June 2008


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As the farm to school movement builds, this newsletter highlights pivotal policies, news, publications, and events with this month’s focus on the policy opportunities to improve child nutrition. Please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.

Spotlight Story

USDA Listening Sessions

The USDA issued a request for public comments in the Federal Register: Request for Public Comments for Use in Preparing the 2009 Reauthorization of the Child Nutrition and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. You can find the schedule of the listening sessions here.

The National Farm to School Network is working with each of the eight Regional Lead Agencies to ensure we have a presence at each of the listening sessions. Statements can also be submitted in writing. There is plenty of time to respond as the comment period ends October 15, 2008.

If you would like to participate in the listening sessions through the
Network, please contact the Regional Lead Agency in your area or our DC office. Please feel free to use the draft talking points from the Network that may be used in your statements or written documents. We encourage folks to use those talking points that are relevant to your
work and add priorities for your own work or region.

If you have any questions, please contact Marion Kalb: 505-474-5782 and for more information visit the Food Research and Action Center's Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Center.

Featured Profile

Boston Listening Session

Amy Winston's Testimony to the usda on June 10, 2008

Hello. My name is Dr. Amy Winston. I serve as economic development director for Lincoln County Maine, where I co-founded Focus on Agriculture in Rural Maine Schools (FARMS) as an educational economic development strategy. I am privileged to be here today to represent the Northeast Farm to School Network.

We see CNR as a win-win opportunity to support, sustain, expand and institutionalize farm to school, and farm to school as an exceptional and integrated approach that advances and fulfills school meal program objectives in a distinct way. This unique, comprehensive community health and economic development strategy supports local business and economic development, improves community health, and teaches all of us sustainable behavior, beginning with youth.

Who doesn’t want to feed children well? Isn’t that why we are here today?

We submit to you that Farm to School is an effective way to work together to achieve this goal/our shared objectives. Read More.

Policy

Child Nutrition Reauthorization in Brief

From our friends at the Food Research and Action Center:

In 2009, Congress will review the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. This legislation, which is set to expire on September 30, 2009, includes all the Federal child nutrition programs, including the School Breakfast and the National School Lunch Programs, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

These programs touch millions of children each day. They are shown to improve educational achievement, nutrition, and overall health. Reauthorization provides the opportunity to improve and strengthen these programs so they better meet the needs of our nation’s children.

The House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee have jurisdiction over these programs.

To find resources, links and other information on Reauthorization, continually updated, visit FRAC's site here.

 

This Month's News

Students connecting with their roots

by Linda Maness. The Times Argus.

Vermont's schools are growing green. "Growing" is the word being emphasized at school these days, as many are planting their own gardens or contributing to a community garden. Focusing on whole, natural foods — their production, harvest and preparation — is one way that Vermont schools are responding to the deterioration of the eating habits and growing obesity rates of its children.
Read the entire article.

Food for thought

by Eric Gaertner. The Muskegon Chronicle.

The days of school lunch lines filled with imported food offerings and food loaded with trans fat could be numbered. A county wide proposal that is just beginning to be thoroughly evaluated would have local schools saying goodbye to well-traveled carrots and greasy fries and hello to fresh, locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats that are most likely organic in nature.
Read the entire article.

Keeping Up with the Jones, Tastefully

by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service.

One school inspires another to try serving local food. Thirty schools in northwest Lower Michigan now include locally grown fresh food in their menus—and soaring sales indicate students are glad to avoid typical cafeteria fare. Read the entire article.

 

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