Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (OHDEW)
Educating School Communities about
Gardening and Food Safety
PROJECT OVERVIEW
OHDEW’s Produce Safety for School Gardens Training Program equips students and educators with the knowledge and resources to plant, grow, harvest, prepare and consume produce grown in edible, educational gardens. The program improves access to local foods in eligible Child Nutrition Program (CNP) sites through comprehensive farm to school programming that includes local sourcing and agricultural education efforts.
OHDEW had an existing character, Munch the Fox, that they wanted to incorporate into an animated video series with the goal of empowering young people to participate in safely growing and harvesting produce. They wanted to keep their program fresh and deepen its educational value to support school garden and produce safety for K-5 students in Ohio.
NTC Studios created an animated educational video series, Munch the Fox in: Safe & Green Gardens, with a companion picture book, Safe & Green Gardens, for K-5 students. The series featured six, evidence-based food safety topics with one educational video created per topic. The series was created in both English and Spanish, for a total of 12 videos, ranging in length from 7-12 minutes.
THE OPPORTUNITY
CLIENT:
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (OHDEW)
PROJECT DATE:
July 2025 – June 2026
PROJECT NAME:
Munch the Fox in: Safe & Green Gardens
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Bilingual animated video production services
THE STRATEGY
NTC Studios would work in collaboration with OHDEW to update their existing character, Munch the Fox, by redrawing it and then creating a new character, Riley the Racoon. NTC would then use these characters to write six animated video scripts for each food safety topic. The script’s educational content would be heavily researched and leverage subject matter experts from OHDEW. The scripts would then be the basis of a series of animated educational videos.
Each script would then be translated into Spanish to create the Spanish language script versions. It was decided that the Spanish videos would not be a subtitled version of the English videos but be fully voiced in Spanish.
THE SOLUTION
NTC Studios contracted with a long-standing collaborator to create animated illustrations for the videos based on each script, including characters, backgrounds, graphics, music selection and animation. Our in-house team conducted the research and writing based on the six produce safety topics, wrote the English scripts, and managed the overall creative process from start to finish.
We contracted a Spanish language translator who we have worked with for many years for the Spanish script translations and as a dialect coach for the Spanish voiceovers. We created the animation and voiceover for the six English videos in the series and then the voiceover for the six Spanish videos, which also included editing adjustments to fit the Spanish language versions. The Spanish language voiceovers were recorded remotely with our Spanish speaking talent through a setup in our office headquarters in Minneapolis.
Our creative team worked closely with OHDEW throughout the process, including a kick-off meeting with our team and OHDEW’s project team to set expectations, deadlines, and the project’s overall vision. The project followed a year-long timeline through several phases:
- Research and development
- Pre-production
- Production
- Reviews and revisions
- Delivery of the final files
Our project manager communicated directly with OHDEW throughout the process, sending them script and video drafts which they would return with revision notes that were then implemented by our creative team. This process was consistent throughout the project, with direct communication key to staying on schedule and producing a quality product usable for OHDEW’s goals.
Revisions and approvals became faster as the project progressed as our creative team learned from earlier feedback and created the work accordingly. Our team also adhered to OHDEW’s brand guidelines, including logo colors and placement.
Midway through the project, the scope expanded to include the creation of a picture book that could accompany the video series using the same characters. NTC Studios wrapped this deliverable into the overall project and completed it along with the videos.
THE IMPACT
To help OHDEW support food and garden safety, NTC Studios delivered six animated educational videos in English:
- Introduction to Produce Safety
- Student Health, Hygiene & Training
- Soil Safety
- Wildlife, Domesticated Animals & Land Use
- Water Safety
- Postharvest Handling & Sanitation
And six animated educational videos in Spanish:
- Seguridad de los Productos Agrícolas
- Salud, Higiene y Capacitación
- Seguridad del Suelo para Huertos Escolares
- Animales Silvestres y Domésticos y El Uso del Terreno
- Seguridad del Agua en los Huertos Escolares
- Manejo y Saneamiento Poscosecha
The picture book, Safe & Green Gardens, made to accompany the video series further supported OHDEW’s food and garden safety goals in K-5 classrooms in Ohio, highlighting how to grow and harvest food. It was accompanied by a Munch the Fox sticker.
In the end, the project helped OHDEW reach its goal to educate students on garden and produce safety so that food grown on campuses can be served in school cafeterias. The project helped raise awareness of safe gardening techniques to help make sure vegetables and fruits grown in school gardens are safe to eat, and to make schools feel confident in food grown on site. NTC Studios used our storytelling expertise to create story-based educational videos and a picture book that created memorable learning experiences for young people in Ohio.
Hannah Hart, the Education Program Consultant from OHDEW’s Office of Nutrituion and the project manager for this project, said of our collaboration:
“Thank you so much to you and your team for your work on this project. Everything looks exceptional and I know Ohio teachers and students are going to benefit from having these resources. If you’re interested, I’ll let you know when these go live on our webpage so you can see the final package of everything together!”
