Colorado Involved Groups and Organizations

The following organizations have resources and information to help with your local Farm to School program.
Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado
The Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado is a new organization committed to incorporating the concept of sustainability into all the workings of the local communities of Southwest Colorado, and to do this we need the involvement of everyone in our community.

Colorado Farm to School Project
The Colorado Farm to School Project was launched in February 2010 with the support of a Specialty Crop Grant through the Colorado Department of Agriculture. The initial funding provides three years of support to develop regional farm-to-school networks across the state.

Objectives for our first year include:
€ Increasing awareness of both schools and producers of existing opportunities for partnership.
€ Dissemination of marketing tools and resources.
€ Assessment of primary policy and regulatory opportunities and barriers for farm to school.
€ Working with 4-6 school districts to pilot the tools and resources.

Southwest Marketing Network
The Southwest Colorado Farm to School program has been working since February 2004 to promote and facilitate Farm to School programs in this region. Outreach has gone out to surrounding communities, but much of the work to date has been in La Plata County, and within that county with the Durango 9R School District, Ignacio Schools, and the Southern Ute Academy.

The Southern Ute Academy, a Montessori school, has a new student greenhouse, garden plots, and has hosted a Bison Tasting event for area school food service directors. Bison from their own herd or other tribal sources is the only red meat served at the Academy.

Work with the Durango School District is progressing very well. We have helped get local fruit, vegetables, flour, cracked grains, and meat, into the schools and special meals for several years. We have fresh local micro-greens going year-round to salad bars at 10 areas schools, small quantities but loaded with nutrition and information about where they came from. The schools have even had to order short salad bars since salad is so popular with the very early grades.

As the program becomes more well-known and the schools want more products, additional growers are stepping up, but we have a ways to go to have enough local products for the schools and all the other local outlets as demand continues to rise in this area.

Most recently we have been getting plenty of local grass-fed beef into Durango, Ignacio, and surrounding schools. This has been a very popular addition to the menu.

We are gratified by the response from the food service, administration, growers, and community members who support this forward-looking and vital program.

Contact: Jim Dyer
Southwest Marketing Network, Hesperus, CO
Phone: 970-588-2292
jadyer@frontier.net