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March 14-20, 2021 is National Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Week. CACFP Week aims to raise awareness of how USDA’s CACFP program works to combat hunger by providing healthy foods to child care centers, homes and afterschool programs across the country. Throughout National CACFP Week, we’re highlighting innovative and inspirational programs across the country working to better align farm to ECE and CACFP and increase awareness and participation. Below is part three of our three-part Farm to CACFP blog series. Read Part 1: Iowa's Incentive Pilot Program here and Part 2: Arizona's CACFP Farm Fresh Challenge here.
Colorado’s Addressing Knowledge Gaps with Educational Materials & a Matchmaking Survey
Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), along with state and local partners, have made efforts to address the knowledge related barriers to implementing farm to ECE. In 2016, using funding from a Team Nutrition Grant, Cooking Up Healthy Options with Plants (CHOP), they were able to develop full day culinary training across the state. However “not everyone could take the eight hours to attend and we couldn’t take the training everywhere we wanted to because of our travel budget limitations”, explained Brittany Martens, Nutrition Consultant and Farm to ECE Coordinator at CDPHE.
In partnership with Nourish Colorado, CDPHE developed Quick Bites, eight online videos covering food safety that take less than an hour to complete and are available in both Spanish and English. The intent was to use these online videos to draw in an audience for hands-on knife skills classes, however, due to COVID-19 the knife skills class was moved online. Special attention was paid to reducing barriers to online participation; the class was paired with technical assistance for those not used to virtual classrooms and two weeks before the class attendees were sent a box with a gift card to purchase materials, notes and handouts.
Martens explained the importance of the culinary training CDPHE has been able to offer, noting the high turnover of staff in CACFP centers. “We saw a need...we want centers to buy and use local produce, but if they don’t know how to use this produce they won’t buy it.” The training not only focuses on technical skills, but emphasizes empowerment, asking attendees to reflect on why they chose their career and the influence they have over a child’s lifetime habits. “That empowerment piece allows us to build those relationships...it brings the group together” Martens explained. She believes this, along with their wonderful chef instructor, are the reasons they’ve seen many repeat attendees. Empowerment, knowledge and skills can be a strong combination, and Colorado has seen the benefit. There has been an increase in fresh produce on menus since the implementation of the culinary classes and attendees are retaining the knowledge six months after the training.
Colorado is focusing its efforts on other common barriers to local food procurement as well. They have found the largest barriers to be cost, knowledge around how to find a farmer and storage space. CDPHE has addressed cost through a MiniCoIIn grant awarded by ASPHN, providing local produce to providers in the San Luis Valley. In 2020, they received their second MiniCoIIn grant, allowing them to send CSA boxes to home providers and families during quarantine.
They were able to address the barrier of finding farmers by creating a CACFP matching survey. Due to COVID-19, many farmers have lost their market, highlighting an opportunity to help both farmers and providers. Surveys for both providers and farmers were created and are online for any provider or farmer in the state. The survey gathers information on the needs and abilities of each party, allowing Martens to connect providers to appropriate farmers. According to Martens, this matchmaking process has succeeded in building relationships. “Farmers are planting entire rows this season for providers they were matched with because they know the center will purchase their produce.” When asked what advice she would give to other states looking to implement similar work, she highlighted the importance of community buy-in. “Working from the provider perspective and understanding their experience, what they know and see and where there is potential, is really important.”
This blog was originally posted on March 19, 2021.
March 14-20, 2021 is National Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Week. CACFP Week aims to raise awareness of how USDA’s CACFP program works to combat hunger by providing healthy foods to child care centers, homes and afterschool programs across the country. Throughout National CACFP Week, we’re highlighting innovative and inspirational programs across the country working to better align farm to ECE and CACFP and increase awareness and participation. Below is part three of our three-part Farm to CACFP blog series. Read Part 1: Iowa's Incentive Pilot Program here.
Arizona’s Building Awareness & Efficacy with a CACFP Farm Fresh Challenge
Arizona’s Department of Education has found a way to build excitement, awareness and recognition around farm to ECE while honoring CACFP providers through a CACFP Farm Fresh Challenge that takes place during CACFP week. To finish the challenge, early care providers have to complete three tasks: serve at least one locally sourced CACFP meal component, host at least one activity that educates students where food comes from and share at least one social media post about the challenge.
Ashley Schimke, Farm to School Program Specialist at the Department of Education, Health and Nutrition Services, explained how the winners of the challenge receive a trophy. “Any state recognition carries weight for centers”, Schimke explained. There are other benefits to participating in the challenge as well, such as providing the opportunity for staff to do something fun and different.
In fact, the department decided to keep the challenge running through COVID-19 to deliver joy during difficult times for providers, meal service operators and children. The challenge has also helped to gain buy-in from the Department of Education staff themselves. “The challenge excited staff. They agreed it was an easy way to explain farm to ECE to partners”, said Schimke. The aim of the challenge is to inspire CACFP participants who want to start doing farm to ECE in a tangible, structured way. “The structure of the challenge provides a recipe for someone that doesn’t know where to start but gives them flexibility to do what makes sense for them”.
Schimke has received feedback from providers that local procurement is the most difficult component of farm to ECE, so the challenge focuses on small steps to provide easy wins for centers. Providers are asked to complete one instance of each action necessary to complete the challenge instead of the “3,2,1” model used in the other challenges the department hosts. They also created tiers for the procurement action. Those who have never procured locally can use local milk (which is often local by nature), those with some experience look for local swaps of produce that is already being purchased regularly, and those with extensive experience look for local foods such as meats, beans or grains they would like to purchase and find a locally sourced option. This way, those who come back every year can continue to challenge themselves to do more than the year they did previously.
Schimke hopes that they can continue this work and have centers who participate every year, making the challenge a normal part of their annual schedule. Schimke explained, “The access points [to source locally] are there, but it doesn’t happen without demand. By having an annual way to touch base, providers learn it’s possible to buy local- that it’s not as complicated as it seems.” She advised other states that want to implement a similar challenge to connect with National Farm to School Network partners for resources, but to make the challenge their own. “Take a look at your state’s goals and what your providers need.”
This blog was originally posted on March 17, 2021.
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is often described as the equivalent of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in ECE settings. Like the NSLP, CACFP is a federal reimbursement for meals and snacks available to child care centers. There is great opportunity to build partnerships between farm to ECE and CACFP, as engaging in farm to ECE not only aligns well with the CACFP meal pattern, but can help centers fulfill CACFP standards through gardening experiences and emphasizing nutritious, local and garden grown foods. This week, starting on Sunday March 14th, is National CACFP Week. CACFP Week aims to raise awareness of how USDA’s CACFP program works to combat hunger by providing healthy foods to child care centers, homes and afterschool programs across the country. Throughout National CACFP Week, we’re highlighting innovative and inspirational programs across the country working to better align farm to ECE and CACFP and increase awareness and participation. Below is part one of our three-part Farm to CACFP blog series.
How Iowa is Addressing Financial Barriers with a CACFP Incentive Pilot Program Partners within the Iowa Farm to School and Early Care Coalition have been focusing on alleviating the financial barriers of local procurement for CACFP providers through a CACFP incentive pilot program. The pilot, Local Food Makes Cents: For Iowa Kids and Farmers, is funded through a Farm to Early Care and Education Implementation Grant (FIG) awarded from the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists (ASPHN) and offers over $40,000 to eligible centers and home providers participating in CACFP to purchase local foods.
Chelsea Krist, Iowa’s Farm to School Program Coordinator and co-lead on the FIG grant, shared the momentum building in Iowa’s early childhood education programs around local procurement. “There is interest, but the financial barrier can prohibit providers from purchasing local foods often or at all, so this pilot alleviates the risk of trying a new partnership and processing new foods so that financial risk isn’t directly on the provider.”
The coalition is not only piloting a mini grant program, but a new application process as well, prioritizing children enrolled in childcare assistance and sites serving higher numbers of children of color for the first time, a framework they plan to apply to other grants they are leading. “ECE contains the most diverse demographic in Iowa, so we need to be prioritizing that as we keep grants going”, said Krist.
The response to the grant was huge, with many more sites interested than they expected. The coalition was able to grant 120 providers with funding, representing a range of site types and sizes. Grantees are required to spend half of their award on fruits and vegetables and will be purchasing solely from farms, food hubs and farmers markets. The coalition hopes the grant will help build long lasting relationships between farmers and early care providers, with continued outreach and support to keep local food at these sites.
Through conversations with grantees, the coalition has found opportunities to address other barriers providers face and are now looking to allow CACFP or other state funding to be used for gardening tools and reimbursement for plants grown in the centers’ garden. Overall, Krist is looking forward to the opportunities this pilot can build. Ideally, the coalition hopes the program will live beyond the pilot in the Iowa Department of Education and will be state funded for ECE and K-12 sites. Her advice for other states considering a CACFP incentive pilot: “talk to states who have done this before, and know how much time this will take.”
This blog was originally posted on March 15, 2021.
Yesterday, a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders introduced the Farm to School Act of 2021 (H.R. 1768) which will support our nation’s schools, farmers and communities in building back equitably from the Covid-19 pandemic. The bill, sponsored by Representative Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Representative Alma Adams (D-NC), will expand funding for and programmatic scope of the highly successful USDA Farm to School Grant Program, while also ensuring that more communities – specifically those serving racially diverse and high-need student populations, as well as engaging with beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers – have a competitive opportunity to benefit from this valuable program.
When the pandemic began, school nutrition professionals, educators and local food producers – the people who make farm to school work – were some of the very first community members to step up and ensure the ongoing care and support of children and families. The measures included in the Farm to School Act of 2021 will give them much-needed resources to continue their work as we emerge from the pandemic. Furthermore, the bill’s emphasis on ensuring equitable access to this important grant program will help those who have been most impacted by the pandemic, including Native and tribal communities, racially diverse communities, and early care and education sites. There has never been a better time to build on the successes of this program.
The USDA Farm to School Grant Program provides funds on a competitive basis to schools, farmers, nonprofits, and local, state and tribal government entities to help schools procure local foods for school meals and to support activities like school gardens, hands-on science lessons, and new food taste tests. The program was originally funded as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and includes $5 million in annual mandatory funding.
Since the program’s inception in 2013, USDA has awarded over $52 million through Farm to School Grants, funding a total of 719 projects across all 50 States, the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico, reaching almost 21 million students in 47,000 schools. In recent years, the program has benefited from temporary funding boosts through annual appropriations. The Farm to School Act of 2021 would allow more of these impactful projects to be realized by:
Increasing annual mandatory funding to $15 million and increase the maximum grant award to $250,000,
Prioritizing grant proposals that engage beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers and serve high-need schools,
Fully including early care and education sites, summer food service sites and after school programs, and
Increasing access among Native and tribal schools to traditional foods, especially from tribal producers.
Statements from the Farm to School Act of 2021's Cosponsors:
Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): “Millions of students are eating healthier and engaged in food and agriculture education because of the Farm to School Program. It is a commonsense program that benefits children and their families while providing economic opportunities to our farmers. The increased demand for Farm to School programming tells us that more people are beginning to understand the connection between local foods and healthy young minds. I’m proud to introduce this legislation in support of our nation’s schools and local farmers who help improve classroom diets and local economies.”
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Ranking Member, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA): “The Farm to School program feeds kids, teaches kids, inspires kids. What an impactful, nutritious way to connect the farm to the family, enhance regional economic benefit, and promote good health. I am happy to lead the development of the program.”
Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), Vice Chair of the House Committee on Agriculture: “The Farm to School Grant Program supports healthy students and strengthens our local food systems. The Farm to School Act of 2021 expands participation in this critical program and increases its funding, which is more important than ever as our students, schools and farmers face difficult challenges due to the global pandemic. Teachers, parents, and farmers all know that healthy students are successful students, so I am proud to support the introduction this important legislation.”
Have questions about the Farm to School Act of 2021 or want to learn more about how you can be a farm to school policy advocate? Contact Karen Spangler, Policy Director, at karen@farmtoschool.org.
National Farm to School Network and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition are partnering to advance farm to school priorities in the next Child Nutrition Reauthorization, with the shared goal of supporting stronger communities, healthier children and resilient farms.
This week, the House and Senate are at work on a new round of relief legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a complex procedural move known as reconciliation, the House and Senate may be able to advance relief and stimulus funds with a narrow majority vote. House Committees have released their portions of the proposal, including the House Committee on Education and Labor, and the House Committee on Agriculture. Included are numerous measures that will support those most in need in our farm to school and early care and education community, including an increase in pandemic EBT (P-EBT) for young children, funds for child care stabilization, and an increase of 15% in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) benefits. In addition, the bill would provide money to purchase directly from producers (such as the Farmers to Families food box program), and to strengthen food supply chain infrastructure and worker protection.
Also included in the proposal from the House Agriculture Committee is a historic measure to provide $4 billion in debt relief and financial support for producers of color with USDA farm loans. An additional $1 billion would address historic and ongoing discrimination in the food system, including oversight for racial equity at USDA, support for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and historically Black land-grant universities, and legal resources for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) producers. This legislative language first debuted in the Senate in the Emergency Relief for Producers of Color Act, introduced by new Senate Ag Committee members Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), as well as committee Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and longtime farm to school champion Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
The leadership of House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA-13) and Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA-2) in including this measure comes at an especially crucial time. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated long-existing inequities in farm policy, and Black and Indigenous communities have suffered disproportionately from the health, economic, and food security effects of the pandemic. A newly-released analysis from Environmental Working Group found that nearly 97 percent of $9.2 billion in pandemic relief direct payments went to white producers as of October 2020, with white farmers on average receiving four times more than the average Black farmer. Clearly, the status quo is not enough to provide real, equitable relief to BIPOC producers struggling during this pandemic. Debt forgiveness is a direct and immediate measure that government can take to address the structural injustices that are still happening.
As the full legislative package makes its way to the House floor this week, and as the Senate takes up relief measures, National Farm to School Network urges policymakers to prioritize the urgent need for bold measures such as this one during and after the current crisis.
This blog was originally posted on February 23, 2021.
Meet these Black visionaries below! Top: Betti, Brandy, Glyen, Haile. Middle: Jamese, Karen, Krystal, LaDonna. Bottom: Qiana, Rodney, Te’Lario.
February is Black History Month, a dedicated time to celebrate the power and resilience of the Black community and the many Black leaders on whose shoulders we stand. Historic and systemic racism in our country, as well as white privilege and power within the food systems, have unjustly obscured the significant contributions that Black individuals and communities have made and continue to make in our food system – including in farm to school. At National Farm to School Network, we acknowledge and apologize for our role in perpetuating these injustices and the harm that we have caused. We are also committed to taking actions to dismantle structural racism and shift power to those who have been marginalized, exploited, and excluded from the food system. You can read more about our commitment to creating a racially just food system here.
In this spirit, and in celebration of this time of Black History Month, we’re recognizing and honoring some of the Black visionaries, trailblazers, community leaders, and activists who inspire us and whose voices are leading essential conversations around racial equity and justice in farm to school, our food system, and beyond.
Betti Wiggins “Quality food, the kind which supplies sufficient calories and nutrition to allow focus, learning, productivity, and growth, is the right of every child – really every human being.”
Betti Wiggins is one of the foremost authorities on school nutrition and food service management. She is the Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Houston Independent School District, which serves more than 280,000 students at 287 school sites every day. Prior to Houston ISD, she was the Executive Director of Child Nutrition Programs at Detroit Public Schools. Under her leadership, the Detroit School Garden Collaborative was established in 2011. Since its inception, the program has grown to support more than 80 school-based gardens and a 4.5-acre school farm. She is affectionately known as the “Rebel Lunch Lady,” determined to use her passion for food justice and agricultural upbringing to ensure every kid has the fuel they need to learn in school. Betti is a former National Farm to School Network Advisory Board member. Hear more from Betti: >Betti Wiggins on her career journey from segregated hospitals to leading foodservice at one of the nation’s largest school districts (Food Management) >Betti Wiggins: Changing the way American children eat at school (NBC News)
Brandy Brooks “We are in the middle of this massive cultural trauma of COVID and racial justice and an unprecedented ecological crisis… as political healers, we aren’t going to bury these things, we are going to bring them forward so we can heal from these things.”
Brandy Brooks is Co-Director of the Political Healers Project, a national network led by womxn of color and committed to centering healing, collective, and creative leadership in movement organizing. Brandy is also the founder and chief executive of Radical Solutions LLC, providing coaching, consulting, facilitation, and training around racial equity and environmental justice to organizations across the country – including us at National Farm to School Network. Brandy's work over the past 15 years has focused on community organizing, power-building, food justice, and food sovereignty, among others. In January, Brandy joined our monthly Coffee Chat series to talk about how we can address racial healing in National Farm to School Network's efforts towards a racially just food system and, more generally, how racial healing should be part of all food systems work – watch below! Hear more from Brandy: >How Do We Address Racial Healing? (NFSN Coffee Chat) >We Are Designed to Heal with Brandy Books - Feb. 23 (NESAWG Sankofa Series Webinar)
Glyen Holmes "It's a tough time for farmers, and even tougher for African American farmers. Farm to school can be a tool for African Americans to get back into farming, and to be able to sustain their farming."
Glyen Holmes is a founding father of modern farm to school efforts. In the mid-1990s, he founded the New North Florida Cooperative (NNFC), a network of African American vegetable farmers near Jackson County, Florida, with a goal of giving small farmers a viable market opportunity by selling their products to local schools. NNFC’s "small farm to school" program found success by selling wash, chopped, and bagged fresh produce to area schools, and has continued its work for more than 20 years, expanding to Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas. During the pandemic, NNFC's processing capability put it in an advantageous position to supply schools with pre-packed fresh fruits and vegetables for grab-and-go school meals. Hear more from Glyen: >Glyen Holmes Helped Revolutionize Farm to School Programs (Farm Aid) >Farm to School - Glyen Holmes NNFC
Haile Thomas “Through farm to cafeteria work, we gain experiences that help prepare us for the world.”
Haile Thomas is a 20-year-old wellness and compassion activist, international speaker, content creator, the youngest to graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach (at age 16), and the founder/CEO of the non-profit HAPPY (Healthy, Active, Positive, Purposeful, Youth). Haile founded HAPPY when she was 12 years old to redefine youth empowerment through holistic education and address the need for free/affordable plant-based nutrition and wellness education in underserved/at-risk communities. Haile was a keynote speaker at our 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2018. Hear more from Haile: >Why Haile Thomas Wants America’s Kids to Think Different (Heritage Harvest Festival) >Cooking Up History: Living Lively: Youth Empowerment through Food with Chef Haile Thomas (National Museum of American History)
Jamese Kwele “Centering equity and advancing racial justice is long-haul work that requires self-reflection, education, difficult conversations, and sustained action. It’s about making change; it’s about learning; it’s about growing as a movement; it’s about shifting, and yes, it’s about dismantling systems of oppression that exist both within us and outside of us.”
Jamese Kwele is the Director of Equity / Food Equity at Ecotrust, where she leads the organization's institutional equity work and a Food Equity initiative developed at the intersections of food and land justice, climate resilience, and economic development. Jamese is also one of the co-founders of the Black Food Fund, sits on the leadership team of the Black Oregon Land Trust, and serves as a board member for both the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition and the National Farm to School Network. Hear more from Jamese: >Keynote Address: Equity in Farm to School (Vermont FEED) >Introducing Jamese Kwele (Ecotrust)
Karen Washington "Food justice represents a transformation of the current food system to change current inequities. It's not a passive movement, it's an active movement. In order for all of us to work on food justice, we must actively be working on socially dismantling the injustices we see."
Karen Washington has been a community activist striving to make New York City a better place to live since 1985. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, she worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate, and former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, she stood up and spoke out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, she helped launched a City Farms Market, bringing fresh vegetables to the community. Karen is Co-owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York. Karen was our 2020 Movement Meeting keynote speaker - watch below! Hear more from Karen: >Keynote: Food Justice is Racial Justice (NFSN 2020 Movement Meeting) >It’s Not a Food Desert, It’s Food Apartheid (Guernica)
Krystal Oriadha "There's a true opportunity to leverage school meals in a way that prioritizes local producers and BIPOC farmers who have been left out of the conversation.”
Krystal Oriadha is the Senior Director of Programs and Policy at National Farm to School Network, where she guides the overall strategic programs and policy advocacy activities of our organization. Krystal is a recognized community leader and activist for justice in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the wider community. For more than 10 years, she’s advocated for criminal justice reform, education, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and food justice. Krystal is also the co-founder of PG Change Makers and the LGBTQ Dignity Project. Hear more from Krystal: >A Shared Vision for School Food Policy (FoodCorps Town Hall) >White-Led Organizations: Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Written by Krystal Oriadha and Helen Dombalis, NFSN Executive Director)
LaDonna Sanders Redmond “All oppression is linked. Food is just a tool for organizing. It’s not really about the food. It’s about what the food brings: choice and dignity.”
LaDonna Sanders Redmond is a community activist who began her advocacy for a fairer food system when she wanted healthy, organic food to help combat allergies her young son had developed. But that food wasn’t available in West Chicago. So, she became an advocate for food justice and helped create community access to fresh, healthy, pesticide-free, and GMO-free food. She achieved her vision by converting vacant city lots into urban farms, creating retail food enterprises to sell fresh fruit and vegetables in the community, and replacing junk food with salad bars in Chicago Public Schools. Hear more from LaDonna: >Food + Justice = Democracy: LaDonna Redmond (TEDx Talk) >Keynote: Ending Systematic Oppression in the Food System (8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference)
Qiana Mickie "If this is not the time to dismantle something as big and persistent as food apartheid, when is the time?"
Qiana Mickie has spent more than 10 years fostering a food-based solidarity economy that increases farm viability, healthy food access, and leadership opportunities for small- and mid-scale regional farmers, youth, Black, Brown, mixed-income, and other communities of color. Qiana also brings an equity-driven lens to policy work on issues such as food sovereignty, land stewardship, and health. Qiana is the former Executive Director of Just Food and continues working with the organization as a special projects consultant. Qiana joined our Coffee Chat series last fall to discuss what food apartheid is and how we end it in our communities – it was a rich conversation that our staff continue to revisit and reflect on. Hear more from Qiana: >How Do We End Food Apartheid In Our Communities (NFSN Coffee Chat) >Qiana Mickie on Food Justice & Access (Heritage Radio)
Rodney Taylor “I see it as my mission to ensure that no child feels the indignity of being hungry. Not on my watch.”
Rodney Taylor is an expert and early pioneer in farm to school salad bars. In 1997, he established the first “Farmers’ Market Salad Bar” program while working as Director of Food and Nutrition Services in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. He has also held Director roles in school nutrition departments at Fairfax County Public Schools and Riverside Unified School District. Rodney has served on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, the University of California (UC) President’s Advisory Commission for Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Network for a Healthy California’s Executive Committee, and National Farm to School Network's Advisory Board. Hear more from Rodney: >He grew up hungry. Now he wants to revolutionize school lunch. (Washington Post) >Spotlight on Rodney Taylor, Farm to School Pioneer (Healthy Schools Campaign)
Te’Lario Watkins Jr. “All kids should have enough food to eat to learn and grow.”
Te'Lario Watkins Jr. is a 13-year-old mushroom farmer, entrepreneur, and food justice advocate in central Ohio. He also founded The Garden Club Project, which has a mission to help end hunger and encourage kids to eat healthier. During the pandemic, Te’Lario has donated seed kits to local daycare centers, helped deliver over 2,000 lbs of fresh produce to a local food pantry, and started work on a community garden to help feed families that may otherwise have difficulty regularly accessing fresh produce. Hear more from Te’Lario: >Te'Lario Watkins II: Farmer, Activist, Businessman, Youth Leader (Slow Food USA) >Follow Te’Lario on Instagram
These are just a few of the many Black trailblazers, innovators, and movement makers who are helping power farm to school and community food systems efforts nationwide. There are many more - including on our staff, Advisory Board, in our network of Core and Supporting Partners, and others - who we also celebrate this month.
Our commitment to listening to and lifting up Black voices and leadership in farm to school doesn't stop at the end of February. Every day is the right day for being honest about and addressing the racism and inequities in our work. (You can read more about National Farm to School Network's commitment to centering our work in equity here.) In April, our staff will be participating in Food Solutions New England's 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge - sign up to join us. And, we encourage you join us in continuing to honor the Black leaders who have given, and continue to give, boundless wisdom, vision, creativity and commitment to the farm to school movement.
This blog was originally posted on February 19, 2021.
January 19 is the 5th Annual National Day of Racial Healing, a time for contemplation and collective action on how we heal from the effects of racism. Racial healing is a process that restores individuals and communities to wholeness, repairs the damage caused by racism, and transforms societal structures into ones that affirm the inherent value of all people.
Helen Dombalis, Executive Director of National Farm to School Network, shares her reflections on how racial healing is part of our work towards our new call to action: By 2025, 100% of communities will hold power in a racially just food system.
Video Transcript:
"This is Helen Dombalis, I serve as Executive Director of the National Farm to School Network. At the end of 2020, we released a call to action for our food system that by 2025, 100% of communities will hold power in a racially justice food system. In other words, were making a commitment to shifting power in order to achieve a racially justice food system. In the process leading up to that call to action's finalization we kept coming back to the fact that if you don't work differently the gap between our vision and our current reality will continue to widen. We can't keep working on local procurement, gardens, and food and food and agriculture education in the same ways and expect different results. We have to be intentional about shifting power in order to achieve a racially just food system.
We know that our call to action takes all of us at the National Farm to School Network and through farm to school activities, but also across our food system. So, today being January 19th, the Annual National Day of Racial Healing is an important day and in our ongoing work to recognize that we can't make progress without also healing.
In our nation and communities, and in our food system there is a deep history in intentionality of racism including the foundation on which our American agricultural system was built from enslavement of African peoples to settler colonialism and stolen land from Indigenous peoples. We're not just working against that history, we're also saying that there's a history and it continues today in the real and destructive ways that are current unjust food system impacts communities of color.
For example, during the pandemic with food workers having higher rates of Covid and not being given due protections during the pandemic. So as we do this work, we have to acknowledge what got us here and how racism is continuing today to harm all of us.
We're all people with families, with communities, with hopes with challenges, and regardless of our skin color, racism is fueling divisiveness, not unity, difference, not inclusion, and bias, not trust.
So, as National Farm to School Network Executive Director, and on a personal level, as a mother, I'm committed to a world and a food system where all people are valued and respected equally regardless of skin color, income, immigration status, job, or any other criteria. But I also know that it's not enough to just hold that commitment, to have that value system. Action is necessary.
I'm also committed to shifting power, recognizing that there's a spectrum and ultimately we have to defer and ensure that those who are impacted by decisions are actually the one who is making the decision. So, for example, producers of color showing up and working with school districts and their purchasing and the producer saying,"Here's what we have available here. Here's what we will have available," and integrating that in the school meal programs and meeting a price point that's a living wage for those producers. It's not enough to have the school districts be the ones to say, "Okay, we'll buy this from these producers of color." At the furthest end of the spectrum, it's the farmers of color that are making those decisions themselves.
So with that example, I will leave you all with my firm commitment to learning, and also to action, and ask you all to join me in contributing to understanding that we need to heal from our past and in our current reality, in order to move forward and achieve a more racially just food system. Thank you."
National Farm to School Network is fortunate to have an Advisory Board composed of 17 smart and passionate advocates who guide us in the work we do. At the beginning of this new year, we want to extend our deep thanks and gratitude to those who served on our Advisory Board in 2020 and welcome a few new members to this important cohort.
This past year was a significant one for National Farm to School Network, which included navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening our commitment to racial justice, and announcing our new Call to Action. We are grateful to these 2020 Advisory Board members who worked alongside us last year:
Anneliese Tanner, Austin Independent School District
Bertrand Weber, Minneapolis Public Schools
Betsy Rosenbluth, Vermont FEED
Brandon Seng, Michigan Farm to Freezer
Caree Jackson Cotwright, University of Georgia - College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Catherine Compitello, The Beacon Fund
Erin Croom, Small Bites Adventure Club
Haile Johnston, The Common Market
Jamese Kwele, Ecotrust
Janie Hipp, Native American Agriculture Fund
Laura Edwards-Orr, Center for Good Food Purchasing
Ricardo Salvador, Union of Concerned Scientists
Silvia Abel-Caines, Organic Valley
Simone Washington, Business for Social Responsibility
Sommer Sibilly-Brown, Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition
Wande Okunoren-Meadows, Little Ones Learning Center
Vanessa Herald, University of Wisconsin - Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
At the end of 2020, we said farewell to Janie, Ricardo and Vanessa. We are especially grateful to Janie for advising us on working with Native communities, to Ricardo for contributing his racial justice and policy advocacy expertise, and to Vanessa for her farm to school content expertise and for being a long-time and continued NFSN state partner.
As we say these thank yous and farewells, we are also excited to announce the addition of three new board members in 2021:
Jennifer Gaddis - Jennifer is an assistant professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Jennifer's scholarship centers the perspectives of frontline cafeteria workers and focuses on topics including the history of the national school lunch program, farm to school efforts, food work as a form of care work, and values-based universal school lunch programs.
May Tsupros - May is a Founding Collaborator of SunTree Collaboration and co-founder of Gardeneers. In addition to her work with SunTree Collaboration, whose mission is to unearth, build, and strengthen connections between many local food, environmental, and health-related stakeholders, May is also Director of People and Partnerships at Partridge Creek Farms where she works to promote food education and improve local access to fresh produce.
Valerie Segrest - Valerie is a Native foods nutritionist and the Regional Director of Native Food and Knowledge Systems for the Native American Agriculture Fund. Valerie is an enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and is a nutritionist who specializes in Native American Food Traditions and has over a decade of experience developing food sovereignty strategies and culturally relevant food and nutrition curriculum and educational interventions.
We are also appreciative of those stepping into leadership positions on the board this year:
Haile Johnston, Chair
Simone Washington, Vice-Chair
Laura Edwards-Orr, Governance Committee Chair
Betsy Rosenbluth, Strategic Plan Committee Chair
This year, the Advisory Board will be focused on implementing our 2020-2025 Call to Action, which focuses on racial equity and shifting power in our food system; continuing the NFSN Advisor-Staff Mentor Program; taking part in board professional development activities (including racial equity, shifting power, and policy advocacy); and diversifying our funding and increasing support for general operations of our organization. (Want to give them a jump start? It’s easy to make a donation right now! )
Many thanks again to our outgoing Advisory Board members, and welcome to our new members! We look forward to working alongside you these next 12 months towards our vision of a racially just food system for all.
