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Farm to School is on the Map!

By Deborah Kane, National Director, USDA Farm to School Program

Criss-crossing the country, from Maine to California, and from Florida to Washington, Farm to School programs exist from coast to coast in small, rural towns and large, urban metropolitan areas alike. They are on the map, literally and figuratively, and featured prominently in USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass.

The USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass literally puts Farm to School on the map.

The USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass is a two-part, online tool that illustrates USDA’s investments in local and regional food systems. Part one includes a narrative focusing on several different themes in local food, including farm to institution.  Here, you can read stories, watch videos, and see pictures from some great projects doing Farm to School work across the country.

The map in part two of the Compass physically plots USDA investments in local and regional food, including Farm to School projects. By filtering for “farm to institution” I learned about the following programs:

In Oklahoma City, the State Department of Agriculture spearheads a Harvest of the Month program to bring more local produce into Oklahoma’s schools year-round.

In East Lansing, Michigan, Michigan State University facilitates relationships between local farmers and institutional buyers like schools and universities.

In Tallahassee Florida, the New North Florida Cooperative Association delivers locally grown greens straight to school cafeterias.

In Minneapolis, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy increases healthy food access for low-income children by overcoming Farm to School barriers. A quick search by zip code can help you see if the USDA is supporting a Farm to School project near you or find inspiring projects across the country.

In addition to USDA’s investments in local and regional food systems work, starting this month, the Compass also features local and regional food investments made by nine additional federal agencies. Now you can find out about amazing projects like the Cherokee Nation Health Service’s Group Farm to School program partially supported by the Center for Disease Control in rural Oklahoma or the Collbran Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center in Colorado which, with help from the Department of Labor, is building a garden for school cafeteria use.

Each one of these projects inspires us and will surely inspire you. Later this month, we will also be announcing additional funding specifically for Farm to School programs. Find out more by signing up for our enewsletter .

(And in case you missed it, check out this USDA and White House hosted Google+ Hangout featuring Farm to School leader Chris Kirby from Oklahoma.)

By Mary Stein, Associate Director, National Farm to School Network

One of my favorite places to be is my garden. As I harvest the last of this year’s bounty, so many fond memories of this great growing season come to mind – watching from the window as my neighbor “sneaks” into the raspberry patch for a snack, listening to my son laugh as he picks snap peas with the help of our pea-eating dog, Leo, and feeling my muscles ache as I push a wheelbarrow full of onions toward the house following an afternoon of digging in the dirt. Now, in the middle of National Farm to School month, I am inspired to celebrate school gardens. School gardens are integral components of many Farm to School endeavors across the country, connecting the classroom, the cafeteria, and the community, and allowing kids the opportunity to grow delicious, healthy food. Here, I’m thrilled to share some of the great school garden stories I have heard lately.

With a nickname like the Garden State, It’s no accident that New Jersey is the site of wonderful school gardens. The New Jersey Farm to School Network just awarded its inaugural School Garden of the Year Award to William H. Ross Elementary School and Eugene A. Tighe Middle School in Margate City. This six-year old garden connects classroom, cafeteria and community in so many ways:

• The cafeteria staff serves students samples of produce grown in the garden during regular lunch times.
• Math students take digital photos of the garden and create original multiplication or division word problems using the vegetables they’ve photographed.
• The school garden has a table at the Margate Community Farmer’s Market. They give the produce away for free and collect donations to buy foods for their local Food Bank. And any produce that doesn’t get taken is distributed to local restaurants.

Representative Rush Holt being honored by the New Jersey Farm to School Network for introducing the legislation that created National Farm to School Month.

And since I’m on the subject of New Jersey, I want to give a shout out to Rep. Rush Holt for introducing the National Farm to School Month resolution that Congress passed in 2010; he’ll be celebrating National Farm to School Month at Lawrenceville Elementary School on October 10.

Well-established programs like the Ross and Tighe garden serve as both inspiration and mentors for the many new gardens popping up at schools across the country. At the 6^th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Burlington, Vermont in August, the National Farm to School Network awarded four $1,000 grants for school gardens, thanks to generous funding from the Whole Kids Foundation. Conference attendees could nominate their own program or their favorite organization. The winners were chosen at random. Here’s what three of the school garden grant winners plan to do with their awards:

• Cindy Ann Lambright, Food Service Director and Chef for Norwood Young America School District in Norwood Young America, Minnesota, says that Central Public School is now in its second year of partnership with Akerberg Farm in Carver, MN. The Whole Kids Foundation grant will enable the school to plant herb gardens in the elementary classrooms to teach students culinary skills and increase their awareness of growing food. In the spring, they’ll plant raised beds, built by students in the woodworking class. Funds will also be used to pay for grow lights for the herbs and seedlings.
• Andrew Carberry, Program Development Coordinator for the The Arkansas Grow Healthy Study, entered the Bismarck School District into the Whole Kids drawing because the school’s nutrition director, Vicki Hill, has been one of Arkansas’ most avid Farm to School leaders. For the past three years, Hill has wanted to start an herb garden in conjunction with the school’s family and consumer science program but didn’t have the funding. The Whole Kids Foundation grant will allow for this hands-on addition to Hill’s curriculum.
• The shorter growing season in Alaska certainly presents challenges for gardeners, but Alaska is a hotbed for innovation, such as its successful Fish to Schools program. Now, in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost village in the state, Arctic Aurora Farms is creating Alaska’s first Tower Garden aeroponic farm inside an insulated building. (Aeroponics is a process for growing plants in air or mist without using soil.) According to Sarah Ellis, the Farm Wellness Coordinator with Arctic Aurora Farms, the farm can grow fruits, vegetables, edible flowers … anything but root vegetables. The Whole Kids Foundation grant will be used to help provide Barrow High School with fresh produce and engage students with the farm.

A big thank you to the Whole Kids Foundation for supporting these exciting projects across the country, I can’t wait to check in with these programs in the coming years, to see how each of their gardens grow.

by Laura Stanley, FOCUS Learning Lab Manager

The School Food FOCUS Learning Lab is on the march! Launched in 2008, we have just concluded a pilot phase that involved three consecutive Labs, in Saint Paul, Denver and Chicago. All three projects resulted in farm to school purchasing breakthroughs at a large-district scale, plus lessons in how to source regionally grown produce, chicken, and beef for tens of thousands of students at a time—or, in the case of Chicago, hundreds of thousands. With our work in these districts now concluded, we are excited to announce a major scale-up to a regional model based in the Upper Midwest.

The Learning Lab’s highly participatory approach starts with school food service leaders squarely in the center of change. In our pilot Labs, FOCUS staff, researchers from Michigan State University’s Center for Regional Food Systems, and not-for-profit community partners supported districts’ food procurement goals through deep investigation into new or improved options for healthier, more sustainable, more regional food.

In Saint Paul Public Schools, we saw local fruit and vegetables increase to 40 percent of all produce purchased during the harvest season, the result of an innovative RFP that recruited fresh-cut processors willing to source from within a 200-mile radius of the city center. In Denver Public Schools, the district also worked with a fresh-cut processor, and its broadline distributor, to source more Colorado-grown produce and trace local purchases back to the farm. Denver also experimented with sustainably raised Colorado beef, made into chili and other items by a family-owned, Denver-based processor. With the help of Slow Food Denver, the district began purchasing from its own school gardens—1200 pounds in the first year alone, with more to come as the network of gardens grows (as of this writing, there are 65 gardens, 20 of which provide food for school meals).

Students from the Chicago Vocational Career Academy were invited to speak at a Congressional briefing.

At the outset of the Lab in Chicago Public Schools, the district was already engaged in the nation’s most ambitious farm to school produce purchasing program—more than two million pounds in 2011-12, much of it flash-frozen for year-round use. So we set to work on poultry, beginning with a national search for affordable chicken grown without routine, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics. The right processor, introduced to the Lab by Whole Foods Market, turned out to be in the city’s backyard, in the heart of Amish farm country in Orland, Indiana. The district’s 2011-12 purchase of 602,880 pounds of local antibiotic free chicken attracted headlines—and an invitation from Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY), a microbiologist and leading advocate for reform in the agriculture use of antibiotics, to present Chicago’s accomplishment in a Congressional briefing in May 2012. The Lab team was accompanied in DC by high school students from the Chicago Vocational Career Academy, whose drumstick recipe, served in the Congressional dining room that day, had won top honorsfrom Chicago Lab partner Healthy Schools Campaign.

I am thrilled to be passing the Learning Lab baton into the capable hands of Kymm Mutch, who recently left her post as School Food Service Director for Milwaukee Public Schools to join FOCUS as Project Director for the Upper Midwest Lab. Kymm will be engaging districts in up to eight states, and she’s thinking big—about the aggregation and processing infrastructure needed to bring more regionally grown food to all districts, large and small. To keep up to date on her progress, we invite you to sign up for our monthly newsletter, Month in FOCUS.

My name is Rico Griffone, and I work as a consulting chef for the Menu for Healthy Kids program at The Culinary Institute of America. Our program, now almost three years old, focuses on combating childhood obesity and type II diabetes. We have found that one of the most effective ways to accomplish these goals is to partner with local school lunch programs.

School lunch programs have unfairly become a lightning rod when it comes to the issue of childhood obesity. The reality of the matter is that there is no one cause for this national epidemic. Multiple factors have contributed to the problem including not just poor diets and lack of exercise, but also the demands of most contemporary lifestyles. Even though school lunch systems often come under scrutiny, they are, in fact, one of the few factors that play into the crisis that has been constantly regulated and modified in an effort to try to control this crisis.

Instead of assigning blame or claiming that we have found the ever-elusive “ultimate answer to the problem,” Menus for Healthy Kids has formed reciprocal partnerships with districts. We come into their worlds and learn from them. This is an important and often overlooked approach to making real, sustainable changes to the system. While everyone else seems drawn to the “flash” of celebrity chefs and new age gurus, we believe that the answer lies in our own backyard.

Food service directors and their “lunch ladies” are the true experts when it comes to school lunches. They know the regulations and have experienced the roadblocks that get in the way of implementing new standards. They are privy to the biases of their customers. These individuals possess incredible amounts of knowledge, and for the most part, are open to any outside help they can get.

That’s where we come in, and by we, I mean professionals within the culinary field. There are numerous opportunities that give us the chance to make a difference and lend a hand. Working through Menu for Healthy Kids, I have been invited to cook “hot lunch” on the school’s lunch line. While the foods might not be anything terribly elaborate compared to traditional restaurant dishes, I have prepared foods for “build your own burrito” day by cooking dried black beans and roasting canned yams—both of which are readily available commodity foods, and can also be sourced locally in some situations.

If taking on a hot lunch seems too daunting, rest assured that there are other possibilities. We’ve worked with PTA’s to organize healthy cooking demos after school for parents, gone into classrooms to create grade-appropriate healthy snacks and participated in health fairs where we can talk about the importance of healthy eating (and also share recipes for some healthy sweet snacks!)

My point is simple: Just get in there and do it. Introduce yourself to your local food service director. Show interest in the work he or she does. Ask if there are circumstances under which you might be able to assist them. This does more than just put you on display at the local schools. It meets several other important needs. It helps build a sense of community. It creates a sense of shared ownership and accountability regarding the well-being of our students.

I cannot fully express the feeling of accomplishment I get from these outings. Beyond the appreciation from both students and staff alike, I come away from the events stronger in the conviction that, by working together, we can bring about real change for the future; that we are stronger collectively than as individuals; and that we all have an investment in the health of our children. Please visit our webpage at www.healthykids.ciachef.edu and become part of the movement.

From “Kids Dig Farmers” and “Healthy School Vending” to “Celebrate Sweet Potatoes” and “Dress Up Your Oatmeal,” National Farm to School Month 2012 gives you 23 great ways to celebrate the connections between schools, farms and communities.

Growing together! At the National Farm to School Network’s annual meeting last August, we celebrated our 50 state leads and 8 regional lead agencies with our very first group photo!

As the membership and communications associate at the National Farm to School Network, I’m always amazed by the innovative ways that communities adapt the principles of Farm to School to their environment. For example, in Alaska, where growing fresh fruits and vegetables is challenging, the Sitka Conservation Society coordinates a “Fish to Schools” program.  And a growing number of Head Start, nursery school and child care programs are running “Farm to Preschool” initiatives

Farm to School programs come in many flavors because communities shape their programs based on local interests, needs and available resources. So this year, the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) decided to spotlight a different theme on each weekday during October, starting today. Each theme will feature information about the topic, links to our Theme partners, reflections or activity ideas, and suggested social media messages.

Some themes will focus on specific foods, such as milk and meat, while others will feature Farm to School activities, such as school gardens, salad bars, chefs in schools and classroom lessons. We’ll also be celebrating the people who make Farm to School happen, including farmers, ranchers, food service staff, parents, teachers, students and politicians.

By partnering with organizations, government agencies, associations and businesses to develop the themes, NFSN hopes to demonstrate the wide range of ways that Farm to School programs help strengthen local and regional food systems.

While some of our partners are familiar to the Farm to School movement, such as our friends at USDA Farm to School, the School Nutrition Assocation, FoodCorps and School Food FOCUS, we’re excited about the opportunity to collaborate with some new groups, such as the National Head Start Foundation (“Celebrate Farm to Head Start” day) on October 18, Vendu-cation (“Health School Vending”) on October 23, and Gateway Greening (“Celebrate Sweet Potatoes”) day on October 26.

We hope Farm to School programs all over the US will use the themes to get schools, farms and communities excited about deepening their involvement with Farm to School.  Please visit this website and our Facebook page every day, follow us on Twitter and spread the word!

The party starts today, with the theme, “Growing Together,” and the partner for the day is …The National Farm to School Network!  Click here to find out why we chose “Growing Together for our kickoff theme.

Happy first day of National Farm to School  Month!

This guest post was provided by by Kasandra Griffin of Upstream Public Health.

What do you get when you put elected representatives in school cafeterias? A group of advocates in Oregon is hoping the answer is “more state support for Farm to School and school garden programs.”

This October, Farm to School advocates plan to take advantage of National Farm to School Month by scheduling visits with key legislators from around the state, inviting them into school cafeterias in their home districts.

The school lunch visits will be used to educate Oregon’s legislators about child hunger (which is high in Oregon), about the school meal program overall, and about Farm to School and school garden programs, including the great work that schools are already engaged in and what they would like to be able to do if they had more resources.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden visited Eagle Mill Farm in Ashland during his tour of Rogue Valley Farm to School.

Oregon advocates have been asking for support for Farm to School and School Garden programs from the state legislature since at least 2006. The first success was in getting dedicated staff members in the Departments of Agriculture (2007) and Education (2008), whose jobs it is to support Farm to School and school garden programs in schools and districts around the state.

In 2011, a $23 million proposal to provide a “Farm to School and school garden” contribution for EVERY school meal served in the state was in danger of not passing. At the very last minute, the legislature approved a $200,000 pilot program. Although $200,000 is a far cry from $23 million, advocates considered it a way to get a foot in the door and a major victory in a year when state budgets for almost all other programs were cut.

In 2013, an ever-expanding group of Farm to School advocates is excited to return to the legislature to ask for an expansion of the grant program they started in 2011. Advocates want to get legislators truly engaged in these programs by taking them directly into the cafeterias and school gardens.

To help make it easier for local advocates to coordinate the efforts, Upstream Public Health is working to produce tools and templates with guidelines for how to schedule and plan the visits for maximum impact. They are focusing on districts where:
a)    there are strong, organized farm to school advocates, and/or
b)    legislators on key committees reside.

Although the 2011 bill passed with unanimous support, it provided a small fraction of the funding that would actually be necessary to support Farm to School efforts that would reach every child in the state. Through school visits, we hope to help legislators make a personal connection to Farm to School. We want to give them a sense of what school lunch and school gardens really mean to their constituents, and what a difference they can make for students and families by supporting Farm to School. And what better way to make that connection than by sharing a meal?

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 Planning to invite an elected official or local dignitary to your Farm to School Month event? Use this invitation template and this award template from our resources page. And don’t forget to put your event on our map!

This guest post was provided by FoodCorps service members Kirsten Gerbatsch and Daniel Marbury, who are located in Traverse City, Michigan. 

Kirsten Gerbatsch and Daniel Marbury

As FoodCorps Service Members, National Farm to School Month is a very special time of year for us. Fortunately, in our positions we get to celebrate every day as an opportunity to teach healthy food education, to connect kids to their local food system, and to guide them in the joy of growing vegetables at school. We strive for 365 (technically more like 170) days of Farm to School every year. That being said, the energy and focus of National Farm to SchoolMonth generates a unique momentum to build stronger community around students’ positive experiences and food education, both in the classroom and cafeteria.

Last October we celebrated Farm to School Month at two schools in Leelanau County, Michigan: Suttons Bay High School and Middle School. Working with the Food Service Coordinator Kirt Grow we featured a special Northwest Michigan lunch including Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash, Cornbread, and Baked Applesauce. Kirt’s excitement for our event was one of the most encouraging results of our efforts.  In preparing the new Chili recipe, he enjoyed the challenge and ownership of cooking with new ingredients like squash and bulgur wheat. On the day of service he proudly offered us a sample of the chili, which had a warm balance of spices and flavor not typical of your average American lunchroom meal. He continued to offer samples with excitement to other school staff who wandered through the cafeteria before lunch. They all responded with satisfied “Mmms” and genuine praise.

Kirt’s energy undoubtedly transferred to the students during lunch service, helping them to be brave and try a chili that was far removed from the concoction that typically adorns hot dogs.  Students criticized the substitution of black beans for meat for protein, but responded positively to the dish overall.  Rippling out, the event created a buzz in the school community and prompted the elementary school kitchen leader, Jill Wahl, to request the opportunity to plan a Farm to School menu day for her kitchen as well.

In addition to the local lunch, students participated in a brand new “Gratitude for Food” Thanksgiving Fundraiser selling farm fresh and locally made food products such as squash, apples, honey, and antibiotic-free pasture-raised turkeys. With about 40 high school and middle school students participating, we reached almost $1000 in sales. The profit generated was placed in a “Farm to School” fund to support class nutrition, cooking, and gardening activities. In connection to the fundraiser, Suttons Bay High School hosted a Fall Food Festival that served as a joyous culmination of Farm to School Month, bringing together farmers, chefs, parents, students, and volunteers to celebrate our Northwest Michigan agriculture and taste the local bounty.

This year our goal for National Farm to School Month, and naturally, our whole year with FoodCorps, continues to focus on building community through delicious local lunches; fostering strong relationships between farmers, chefs, and schools; and creating classroom activities that engage students with food, gardening, and healthy lifestyles. On the menu for October are farmer visits, food systems lessons, and garlic planting in the garden. For the year we plan to work closely with teachers and food service directors to help create real, lasting change within the schools we serve. It’s going to be a great year!

By Hope Wilson

When I was growing up in West Virginia, my family kept a large garden and we canned and preserved food to eat year-round. I can still remember the fragrance of fresh tomatoes on the vine, and I thought digging for potatoes was like digging for gold.

So when I became a registered dietitian and worked, first with SNAP Education Programs, then with school gardens, and now with the National Farm to School Network, I was convinced that if children had a chance to see and care for their own food they’d be more likely to try new, healthy fruits and vegetables.  And, in fact, as a growing body of research now indicates, they are. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch a child go from being scared of worms to excited about harvesting a bumper crop of zucchini!

This youth garden in Kentucky is ready for planting!

Of course, school gardens aren’t the only way Farm to School initiatives are working to ensure every child has access to healthy, local food and the opportunity to learn how to eat healthfully and develop a connection to the source of their food.

Want to know more? Get involved with the second annual celebration of National Farm to School Month in October! Whether you’re already part of a Farm to School program or are just getting started, Farm to School Month will be a great opportunity to build connections between schools, farms and communities while the spotlight is on our movement.

Here are some activities that others have found successful:

• Anticipating a bumper crop in your school garden?  Invite your community to a harvest party in the garden and send everyone home with recipes and a bag of produce.
• Any PTO meetings scheduled during October?  If so, invite parents to a tasting of dishes from your school menu featuring local foods.
• Are you a farmer who’s selling local food to a school? Why not offer to visit the classrooms? Many schools don’t have money for farm field trips, so bring in samples of your crops, stories, videos, and photos form your farm.
• Are you a teacher? Talk to your food service director about the local foods they’ll be serving during October and coordinate your classroom activities with the menu.
• Are you a parent? You can help teachers bring students to a Farmers Market to taste what’s on offer and talk to farmers about how to store and cook fresh, local foods.
• And whether you’re a school administrator, food service director, teacher or parent, I encourage you to take the National Farm to School Network “Farm to School Counts” pledge for a chance to win a cash prize for your program. To learn more, click here.

The National Farm to School Network’s website, www.farmtoschool.org, has many resources to help you with these activities and more during National Farm to School Month.

What activities have been successful for your Farm to School Program? Please share your ideas.

Hope Wilson is the Program Manager at the National Farm to School Network.