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contacting teachers as the prinicipal may be too busy to respond.

Talk to interested teachers. Show them what your farm has to offer. Emphasize how you plan to tie it to their grade’s core curriculum and that your farm is a safe clean environment. Ask if they can suggest things which would better tie the tour content to the curriculum.

A month before your school tours begin send your tour promotion packages to the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC). PACs can infuence teachers to include curriculum-driven school tours in their lesson plans.

Colourful brochures are costly. You may want to wait until you get your programs worked out and tested and you have some pictures of groups at your own farm before opting for full colour printing.

A self produced black and white brochure can be a simple frst step. Use a line drawing of a child interacting with whatever product you will be featuring on your farm tours and provide the tour highlights, costs, your location, phone and website address. This can be done using clip art from the internet and then photocopied on coloured paper. Use a different line drawing and different coloured paper for each tour package you offer. The copying can be done at any photocopy store:

• $0.05 each under 1,000 + $0.01 for coloured paper

• $0.04 each over 1,000 + $0.01 for coloured paper

You can fax schools a black and white version of your brochure. Fax only full size, black and white pages to ensure readability.

An attractive yet inexpensive handout could be a postcard with a picture on

the front and an outline of the tour options and contact information on the back. This could also be given out to groups or at information kiosks as well as to the children at the end of the tour to take home to mom and dad. A postcard costs approximately $250 for 2,500.

A DVD/video of your farm showing it is a safe, clean operation that is worth visiting is an excellent promotional tool. Be sure the video shows that the farm is clean and well trimmed, and that all hazards are well out of the reach of children.

Include fiers or brochures of other retail activities you have that attract consumers. These can show your

on-farm retail market or pick-your-own, or farm members vending at farmers’ markets or attending public functions like a fall fair or community event.

Each farm website listed on page 12 and 13 has a button for school tours. Your target audience commonly surfs the web. A website promoting your farm is a good investment.

• Include the web address on all school tour information. • Through the pictures on your website (photo releases required), a potential tour organizer can see both your farm and a class of children touring it.