Adapted from an Article by
the Illinois Healthy Schools Campaign
Rochelle Davis, Executive Director

One small piece of language in the 2002 Farm Bill has set the stage for healthier meals at schools and more business for small, sustainable farms nationwide. The trick now in most states is to convince schools that buying locally grown produce is a good idea, and to build an infrastructure to make such purchases possible.

The idea of “farm-to-school” programs isn’t new, but the Farm Bill, passed in May 2002, helped invigorate efforts and give proponents of such programs a little more leverage. Because, nestled among the larger issues tackled by the Farm Bill—like subsidies, conservation and food labeling—was a simple statement that institutions participating in the National School Lunch and Breakfast program should purchase local foods where practicable.

The words “where practicable” provides a loophole for school meal administrators, of course, because access to local, sustainably grown produce is limited, particularly in states where the growing season is relatively short (as in the Midwest).

Junk Food on Campus: Garbage In, Garbage Out

In December 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report which identified the growing problem of obesity, especially among younger people.  In 1999, 13% of children and adolescents were overweight, and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled since 1980. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, asthma, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, breathing problems, high blood cholesterol, and other problems. Because overweight children and adolescents are more likely to become overweight or obese adults, this poses a huge national health problem.  Already there has been a dramatic increase in a number of conditions in children that are related to obesity, including asthma and Type 2 diabetes.  In fact, 4% of adolescents now have “adult onset” diabetes and, in some clinics, teens represent half of all new cases.

While the reasons for obesity are multi-faceted and complex, it is clear that school food programs have been a contributing factor to this problem. USDA Undersecretary Eric Bost has made the connection by pointing out how prevalent it is for schools to have vending machines with high-calorie soft drinks and junk food and to sell high-fat items such as pizza and fast foods in school cafeterias. 

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of middle and junior high schools, and almost all senior high schools, have vending machines or snack bars where junk foods and soft drinks are sold. In addition, more than 20 percent of schools serve brand-name fast foods, often as part of the school lunch program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Solution: From Farmland to Cafeteria

Bost and others have been working to improve the nutritional quality of school lunch programs by making sure that fresh fruits and vegetables are offered to students. Of particular interest to the Healthy Schools Campaign and others are farm-to-school programs, which link school food programs with local farmers.  

Traditionally, farm-to-school programs include school-based education programs in nutrition and/or agriculture. The goal of such education is no different than what the fast food giants do. They want to create customers for life.  Farm-to-school efforts focus on creating lifelong fruit and vegetable consumers and on supporting local farmers who practice sustainable agriculture.

One model for educational efforts can be found at California’s Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, where Rodney Taylor, the director of food and nutrition services, revitalized the lackluster school salad bar beginning in 1997. The program, which was rolled out to all the district’s schools in 2000, saw more than a tripling of sales at the salad bar. But buying fresh produce from local farmers wasn’t enough. The program also includes nutrition education classes, farm and farmer’s market tours, organic gardening projects, and physical education, and Taylor says this attention to improving awareness plays a key role in his program’s success.

National Farm-to-School Efforts

Policymakers are beginning to recognize the importance of this program. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense has a program to help states and school districts spend their commodity dollars to purchase fresh produce. Congress has recently been discussing efforts to expand support for farm-to-school programs as part of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. Also, there is the USDA’s “Small Farms/School Meals” initiative, which has helped connect farmers with school districts in several states, including Kentucky, Iowa, Nevada, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and California. Funding for farm-to-school efforts is also available through several USDA grant programs, including the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

Because of strong interest nationwide for such programs, the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) has stepped up to create programs and provide guidance for communities in creating systems for growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in sustainable farming practices. Farm-to-school programs are a large part of that effort. For example, Marion Kalb, the CFSC farm-to-school program director, meet with  in Chicago in May 2002 to help with planning and strategy meetings, as well as to advise on possible sources of funding for farm-to-school food programs.

State and Local Efforts

North Carolina provides an example of how well farm-to-school efforts can work. In North Carolina, the Department of Agriculture has fully embraced the program. They work closely with the U.S. Department of Defense to bring fresh locally grown produce to school cafeterias.

The Department of Agriculture coordinates the program, identifying what produce schools can use, finding farmers to participate in the program and assisting with distribution. The Department of Defense, through their Fresh Product programs, handles the financial arrangements. 

This program has been received very well. The schools like buying directly from the farmers because they know they are getting locally grown produce. The farmers like the program because it has opened up another market for them. In the 2000-2001 school year, North Carolina’s farm-to-school project purchased nearly 33,000 cases of produce through the DOD’s program—apples, broccoli, cabbage, melons, strawberries and sweet potatoes—worth a total of more than $415,000.

In addition to the Santa Monica salad bar program and the North Carolina program, there is also the North Florida Cooperative, which was actually formed by local small farm operators who wanted to sell produce to schools. They provide turnip and collard greens that are fresh, washed, chopped, and bagged—as well as strawberries and melons—to the local school district. Pre-packaging and attractive, clean presentation can be important. Taylor notes that one reason his program in Santa Monica has worked so well is because the produce is peeled, sliced and otherwise prepared beforehand so that students can see it in an attractive format and eat it easily.

Farm-to-school programs are not just in “warm weather” states . In New York, Governor Pataki recently signed legislation establishing a new farm-to-school initiative that will help to facilitate and promote the purchase of New York State farm products by schools, universities and other educational institutions. The legislation will also establish the “New York Harvest for New York Kids Week” to help provide information about the importance of agriculture to schoolchildren across the State.

Another example is the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch, a grassroots program with the goal of enhancing the existing meal programs in Madison’s public school system by introducing fresh, nutritious, local and sustainably grown food to children, beginning in the city’s elementary schools.

Barriers and Benefits

Significant barriers exist to these efforts. School food service personnel are under tremendous pressure to purchase the lowest-cost, most convenient food.  Many schools no longer have kitchen facilities, and many states have little or no infrastructure to bring local food to markets. In addition, children are inundated with advertising for fast food and other unhealthy food choices.  The food industry spends $12.7 billion directed at children and their parents, often linking brand names with toys, games, movies, clothing, etc.  By contrast, the advertising budget for the National Cancer Institute’s “5-A-Day” program is $1.1 million.

Advocating the health and financial benefits of farm-to-school efforts is one way to overcome these barriers. From the farmers’ perspective, school lunch programs represent an excellent market opportunity, while promoting better nutrition and supporting farming that does not harm the environment. Small family farmers are in serious crisis. Local patterns of production, distribution and consumption of food increasingly have been replaced by global operations and interests, which is precisely why farm-to-school efforts are needed to build the local and regional infrastructure—such as co-ops—needed to get fresh foods to schools and help keep smaller farms alive.

A number of government programs and farming organizations are helping to create markets, many of them relying on direct marketing techniques such as farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and farm stands.  However, these smaller-scale programs are not adequate to address the needs of small family farmers.  Direct sales of products from farms to institutions such as schools comprise an important survival strategy for locally oriented farms.

“It’s important for kids to learn how food is grown and maybe even how to grow it themselves, to know where it comes from, and to know why fresh food is important to their health,” says Rochelle Davis, executive director of the Illinois Healthy Schools Campaign. “When kids are actually educated about a more holistic approach to food systems, they won’t just head for fast-food restaurants. They’ll be much quicker to eat healthier foods.”

And it’s not only about the kids. It's also about preserving sustainable agriculture and keeping small farming alive and well in a corporate, “big farm” world, both for the sake of farmers and the sake of the environment.