Getting More Done With Less: How Farm to School Programs Can Overcome Limited Access to Resources
By Stephanie Kennedy
Recently, we have witnessed Congress shooting down a series of new rules on school lunches that would have reduced the amount of junk food that would be available to children at lunchtime. These rules would have included guidelines on the amount of french fries, salt, and pizza that could be served. While this is concerning to those of us who want more healthy options for children, especially those who already have limited access to good food, there is light in the tunnel. If the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) has its way, long gone will be the memories of school lunch trays with their plastic or metal compartments filled with unrecognizable foodstuffs. The NFSN started its mission in 1996 with just three pilot programs in two states and has spread to over 2000 programs in all 50 states.
In an effort to build a strong local food system and ensure the long-term health of school children by encouraging healthy eating habits, the National Farm to School Network helps build connections between schools and farmers to help school cafeterias serve healthy meals, improve nutrition, provide educational opportunities, and strengthen local and regional food systems. Field trips to farms, school gardens, and relationships with local farmers are used to help build an understanding of where food comes from, and to help establish a connection to food, rather than just viewing it from the other side
of a plastic wrapper. While there are many different incarnations of farm to school, recently, there have emerged some successful examples. One of them is the Massachusetts Farm to School Program, which currently serves students in 250 school districts across the state.
The Massachusetts Farm to School Program began with the formation of an
investigative task force started by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. Launched by Kelly Erwin, the program was tasked with the challenge of finding ways to connect individual farmers with potential buyers. In December 2002, the Massachusetts School Nutrition Association (SNA) received a $40,000 grant that was part of a settlement from a class action lawsuit against vitamin companies for fixing prices. This grant was used to fund a small one-year pilot program that would focus on getting food from local farms to the tables in school cafeterias in five school districts.
Due to cutbacks at the Department of Agricultural Resources, Ms. Erwin would leave and go on to become a driving force behind the SNA program called “Get Fresh, Get Local”. Get Fresh Get Local ran from September 2003 to June 30, 2004. During this time the majority of hours were put in trying to match up schools with farmers. The program was successful in finding farms for four of the five school districts during the initial pilot year. However, it should be noted that the fifth school district was successfully matched the following year when the program continued money that was raised through a partnership between the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and Project Bread. By the end of the second year, the program seemed to have been successful because three of the five schools continued purchasing from the farmers they partnered with, even after the funded program ended. Through hard work and persistence, what started as a pilot program funded by a class action lawsuit against vitamin companies, has become the Massachusetts Farm to School Program which has given students in over 250 schools and universities access to fresh local food from over 110 local Massachusetts farms.
The success of this program was due in part to the way in which relationships
were established with farmers. This began by establishing guidelines and best practices with regards to delivery routes, school locations, product mix, purchasing volume, and other logistical aspects in order to ensure that schools were able to begin regularly purchasing from local farms, and that local farms were able to serve these schools adequately. Eventually, purchase minimums for orders were put in place at some farms to ensure that farmers benefitted from continued relationships with the schools. Over time school purchasers began to see the value of purchasing local produce. By May 2006, the farm to school sales totaled $135,000 a year between public grade schools and universities. Since the program first began, the number of schools that participate in farm to school programs has increased from 5 to 250 in Massachusetts.
Many schools have reported they found the cost of local foods were manageable, and that there also seemed to be less waste, thus improving schools’ food service budgets. In addition, the education programs that have accompanied farm to school programs reinforce healthier eating habits, which are key to the success and sustainability of the program. Another notable aspect of the success of the Massachusetts Farm to School Program is that in addition to the extensive work that has been done on the ground, there has also been legislation that has supported its continuation, and has given control of sourcing produce to food service directors across the state. In addition, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has offered its continued support.
However, there were challenges along the way that could have derailed the
Massachusetts Farm to School Program from its current successful trajectory. For instance, the coordination phase of the program was time consuming, due to the lengthy process of coordinating individual programs with farmers that could easily adapt to the institutional market, and had existing delivery routes. On the institutional side, many times there was not enough staff for cafeterias, a limited food budget, and cafeterias are often contracted to an outside food service management company, making it difficult for food service directors to purchase from local farmers. Despite these challenges the Massachusetts Farm to School Program is an example of how local food systems can transform school lunches. The program is reaching 250 school districts across the state, and the children are actually enjoying the food. In addition, local farmers are benefiting as well by being able to now sell their produce to a wider market, and in the process they are growing a future generation of buyers.
For more information:
http://www.farmtoschool.org
http://www.buylocalfood.com/page.php?id=268
http://www.localharvest.org/the-get-fresh-get-local-project-farm-to-scho...
