Farm to School Monthly Newsletter

As the farm to school movement builds, this newsletter highlights pivotal policies, news, publications, and events with this month’s focus on the Southeast Regional Lead Agency. Please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.

VICTORY AGAINST HUNGER AWARDS

Congressional Hunger Center and Victory Wholesale Group

DEADLINE: JUNE 6 Twenty-five $1,000 grants will be available to organizations building innovative “farm to school” programs including anti-hunger and community food security groups, food banks, schools and other active organizations. Learn more and apply!

Publications

Chef Fest Notebook Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project
A training program designed for chefs, but resourceful for anyone participating in a farm to school program! Recipes, safety tips, case studies, and much more. (PDF)

Upcoming EventS

Action for Healthy Kids' Team members and Partner organizations are invited to join a phone symposium to learn about Farm to School programs in the United States. Registration is required. Please contact Action for Healthy Kids by e-mail.

Helpful Links

Spotlight Story

Southeast Regional Lead Agency

With a relativity young farm to school movement in the southeast, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), in partnership with the Community Farm Alliance (CFA) and the University of North Carolina (UNC), has the challenge and the pleasure of building a farm to school network in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Read More.

Featured Profile

Red Peppers and Dedication

Interview with Alice Snodgrassby debra eschmeyer

I chatted with the amiable and very knowledgeable Alice Snodgrass, Child Nutrition Director for Hawkins County Schools in East Tennessee, where farm to school initiatives have replaced French fries with baked local potato wedges.

Due to a focus on good nutrition and the availability of local foods, schools in Hawkins County have stopped serving French fries to students. Instead, a local potato grower now processes his potatoes into seasoned, baked potato wedges at a local USDA certified community kitchen and sells them to the schools. Other popular local products served by the schools in Hawkins County are lettuce, strawberries, melons, tomatoes, spinach. How does she do it?
Read More.

Policy

Farm Bill Review: What's In It for Farm to School?

The following is a "short list" of programs that the Community Food Security Coalition has followed in the Farm Bill and their outcomes:

Community Food Projects: Section 4406(a)(7) – Funds the program at $5 million (in mandatory money) for fiscal year 2008 and each year after, making it a permanent program.

Geographic preference: Section 4302 – Allows K-12 schools receiving federal funds for the school lunch program the flexibility to specify a geographic preference for the procurement of unprocessed agricultural products. Report language indicates that “unprocessed” is not intended to be interpreted literally, and it states that "unprocessed" should include washing vegetables, bagging greens, butchering livestock and poultry, pasteurizing milk, or putting eggs in a carton.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program: Section 4304 – Provides $500 million (mandatory) over five years for selected schools to purchase at least one daily fresh fruit or vegetable snack. The program will focus on low-income school districts, and allocates 1% of funding total funding to each state and the District of Columbia with additional funding allocated by relative state population. Schools can preference local products.

This Month's News

Off the Aramark

by Betsy Yagla. New Haven Advocate.

In Connecticut, more than 80 school districts participate in the state’s “farm-to-school” program, which encourages schools to buy local and provides suggestions for adding food and nutrition into the school curriculum. Nearly every district involved serves local apples, and some serve other fruits and vegetables too.
Read the entire article.

Costs hard to swallow

by Ryan McCarthy. Appeal Democrat.

Food prices, increasing more than 4 percent in the Unites States last year, have hit schools here. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the food cost climb is the largest since 1990 and that a similar increase is expected this year.
Read the entire article.

Bloomfield Schools Farm to School Program

NBC30.

The Bloomfield Schools Farm-to-School Program, BSF2S, is highlighted on NBC as a stellar lunch program. Watch the video.

In This Issue