Executive Update
Farm To School’s Growing Harvest
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition (FNS) administers the Farm to School Program in order to support and promote the use of local foods in Child Nutrition Programs. 1
Supporting Farm to School Efforts Several branches within the USDA, as well as advocacy groups such as the Farm to School Network, provide school food- service operators a range of useful resources and tools that help districts teach children about food, and about nutrition and agriculture. These resources include training, techni- cal assistance, educational opportunities, and operational improvements. A prominent resource is the USDA Farm to School Grant Program, which awards approximately $5 million annually to schools so they can improve student access to local foods. “Beginning in School Year 2021-2022, the Farm to School Grant Program [supported] 176 grants, serving 6,800 schools, and more than 1.4 million students”. 2 Here are a few other resources you can access, in addition to
Few of us are strangers to the USDA Farm to School program. But perhaps you might not know that the seeds of the program actually date back to 1996, when the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), USDA’s Natural Resources Conserva- tion Service (NRCS), and Florida A&M University entered into a research agreement. Their goal was to support a small coop- erative of African-American vegetable farmers near Jackson County, Florida. The farmers’ co-op was struggling, but because of the three-way agreement, the farmers were able to sell their fresh vegetables to local school foodservice buyers. The idea grew from there. The National Farm to School Program was officially authorized in 2004, and the now-familiar USDA Farm to School Grant Program was created in 2010, as part of The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. Tracking Progress through the USDA Census Periodically, the USDA does a comprehensive review of farm to school, using its Farm to School Census. The first census, performed in 2013, was followed by a second one done in 2015. The latest Farm to School Census was conducted in 2019. Nearly 19,000 School Food Authorities (SFAs) were invited to participate, and 12,634 completed the census. Here are some notable results: • 65.4 percent of the respondents participate in farm to school activities
A Program that Generates Lots of Useful Resources
By Karen Haghighi, SNS
the USDA grant program: 1. USDA Team Nutrition
www.fns.usda.gov/tn/team-nutrition-garden-resources This site offers several colorful tools aimed at educating children about gardening, food and nutrition. These include teaching guides, posters, and activity sheets which you can use to build a strong food curriculum. 2. USDA Food and Nutrition Service www.fns.usda.gov/cfs/farm-school-grant-program There is a wealth of information at this Web site. Besides infor- mation describing grant award recipients, and their programs, you’ll find: • A webinar series offering technical support for farm to school success • USDA Farm to School Fact Sheets • A subscription form to the USDA Farm to School monthly e-letter, The Dirt
Articles
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• 67,369 schools are featuring local food on their menus. 71.7 percent of SFAs use local foods in their school lunch programs, and 68.4 percent use local foods in their breakfast program • At least $1.26 billion was invested in local food in 2018-2019, with SFAs reporting they spent 20 cents
3. National Farm to School Network www.farmtoschool.org/resources
Photo courtesy of USDA
of every food dollar on buying local food during that year • More than a third of the schools have edible gardens Participation in farm to school is expanding rapidly. While only 11 percent of respondents said they had participated in Farm to School six to 10 years ago, over 56 percent have joined up in the last three years.
This nationwide network has an extensive resource database that offers data, documents, videos, and webinars on an assort- ment of topics, such as food justice, nutrition education, school gardens, recipes, menus, and so much more.
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