Agricultural science lessons help set up students to go to college and study STEM fields. Carpentry internships \u2013 building and repairing barns or installing new buildings on the farm \u2013 feed into apprenticeship programs. Other programs prepare them for culinary careers \u2014 and teach kids the importance of knowing where their food comes and spending time in fresh air.<\/p>\n
In Manna\u2019s 21-year tenure \u2014 first as a teacher and for the past eight years as principal \u2014 she has expanded the farm\u2019s Pre-K-12th grade programming to include internships, special education classes, career and technical education pathways, and more.<\/p>\n
Throughout, she\u2019s remained a fierce advocate for students \u2014 applying for and winning $2.2 million in grants last year alone to expand the farm\u2019s offerings. For her tireless and creative commitment to creating impactful learning experiences and career pathways for Philly students, Manna is one of this year\u2019s Integrity Icons<\/a>. She will be honored alongside her fellow winners during a June 3 celebration at the Fitler Club. (All are welcome and attendance is free, but you must register in advance here<\/a>).<\/p>\n From hog farm to Philly schools <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to go for a ride,\u201d Manna recalls her boss, Lincoln High School Principal Don Donnelly, telling her in 2006. Manna had returned to teaching after spending 10 years in marketing and agribusiness. Being an urban agriculture teacher, helping students learn about how food made its way to their tables and teaching them about career opportunities in agriculture, was her dream. She\u2019d grown up on a hog farm near Gettysburg and studied agriculture education at Delaware Valley University.<\/p>\n But she\u2019d struggled to find her footing at Lincoln. She was teaching science when the District came to her with a new plan for next year: Could she teach \u2026 English? At a different school?<\/p>\n Though she had the certification, Manna wasn\u2019t interested. It felt too different from what she\u2019d dreamed of doing. She was considering a return to her marketing career, when Donnelly asked her to go for a car ride with him. He\u2019d brought in a substitute teacher to cover her class.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I even spoke more than two words on the whole ride, because it just seemed odd,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n He wound the car through blocks of Philly rowhomes, onto tree-lined streets, until they arrived at Fox Chase, a 112-acre educational farm owned by the School District of Philadelphia, that straddles the line between Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. It\u2019s one of two public school teaching farms in the city \u2013 the other is Walter B. Saul School in Roxborough \u2014 and they had an opening for an agricultural teacher.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a traditional teaching position, though; the farm doesn\u2019t have \u201cclassrooms\u201d or students who show up every day. Instead, she\u2019d lead tours of the farm for elementary students, teaching them about the animals and about how the farm operates. For Manna, it was a perfect fit. She became principal and administrator in 2018.<\/p>\n The farm has grown from a field-trip-only operation that hosted 3,800 students each year to an operation with 16 academic programs, including farm therapy programs, educational field trips, STEM lessons centered around hydroponic growing and internships in welding, carpentry, culinary arts and more.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say, everything happens for a reason,\u201d Manna says. \u201cAll the challenges I\u2019ve had to go through and try to figure out have always just led to more opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting their hands dirty <\/p>\n When I visit the farm on a Friday morning in May, a bus load of preschoolers in green and pink rain boots tromp through the mud towards a sheep field, where they pet ewes and feed them grains out of their palms. Two high school special education students walk back from the chicken hutch after collecting eggs, which they will later wash and grade, either for sale or to send to culinary education programs around the city.<\/p>\n Manna arrives at the farm every day between 4 and 5 am. She spends the first few hours of her day catching up from the day prior, and getting set for the day ahead. Things change rapidly on a farm \u2014 a piece of equipment might arrive late or staff might need to delay planting a specific crop due to temperature swings. The farm has four full-time and 10 part-time employees.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel extremely blessed in the opportunities that we can provide students when they\u2019re here,\u201d Manna says.<\/p>\n As principal, Manna manages both the production and the academic side of things. Her clothes embody that dichotomy: When I visit, she\u2019s paired jeans and work shoes with a blazer and hot pink nail polish. She walks me through the farm\u2019s fields and classrooms, talking animatedly about a \u201cbe a vet for a day!\u201d lesson they had yesterday where elementary schoolers listened to bunny rabbits\u2019 heartbeats and compared them to their own. We pass vermicomposting and hydroponic growing stations.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the challenges I\u2019ve had to go through and try to figure out have always just led to more opportunity.\u201d \u2014 Dr. Mandy Manna<\/p>\n Here, the lessons students learn aren\u2019t just about growing food or raising livestock. Students learn about food science on the farm. Those who complete internships in the cafe and the store learn how to read profit and loss sheets.<\/p>\n \u201cThis farm provides tremendous opportunity for all levels of learners,\u201d Manna says.<\/p>\n Manna has an indefatigable, Leslie Knope<\/a>-esque energy. When she\u2019s not on the farm with students, she is meeting with PA Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, elected officials and USDA employees to talk about careers in agriculture \u2014 and potential pipelines she can build for students.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is the unique combination of educator, coach, mentor and entrepreneur, and she leverages all of those attributes \u2014 regardless of the circumstances \u2014every single day to the benefit of the students and families in Philadelphia,\u201d says Oz Hill, deputy superintendent of operations for the School District of Philadelphia. \u201cNot only does [the farm] touch on agricultural education, but it integrates sustainability environmental education, as well as many of our CTE disciplines. \u2026 I\u2019m not certain that there is another work stream or instructional stream within the district that reaches as many students as she does throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s constantly expanding the farm\u2019s lessons and educational programming. If she has an idea for \u201ca program that she wants to bring to a school that she feels would benefit children \u2026 she\u2019ll go out and seek the financial resources,\u201d says Dr. Anh Nguyen, assistant superintendent for Learning Network 15 at the School District of Philadelphia. \u201cShe\u2019s the grant master queen.\u201d<\/p>\n You can\u2019t measure joy <\/p>\n Principals across the District say that test scores \u2014 especially in science \u2014 increase with consistent visits to the farms. Waring Elementary sends fourth and eight graders weekly and reports an 11-point increase in test scores. Manna says that they see 100 percent attendance from the 50 to 75 students who have internships each summer \u2014 and that the students always arrive early.<\/p>\n Manna is good at rattling off the quantitative measures of the farm\u2019s success, but what isn\u2019t as easily measured, she says, is the joy the farm brings Philly students. She often sees students rolling down hills, petting goats, delighting in finding a worm in the garden.<\/p>\n \u201cI have some teachers who, when they come up for a field trip, say, Can we reserve time just to sit on the grass?\u201d Manna says. \u201cI\u2019ve gone into schools where I see that they don\u2019t have grass! They don\u2019t have trees.\u201d<\/p>\n Spending time outside is linked to a whole host of health benefits<\/a>: reduced stress, anxiety,<\/a> and depression<\/a>, better sleep,<\/a> improved heart health,<\/a> and an immune system boost.<\/a> The students who come to Fox Chase Farm get to reap all these benefits \u2014 and it creates lasting memories.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents who come back as adults \u2014 who I would have had as little kids \u2014 are like, I remember when you taught us,\u201d Manna says. \u201cThere\u2019s an appreciation that the students feel when they\u2019re coming here.\u201d<\/p>\n Nationwide, young people have reported increasing struggles with mental health, including increases in the prevalence of anxiety and depression<\/a>. Blame social media,<\/a> the lingering effects of the pandemic,<\/a> hyper-competitive college admissions,<\/a> the general state of the world<\/a> \u2014 or any number of other factors. There\u2019s a lot stressing kids out these days.<\/p>\n Philadelphia students deal with additional stressors and traumas on top of all that considering our poverty rate, hovering around 20 percent<\/a>. Homicides are down 39 percent compared to last year,<\/a> but the city has still had 200 nonfatal and 43 fatal shootings in 2026. When students, their friends, or families are impacted by violence it creates lasting trauma.<\/p>\n Fox Chase Farm\u2019s equine therapy program, using the farm\u2019s donkeys, hopes to make a small impact on students dealing with trauma. Students in the program work with psychologists and the animals to hone social-emotional skills. It\u2019s resulted in reduced suspensions, an 85 percent improved attendance rate, and fewer instances of mental health referrals for participating students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impactful,\u201d Manna says. \u201cHere, [students] feel a release.\u201d<\/p>\n A model for the state? <\/p>\n Manna plans to continue supporting and advocating for Philadelphia students. Her team is in the process of planting a new garden (they\u2019ll have strawberries this year!), building a new barn, and launching Maple Leaf Cafe, which will provide internship opportunities for culinary students. She\u2019s working on a program that would bring hydroponic growing to schools that have open space.<\/p>\n She has new dreams for the farm, too. Philly has a host of new Michelin Star and recommended restaurants \u2014 if her plans to scale up mass growing in Philadelphia schools come to fruition, why can\u2019t students help provide them produce? (She also hopes the produce they grow will go directly into schools). She\u2019s also searching for grants to fund horticulture and woodland therapy programs since, in addition to the farm animals, the farm has a wide range of wild creatures and plant species.<\/p>\n Long-term, she has her eyes set on a project that\u2019s a little bit bigger: expanding these opportunities to students across the state. PA has more than 6,600 preserved farms<\/a> \u2014 and a dwindling number of farmers<\/a>; what if we created more educational farms, like Fox Chase?<\/p>\n \u201cYou can take any one of our city schools and you can put them up against the most rural schools in Pennsylvania, and you\u2019re going to find similarities,\u201d Manna says. \u201cYou\u2019re going to find food deserts, food insecurity. You\u2019re going to find test grades to be identical. You\u2019re going to find the same issues.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s working with leaders in other school districts to show them the success Fox Chase Farm has had.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can we help communities flourish? How can we help support that career pathway for students? And how can we help them see the bigger picture of what\u2019s out there? We can do it all through ag.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Mandy Manna, a 2026 Integrity Icon Award winner at Fox Chase Farm. Photo by Sabina Louise Pierce. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Mandy Manna expects Philly parents to raise an eyebrow when they find out she works in agricultural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82798,82799,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-205268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-2026-integrity-icon","tag-integrity-icon","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} PREVIOUS INTEGRITY ICON CELEBRATIONS<\/p>\n