November 2007
Welcome to the National Farm to School E-newsletter! As the movement builds to bring local fresh ingredients to schools across the country, this newsletter will highlight pivotal policies, news, publications, and events with this month’s focus on the Mid-Atlantic regional lead agency. Please contact us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
How do you source locally grown foods with a limited growing season? Discuss this and more on our forums.
Policy
Pennsylvania’s New Healthy Farms, Healthy Schools Bill
The purpose of the bill is to educate kindergartners and their families
about the importance of choosing healthy, fresh foods and increase awareness
regarding Pennsylvania agriculture. Learn
how.
Publications
The Kindergarten Initiative: A Healthy Start to a Healthy Life
A
New Toolkit from The Food Trust
This new toolkit provides both the inspiration and practical information
that policymakers, legislators, school districts, teachers and
parents need to flexibly
implement a Farm to Kindergarten program in their communities. Learn
more.
Upcoming Event
Phone Seminars on Best Practices
To celebrate the first year of the Healthy Farms, Healthy Schools program and
the release of the Kindergarten Initiative Toolkit, The Food Trust will be
hosting a series of three phone seminars to share best practices about the
key components of the Kindergarten Initiative.
Call topics will include:
• Integrating Nutrition and Agriculture Education in the Classroom
•
Sourcing Local Snacks Year-Round
•
Partnering with Parents and Families
To receive an email announcement with more details - including dates and
times of these calls – please send an email to Laila.
Helpful Links
Spotlight Story
Everything You Need To Know You Learned In Kindergarten
Kindergarten Initiative: A New Farm to School Model
As the mid-Atlantic regional lead agency, The Food Trust is the hub for farm to school activities in the mid-Atlantic region, which encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. In this role, The Food Trust supports the National Network in areas of policy, information, media, and networking opportunities as well as training and technical assistance for individuals working on farm to school issues.
Tegan Hagy is the Mid-Atlantic Farm to School Coordinator. In this position, she is available for farm to school related media inquiries, initial consultations with schools and/or interested parties, and hosting training opportunities for farmers and food service personnel in the 2007-08 school year. Read More.
Featured Profile
Start Small, Simple, and Somewhere
Interview with mikey azarra by Debra Eschmeyer
Mikey Azzara is the Outreach Director for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ), where he oversees state-wide educational programs for organic farmers, gardeners, consumers, and youth. Through NOFA-NJ’s Community Food Education Program, he implements school gardens and works to connect New Jersey’s farms with restaurants, schools, and institutional dining facilities.
Q. When did you first learn of the farm to school concept?
A. I became familiar with the concept of farm to school on my own by directly
growing with kids.
A five minute conversation and the community food system starts growing
roots. For example, on my day off when I was farming full time, I
started going to the community center, and as a result of a chat with
my old
baseball coach, we incorporated a garden into their day camp, educating
low-income
youth through gardening and cooking education. This is when I learned
first hand that if you involve children in the process of cooking
and growing, they
will eat it.
Read More.
This Month's News
Local ag organization snags award
By John Boyle, Asheville Citizen-Times
The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project was named nonprofit of the year, recognized for a decade of running one of the most successful local food campaigns in the Southeast, and being a leader in the farm-to-school movement. This year ASAP published a groundbreaking study of the value of local food to the economy of Western North Carolina, showing the market in that region alone could be worth almost half a billion dollars. Read more.
Gov. Culver appoints four members to the Farm to School Council
by Brad Anderson, Iowa Politics.
The program seeks to link elementary and secondary public and nonpublic schools in this state with Iowa farms to provide schools with fresh and minimally processed food for inclusion in school meals and snacks, encourage children to develop healthy eating habits, and provide Iowa farmers access to consumer markets. The Farm-to-School program may include activities that provide students with hands-on learning opportunities, such as farm visits, cooking demonstrations, and school gardening and composting programs. Read more.
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