Photo credit: Hawai'i Governor's Office

From reimbursements for locally sourced school meals to clarity on food safety regulations, state policies are an effective tool for growing robust farm to school program that connect children with fresh, healthy food and support local food producers. The National Farm to School Network is proud to provide the resources, information and support needed for farm to school advocates to achieve state policy success.

Here’s a recent example: in 2014, a group of farm to school advocates from Hawai’i attended our National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Austin, Texas, where they learned about state legislation and its power to affect change. Energized and filled with new ideas, they left the conference and began identifying their policies needs – like the need for an official state farm to school coordinator to orchestrate the multiple programmatic efforts happening around Hawai’i.

With a policy goal identified, the National Farm to School Network worked with Hawai’i leaders and offered resources and information to drive their legislative process forward. Our  “Benefits of Farm to School” and “Farm to School Advocacy” factsheets proved to be helpful tools for raising awareness of farm to school activities and encouraging Hawaiians to become politically active in the farm to school movement. Our network of state and regional leads offered the Hawai’i leaders insight on how other states fund farm to school positions. And, our Policy Team provided written testimony to be considered by lawmakers as the bill made its way through the legislative process.

In July 2015, all of the hard work paid off. The bill unanimously passed both Hawai’i legislative chambers, creating a statewide farm to school program and providing funds for a farm to school program coordinator position in the Department of Agriculture. In addition to signing the bill into law, Hawai’i Governor David Ige made a proclamation in support of farm to school. Proclamations like this can often lead to greater awareness of farm to school activities in states and ideally, grow stronger statewide support in the form of resources and legislation.

Legislative wins don’t always come this easily. That’s why the National Farm to School Network is committed to building upon its tools and resources that help set up farm to school champions for policy success. There are now more than 40 states with enacted farm to school legislation, including Oregon and Louisiana – two additional states that passed strong farm to school legislation this year. Learn about every enacted, defeated and pending farm to school-related bill from 2002-2014 in our State Farm to School Legislative Survey.

Help us continue to support state policies that strengthen farm to school by giving to the National Farm to School Network on #GivingTuesday. Donate on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and Newman's Own Foundation will match all gifts up to $10,000. Together, we can help kids, farmers and communities in every state thrive.

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Farm to school isn’t just for K-12 students; connecting young children to healthy food and nutrition education in preschool and early care settings is an essential component of growing a healthier next generation. The National Farm to School Network is dedicated to engaging more children age 0-5 in activities and experiences that increase acceptance of healthy foods and support life long healthy habits. Through leadership, advocacy, and networking, we’re bringing more farm to preschool to more of our nation’s littlest eaters.

Earlier this year, Lacy Stephens joined our team as a dedicated farm to preschool specialist, and her work is elevating and prioritizing preschool and early care settings within the wider farm to school and child wellness movements. Lacy represents the National Farm to School Network on the Child and Adult Care Food Program National Advisory Committee and the American Academy of Pediatrics Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight Policy Roundtable, giving the farm to school movement an important voice in conversations about the health and wellness of our nation’s youngest eaters. Our strong partnerships with these organizations and leaders continue to multiply our efforts and outreach at the national, state and local levels.

We’re also driving the movement forward by gathering data and research that provide insight on the specific needs and opportunities to expand farm to preschool to more children. Our National Survey of Early Care and Education Settings will give us the valuable information to develop new resources and outreach approaches, and the Early Childhood Good Food Access Research (in partnership with Partners for Change and the BUILD Initiative) will identify innovative strategies and policies for increasing access to healthy foods for young children.

In addition, we’re spreading awareness of farm to preschool by bringing you great stories on our blog, like:

• the benefits of farm to preschool for children and their families;
• innovative approaches to growing the movement;
• and how simple classroom lessons teach young children lifelong lessons about healthy eating.  

In 2016, we’ll be reconvening the National Farm to School Network Farm to Preschool Group to bring together key stakeholders from early care and education, academia and state and federal agencies to grow and strengthen farm to preschool. We’re also looking forward to offering a robust farm to preschool track at the 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, June 2-4, 2016, in Madison, Wis. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the farm to preschool movement!

Join us in strengthening these efforts to give our littlest eaters a healthy start, and help us ensure that every growing child has access to fresh, healthy food. Donate to the National Farm to School Network on #GivingTuesday, and Newman's Own Foundation will match all gifts up to $10,000. A donation in any amount is an investment in our children. Together, we can make sure they all have access to a bright and healthy future.

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This week's Farm to School Month blogs are sponsored by the Orfalea Foundation School Food Initiative, which has empowered campus food service operations to serve fresh, healthy school meals; installed school gardens; launched food literacy programs; and assisted school districts in their aspirations to become centers of health and wellness. The Orfalea Foundation applauds the efforts of National Farm to School Network and is proud to be a sponsor of Farm to School Month.

Photo credit: Pioneer Elementary, Ashwaubenon, Wis.; photo submitted by Live54218

For the past 30 days, millions of schools, farmers and communities around the country have been celebrating the movement that’s connecting kids to fresh, healthy food and supporting local economies. From Maine to Alaska and everywhere in between, people are recognizing the power of farm to school to benefit people, planet and profit. That’s what National Farm to School Month is all about!

At the National Farm to School Network, we’ve been leading Farm to School Month celebrations by sharing great stories of farm to school innovations, successes and impacts – like how schools are incorporating local, sustainably caught seafood into lunches and voices of youth who are leading the next generation in food activism.

We also hosted a Big Day of Action to urge Congress to finish the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization (CNR) and strengthen farm to school across the country. More than 400 people posted messages on social media about the positive impact farm to school has in their communities, and many made calls to their legislators to urge support for more farm to school in CNR. Thank you to everyone who joined in! See highlights here.

Kids in #farmtoschool are more willing to try new, healthy foods + do better in school #moreF2SinCNR pic.twitter.com/T9EwjNXmYL

— DC Greens (@dc_greens) October 22, 2015

Regionally, students celebrated Farm to School Month with events like the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch, which had more than 500,000 student participants across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio chomping into local apples. In the Midwest, thousands of students enjoyed fresh, healthy food with a “Midwest Menu” on October 22, featuring local chicken, vegetables, apples, and a whole grain side that showcased local autumn bounty.  

In fact, there have been Farm to School Month celebrations in every state this month. Governors in Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Utah made proclamations declaring October Farm to School Month in their states. Vermont encouraged kids to try new foods with “Taste Test Mania,” Georgia got kids to dig their hands in the soil with “Rooting for Carrots,” and Washington students sampled local food for Taste Washington Day. We could keep going!

Photo credit: Odom Elementary School, Moultri, Ga.

Dozens of you sent in your farm to school stories, as well. We heard that 8th graders in Maine participated in a Jr. Chef Challenge, students in Alabama harvested sweet potatoes, and chefs visited schools in New Jersey. Thanks to all who shared their farm to school stories and joined our network this month! And, a special congratulations to our sweepstakes winners -  Jayne W., Jennifer K., Carol T.S. and Ally M.!

Farm to school happens year-round, and there are 336 days to continue growing and strengthening the movement before Farm to School Month 2016.  Join our network to stay up-to-date on the latest stories, new resources, policy actions, and learning opportunities – like the upcoming 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, June 2-4, 2016 in Madison, Wis. Let's keep the momentum going!

Thank you to each of our Farm to School Month sponsors – Orfalea Foundation, Organic Valley, Aetna Foundation, Chartwells, Mamma Chia and Stand2Learn – and the 160+ outreach partner organizations that have helped make Farm to School Month 2015 a success.  

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This week's Farm to School Month blogs are sponsored by the Orfalea Foundation School Food Initiative, which has empowered campus food service operations to serve fresh, healthy school meals; installed school gardens; launched food literacy programs; and assisted school districts in their aspirations to become centers of health and wellness. The Orfalea Foundation applauds the efforts of National Farm to School Network and is proud to be a sponsor of Farm to School Month.

Photo credit: Food Justice Collective
Bottom photo: Ron Triggs at VEGGI Farmers' Cooperative

By Ron Triggs, Grade 8, Edgar P Harney Spirit of Excellence Academy, New Orleans

I have always lived in a food desert, meaning fresh and healthy food options are not readily available where I live. Instead, there’s a gas station corner store down the street from my house where most people buy food. At school, I want to see more fresh, healthy, culturally relevant foods in our school lunches. The New Orleans student of color population is at risk when it comes to eating nutritious and culturally relevant school meals. In Orleans Parish, an alarming 83.8% of public school students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch compared to the national average of 48.1%. And, students eligible for free or reduced-priced are disproportionately students of color - 88.1% of eligible students are Black.

During the 2012-2013 school year, I and other youth organizers from Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools surveyed students, staff, and administrators in New Orleans schools about their perceptions of school food. Most students reported that school food is critical to getting them through the school day, and that they care about access to fresh, healthy and local food.

Try putting yourself in a student’s shoes. Why do you think students of color struggle to get food that is nutritious, healthy, culturally relevant and tasty in their schools? Is it just because they’re low income or there a bigger problem? I think the problem is not only about giving students access to healthy food at lunch – which is important – but is a problem directly related to our food system.

We operate in an economy that privileges profit over people. The people who grow our food work hard for a living, but the majority of dollars generated in the food system go to those at the top – not the farmers. It’s a system that benefits corporations, not people.

To better address the root causes of these issues – which we know affect the quality of our school meals – I joined a group called the Food Justice Collective, a collaboration between Rethink and VEGGI Farmers’ Cooperative. The Food Justice Collective is a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic youth of color farming cooperative that shares the practice of collectively maintaining a farm plot as a way to unearth systems of racism and colonization that are at the root of why marginalized people lack access to healthy food, land and opportunities. Together, we’re working towards food sovereignty.

We are engaged in farming to gain knowledge and skills to grow our own fresh, healthy, and culturally relevant food - the kind of food we are working to get in our schools. We are a ten member collective and we have invested our own money and time to make this collective work. We maintain and operate our own budget, purchase seeds and tools, and are developing relationships and an accountability structure necessary to carry out our farm plan.

In the Food Justice Collective, we practice cooperative economics: everyone works together with equal decision making power and ownership. We believe that by building a youth cooperative we can begin to rebuild a food system that guarantees money is invested within our own community, and that the quality of food available is our community is fresh, healthy, and culturally relevant. Our Food Justice Collective is a way for young farmers like myself to give my peers access the healthy food we really want.

For us, food justice isn’t just about ending hunger or only about getting better school lunches. It’s about growing food naturally and being able to have food that is affordable, accessible and high quality. I would like to end with this Vietnamese proverb that we say at every Food Justice Collective meeting:

An qua nho ke trong cay (in Vietnamese)
Cuando comes fruta, recuerda quien planto el árbol (in Spanish)
When eating fruit, remember who planted the tree.

Kids Rethink New Orleans and VEGGI Farmer’s Cooperative are partner organizations of Youth for Healthy Schools, a collaborative organizing network of 15 youth and parent organizations of color in 10 states. Youth for Healthy Schools builds youth power in organizing for healthy and fresh school meals and snacks, safe places to play and exercise, strong school food standards and wellness policies and school wellness centers. Learn more about Youth for Healthy Schools here.

This week's Farm to School Month blogs are sponsored by the Orfalea Foundation School Food Initiative, which has empowered campus food service operations to serve fresh, healthy school meals; installed school gardens; launched food literacy programs; and assisted school districts in their aspirations to become centers of health and wellness. The Orfalea Foundation applauds the efforts of National Farm to School Network and is proud to be a sponsor of Farm to School Month.

Photo Credit: FoodCorps

By FoodCorps, with featured writing from Service Member Will Conway

From medicinal plants to preparation of traditional meals, food has always been central to the cultural teachings of Native peoples in North America. But today, Native communities experience some of the highest incidence of type 2 diabetes among children and young adults, as well the lowest access to fresh foods. That’s why from North Carolina to Arizona, and Oregon to the Hawaiian islands, FoodCorps and its local partners are committed to helping to reverse those trends and supporting efforts to celebrate and expand indigenous food knowledge.

For Native communities, the principles of farm to school make sense, but they’re not new. As FoodCorps Arizona Service Member Will Conway explains: “Prior to the existence of schools, indigenous elders educated Native youth about agricultural practices and food. As the modern world encroaches on the traditions of Native people, what is now called ‘farm to school’ has become a means for reclaiming Native identity in Native communities. Educating Native youth about the sacred importance of food to their culture has become a weapon in the fight against the damaging impacts of the food system, which has disproportionally affected Native Americans.”

In Arizona alone, FoodCorps serves the Navajo, Tohono O’odham, and Apache tribes. On Navajo Nation, Tyrone Thompson is serving a second year with the STAR School, where he is bringing his experience as a farmer in the community to connect and engage kids with fresh, healthy food.

“Schools are the biggest institution that feeds people in our community,” Tyrone explains. So he’s helping his student take part in the entire process of bringing food from soil to tray. They plant seeds, tend to growing plants on the school farm, harvest produce, and deliver vegetables to the school’s cafeteria, where they’re used in the school lunch program. For the STAR school, farm to school means going straight from the school garden through the doors of the cafeteria!

But getting fresh foods into students’ mouths is just one piece of farm to school in Native communities. Reconnecting kids with indigenous foods, culture and traditions is an important piece of the equation. “We connect with the elders,” Tyrone explains, “because that’s where most of the indigenous knowledge is held.”

Students plants native corn in Painted Desert, Arizona (Photo Credit: FoodCrops)

In Tuba City, Will Conway works with Navajo farmers and elders to help connect kids to traditional food knowledge. They’ve set up an education plot at the community farm where the farmers and elders can teach kids about traditional plants and growing methods. “Children ranging from pre-k to 6th grade are planting native corn, melons, and beans using traditional tools,” he explains. “The elder recently taught the youth the role of corn in the Hopi creation story and the importance of preserving the corn seeds native to Tuba City.”

And in White River, FoodCorps service member Maya Harjo is helping students from the White Mountain Apache Tribe think about food as a powerful economic tool for the community. She teamed up with the Arrowhead Business Group Camp for cooking challenge where students had 30 minutes to create a unique food product that incorporated traditional foods, as well as a sale pitch that connected the product to their tribal community. The challenge was an entertaining jumping-off point for getting students to think about food as a means of strengthening the community's economic independence and bolstering traditional food ways.

This hands-on food education is giving students in Native communities an opportunity to rekindle their connection with Native heritage, as well as empowering them to make healthy food choices that improve health outcomes. Tapping into these roots helps gives farm to school in these communities staying power.

“Indigenous knowledge is being lost,” says Tyrone, “but it’s something we are able to keep alive through food.”


To read more about healthy habits and heritage in native communities, visit the FoodCorps Arizona blog.

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y Anore Horton, Nutrition Initiatives Director, Hunger Free Vermont, and Betsy Rosenbluth, Project Director, Vermont FEED

Photo Credit: Vermont FEED

When Douglas has a full stomach at school, he can focus better on that sticky math problem in front of him.

When Farmer Lauren can sell her veggies or beef to the local school, she can run a stronger business that feeds her community and keeps farms viable.

When Chef Nancy has more students lining up for lunch in her school cafeteria, she has the revenue to expand her offerings and buy more local foods.

It’s easy to connect the dots between these items. And it’s why anti-hunger organizations have been teaming up with farm to school advocates in Vermont to strengthen school meal programs.

To borrow a term from the business world, we call it the “virtuous cycle” of school meals. By expanding meal participation and the food programs offered (like afterschool meals), we ensure that fewer children are hungry, so they are more likely to be ready to learn and participate.  With more kids participating in school meal programs, program revenue climbs, so schools can buy more fresh, nutritious, and local products. And with higher quality meals (along with the greater sense of ownership local food brings) more students buy those meals, boosting participation even more. And so the cycle continues.

But where’s the leverage point to nudge this wheel into motion?

There are several. Over the past three years, Hunger-Free Vermont and VT FEED (a project of Shelburne Farms and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of VT), have focused on expanding universal meals through the new Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the 2010 School Nutrition Act —along with promoting Provision 2 of the National School Lunch Act.  

In just two years, these two programs have brought universal meals to around 50 Vermont schools – more than 15% of Vermont’s students.

After using the CEP less than six months, school principals reported at least a  10% increase in  participation in school meals (and as high as 38%). They also reported improved school meal program finances, and greater use of local foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. The cycle set in motion!

According to Winooski Schools Superintendent Sean McMannon, “The positive financial impact of CEP has given us more flexibility to purchase local foods.  We have more local food on the salad bar, and have been able to provide more variety in our offerings.”  

James Taffel, Co-Principal at Barre City Elementary and Middle School, also celebrated their move to universal meals, which has given students more variety and choice.  “We started offering virtually limitless fruits and vegetables of many kinds, supporting local farms and farmers whenever we can.  Kids just take what they want, and the fabulous part is that they love it!”

Then there are the “spin-off” impacts. Schools reported fewer behavior referrals and school nurse visits. One more check in the “plus” column! And by providing breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students, they’ve erased the stigma of receiving a “free” or “reduced price” meal. Another plus!  The increase in demand for local foods also makes wholesale school food programs more viable and identifies them as important customers, rather than simply recipients of donated or low cost products.

In addition to taking advantage of CEP, the Vermont farm to school/anti-hunger coalition has been urging schools to move breakfast after the bell. Research shows that the single most effective intervention a school can make to increase breakfast participation is to move breakfast after the bell in some form (grab and go, classroom, ‘second chance’, etc.).

Over 31 million children receive low cost or free lunches through the National School Lunch Program, which runs every school day, 180 days a year. Those lunches – especially when you factor in growing breakfast, afterschool snack and summer programs – are essential for student health and nutrition.

By putting more fresh local products on the menu, farm to school programs simply make those lunches and snacks healthier. And by getting students to taste, grow, and cook these foods, farm to school ensures the food makes it into their bellies! All students can participate in the benefits of the local foods movement!

By Deborah Kane, Director, Office of Community Food Systems, USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Photo Credit: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

You know what excites me more than October’s succulent pears, more than its sweet squash, and even more than the National Farm to School Month celebrations that happen on each of its days across the nation? $598 million dollars.

That, according to preliminary results from USDA’s second Farm to School Census, is how much schools across the country spent on local foods during school year 2013-14. Earlier today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this remarkable figure, which represents an increase of $212 million (or 55%) over final results from the last Census, conducted two years ago.

Preliminary numbers also show that more than 42,000 schools are involved in farm to school activities. Whether through buying local foods, building school gardens, or taking a field trip to a local farm, these programs improve child nutrition and provide dynamic educational experiences for students, all the while providing new market opportunities for local and regional farmers.

Indeed, the benefits derived from adopting farm to school strategies are significant. The Census found that school districts participating in farm to school activities enjoyed at least one of the following advantages:

• Greater support from parents and the community
• Greater acceptance of the new meal pattern
• Lower school meal program costs
• Reduced food waste
• Increased participation in school meals

These early results are impressive, but I don’t think they represent all of the extraordinary work happening across the nation. That’s why, from now until November 20, 2015, USDA is encouraging all food service directors to visit the Census site and follow the three easy steps outlined there to make sure their districts are included in the final count.

Photo Credit: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

We did a “hoo rah” at USDA when these early results came in – and we’ll surely do another when final results are released in early 2016 – but it should be noted we’ve been celebrating several other milestones and accomplishments this Farm to School Month as well. Earlier this month we cheered on USDA Farm to School grantees, and all those who support them, when distributing a summary of grants awards and impacts over the last three years of USDA Farm to School grant-making. Among other things, the report showed that the 221 awards we’ve made have helped 12,300 schools improve nutritious meal options made with local ingredients for 6.9 million students, while expanding market opportunities for family farmers and ranchers in their communities. And last week, we celebrated the announcement that our work within the Food and Nutrition Service will now be housed in a new Office of Community Food Systems.

We’re raising the (barn) roof but know that celebrations are always more fun with a friend or two in tow. Please do join us for a review of farm to school accomplishments to date and a discussion of what’s to come for community food systems work at USDA next Thursday, October 29, at 2:00 pm ET.

To stay up to date on all of the latest news from the Office of Community Food Systems, sign up for our e-letter.

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By Stephanie Heim, University of Minnesota Extension

Do you remember getting docked points on your algebra test if you failed to ‘show your work?’ If the equation was 2x = 10, it wasn’t acceptable to simply write x=5.  For full points, it was important for you demonstrate how to isolate the x. As we learned from junior high algebra class, documenting the ‘how’ is essential.

So, what makes Farm to School work, and how do we know the work is making an impact? Good evaluation cannot be divorced from good program management. Think about this for a moment; to develop and implement solid Farm to School initiatives, evaluation must be prioritized. A basic ingredient to know whether you have a good thing going is documentation.

The Evaluation for Transformation framework released last year by the National Farm to School Network is a gold mine in determining the significance and worth of Farm to School. The framework defines the outcomes that Farm to School has the potential to achieve, and it offers common language, guidelines and metrics to understand those outcomes for the first time.

At the beginning of 2015, Minnesota’s Statewide Farm to School Leadership team set out to learn what makes our team work and determine what outcomes have occurred as a result of our collective action. According to the USDA Farm to School Census, 208 school districts in Minnesota participated in Farm to School in the 2011-12 school year. This is up from just 18 in 2006. While we know Farm to School partnerships have flourished in Minnesota, we set out to learn what, if any, role the Farm to School Leadership team has played in this tremendous growth. This team was formed in April 2011 with the purpose to leverage resources, improve communication and collaboration, and ultimately maximize the impact of Farm to School in our state. It was built upon the strong foundation of collaboration that had already been laid, and together, we developed a team agreement as a basis for shared leadership, responsibility and accountability.

This infographic provides a glimpse of Farm to School in Minnesota, including the benefits of our leadership team as described by 22 current and former members. An integrative leadership framework was selected to guide the evaluation of our leadership team because it is designed to increase understanding of how cross-sector collaborations are brought together to effectively address large scale, public problems.  Minnesota’s Farm to School Leadership Team is cross-sector as it consists of 11 organizations from the public and private sector with expertise from public health, rural development, education and agriculture.

So what are our next steps? In partnership with Family Development’s Applied Research and Evaluation Team, we will work together to produce two additional documents. One will highlight the success of the Farm to School Leadership team and the growth of Farm to School activities in our state, and another will be written as a ‘how-to’ guide intended to help others build and sustain Farm to School Leadership teams and cross-sector collaborations.

Evaluation shouldn’t be dreaded or viewed as something we ‘have’ to do. If we begin to shift our thinking to see evaluation as an integral component of Farm to School and our work and take a systems approach, evaluation not only improves how we tell our story, it ensures that Farm to School initiatives truly do help kids eat healthy, support nearby farmers, foster economic vitality and strengthen communities.