• A named Teacher Advisor, a staff member at your school
• The Chapter Application Form, sent to HQ
• The signed Chapter Agreement

Build the farm list once HQ has assigned your area. A chapter that opens with its list already built sends its first emails in week one. When the principal has approved and your Teacher Advisor has agreed, send HQ the Chapter Application Form through the contact page, with your Teacher Advisor copied. HQ acknowledges it within 3 school days and decides a complete application within 15 school days.

A new chapter starts with three roles: Chapter Lead, Deputy Lead and Outreach Editor. The Chapter Lead runs the session, holds the timer, and works with the Teacher Advisor and the Chapter Liaison. Once the Chapter Agreement is signed, HQ sends the current farm email and the farm list template, always with the Teacher Advisor copied. Write to HQ through the contact page, from your school account, with your Teacher Advisor copied.

Start once HQ has assigned your area. Published contacts for commercial farm businesses in that area, recorded with the source and the date checked. We never ask about produce from backyard, home or community gardens. Canada has 189,874 farms (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture 2021).

Three roles

• The Chapter Lead runs the weekly session, holds the timer, and works with the Teacher Advisor.
• The Deputy Lead holds every credential from the first day and runs the session when the Chapter Lead cannot.
• The Outreach Editor reads every email before it is sent. Every one. Nothing goes to a farm with your school’s name on it that you would not want read aloud. Three roles open a chapter, and the pages on building the farm list, the weekly session and talking to growers set out the work they carry.

What the record holds

• Every farm we contact is recorded with the source of the contact and the date it was checked. That record follows the farm through every season, and it is how a chapter knows where it stands.
• Every yes is handed to an organization that collects with its own vehicle.
• Every season ends with a written record of the farms contacted, the introductions made and the outcome of each. That record is what a chapter hands to the students who take it on next year. The work sits under UN Sustainable Development Goal target 12.3, the target on food waste and food losses.

A new chapter starts with three roles and adds the other three as it grows. The room at lunch and the weekly slot are agreed with your school, and the roles page sets out what each role owns.

Book a room at lunch and a recurring weekly slot, with your Teacher Advisor. Build the first list from published contacts once HQ has assigned your area. Then hold the session: 45 minutes, in pairs, with a timer and a visible count.

No chapter sends more than 40 first contacts in a week. That is a ceiling, not a target. Every chapter works to the same limit, and reports its first contacts to HQ each month.

A first session is the founding students in a room at lunch, with laptops. There is nothing to buy and nothing to install before you start.

Weekly

No chapter sends more than 40 first contacts in a week. That is a ceiling, not a target. One question per email and nothing else. The question is always the same: Do you have surplus or grade-out produce this season that you cannot sell?

Two weeks

Every email carries the name of the chapter, the school’s street address and the STOP line. One follow-up, about two weeks later, catches emails that were missed in a busy week. Then the chapter stops.

The record

The list records the source of every farm contact and the date it was checked, and it is kept for at least three years. Members log every farm, every contact and every outcome, so a chapter always knows which farms it has written to, which said yes, and which organization each yes was introduced to. The record is the working memory of a chapter. A farm that does not answer the follow-up is not written to again. The limit is how well the list is kept.

A farm that asks not to be contacted again is taken off the list that session by the Records and Hours Clerk, and added to HQ’s shared do-not-contact list that day.

A chapter outlives the students who start it. Every role names a deputy by 31 March, and that deputy holds every credential from the first day, runs at least two sessions in April and every session in May, and the handover pack is completed in June.

No gaps, no acting appointments

That handover is what keeps a chapter running. Graduating students leave a live farm list, a full record and a trained successor, and the chapter keeps its area. The work carries on in September without a pause.

Where the produce goes

Every yes goes to an organization that collects with its own vehicle. The default is Second Harvest’s From the Farm program, which publishes free farm pickup across Canada. A local food bank is named to a farm only after it confirms in writing that it can collect from that area. Food banks in Canada recorded close to 2.2 million visits in March 2025, according to Food Banks Canada, HungerCount 2025.

A yes is never left sitting. The chapter gives the farm the published contact of an organization that collects, copies the Teacher Advisor on any introduction, and records the outcome. It never arranges dates, transport or quantities. Our page for food banks and community food organizations sets out what a receiving organization can expect.

We are a nonprofit. Every student in a chapter is unpaid, and the weekly session is a standing one rather than a one-off shift.