Farm to school is as much about the farm as it is the school. Farmers and producers are the movers and shakers that make local foods served in schools and early care and education settings possible. From the cafeteria to the classroom, their products are used to educate students about where food comes from and generate excitement for trying new, healthy foods. And farm to school is just as much a win for farmers, too!

However, farmers are often underrepresented in the farm to school movement. That’s why the National Farm to School Network is committed to providing learning opportunities, sharing innovative resources, and propelling new ideas to support farmers and producers in the farm to school movement.

For example, we focused our 2017 Innovation Awards, with funding support from Farm Credit, on celebrating beginning farmers (in their first 10 years of farming) and farmer veterans for their exemplary efforts in selling local produce to schools and engaging kids in learning where their food comes from. Our two awardees – John Turner of Wild Roots Farm Vermont and Dylan Strike of Strike Farms in Montana - shared their stories with us on our blog, in webinars and social media takeovers, helping inspire more farmers and schools to take the first steps in getting involved. The awards also supported their ongoing engagement in farm to school activities in their own communities. Dylan used the Innovation Award to host fall farm field trips free of charge to Bozeman, MT-area schools and continued to strengthen relationships with several schools that purchase his produce for school meals and Montana Harvest of the Month activities. Jon Turner expanded his educational outreach and engaged in new projects to support food systems learning opportunities for the K-12 community in Addison County, VT. He specifically focused on establishing a compost system with Bristol Elementary School and Mt. Abe High School, which included mentoring students to lead the composting project and working with a local illustrator to develop a comic series about composting to educate and engage more students in local food systems activities.

Dylan Strike and students at Strike Farms.

Jon and Dylan are just two examples among many of farmers who’ve found success with farm to school. Here’s a snapshot of some of the other stories that farmers have shared with us:  

Clearview Farm - Massachusetts
Rick Melone, owner of Clearview Farm, explains that business relationships with schools have provided his farm a valuable and necessary market. “I’m too small to work with huge markets like Whole Foods and other grocery store whole-salers," he says. "But I can bring a truck load of apples in (to schools) and they will use them that day.” It's schools that have become one of his most reliable and valuable customers.

Fisheads Aquaponics - Georgia
One of Fisheads Aquaponic’s first regular customers was Burke County Public Schools, located just 17 miles from the aquaponics operation. Burke County Schools has a standing order for Fisheads lettuce, and the positive relationship helped Fisheads expanded to selling to several other school districts, as well. In order to keep up with demand for their produce, Fisheads is doubling their production with the addition of a second greenhouse and hiring more staff.

Moon on the Meadow Farm - Kansas
Jill Elmers says that her business relationship with schools has given her farm, Moon on the Meadow, a consistently reliable market. “The core items that they (schools) buy, they know how much they need every week, and so those sales are consistent.”

In 2018, we’re excited to continue connecting with farmers and producers and sharing more resources and opportunities for farmers and schools to dig in to new partnership opportunities. Here are several upcoming webinar opportunities to hear more stories of success and learn about resources for jumpstarting farm to school partnerships:

Farm to School 101 & Funding Opportunities
February 28 // 5pm ET
Hosted by USDA’s Office of Community Food Systems and the National Young Farmers Coalition, this webinar for farmers and food producers that will cover different ways to incorporate farm to school into your business plan, how working with schools can impact and bring value to your operation, and funding opportunities. Register here.

Trending Topics Webinar: Engaging Farmers in Farm to School
March 1 // 2pm ET
Hosted by the National Farm to School Network, this webinar will explore how farmers and producers can garner economic and social benefits through farm to school, and will feature several guest speakers who wills hare innovative yet practical approaches for engaging farmers in a wide variety of farm to school activities. Register here.

The Business of Farm to School
March 15 // 5pm ET
Hosted by USDA’s Office of Community Food Systems and the National Young Farmers Coalition, this webinar will cover the procurement (purchasing) rules that schools follow, describe questions and talking points to discuss when selling to and building relationships with schools, identify which products schools are looking for, and highlight the different Child Nutrition Programs (CNP’s) that provide these opportunities - hint, it’s not just school lunch! Register here.

If you’re ready to take your farm to school partnerships to the next level, we hope you’ll join us in Cincinnati this April for the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference! With 36 skill-building workshops, inspiring keynote addresses, short courses, field trips, poster presentations and lots of networking opportunities, this one-of-a-kind gathering will help you bring real food solutions home to your community. Learn more and register here.

In the meantime, check out more great stories about the farmers who make farm to school happen on our blog, explore resources for getting started in our free Resource Library, or find local farm to school networking event taking place in your state in our national events calendar.

As a national organization uniquely situated at the intersection of numerous sectors, networking and partnership building are at the core of the National Farm to School Network’s efforts. Partnerships are integral to our success, and are essential to the growth and long-term sustainability of the farm to school movement. That’s why our 2017-2019 Strategic Plan includes a key goal to facilitate expanded engagement in farm to school through new and diverse partnerships and promotion, including the designation of a “National Partner of the Year.” Through intentional programmatic collaboration, resource sharing and cross-promotion, we aim to both educate our members about the work of national partners, and increase knowledge of farm to school and our organization in diverse sectors.

This year, we are pleased to announce the National Education Association (NEA) as our 2018 National Partner of the Year. NEA is the nation's largest professional employee organization, committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA’s 3 million members – from every state and more than 14,000 communities – work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. Furthermore, NEA’s membership represents nearly 500,000 Education Support Professionals (ESP) – school support staff who work to meet the needs of the whole student. Working as food service staff, custodians, secretaries, classroom paraeducators, bus drivers, and in many other jobs, these essential educators (who make up nearly one-third of the education workforce) help ensure that children are safe, healthy, well-nourished and well-educated. ESP can be tremendous advocates and resources for helping connect students, parents and community allies with farm to school activities, though are often underrepresented in the farm to school movement.

Through this year-long partnership with NEA, we look forward to making stronger connections with educators and ESP across the country, while additionally providing resources and tools for our members to build meaningful partnership with educators and ESP in their communities to strengthen local farm to school efforts. NEA and NFSN have a successful history of collaboration, including efforts around policy advocacy, storytelling on our blog, and celebrating events like National Farm to School Month and National Teacher Day. We look forward to deepening our partnership and furthering these efforts in 2018 to better educate and engage our membership in each other’s work.

Stay tuned for opportunities to learn more about NEA and dig into this partnership with us throughout 2018!

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As the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference approaches, we are excited to share more details about the conference program. 36 conference workshops in 12 tracks will cover a wide range of farm to cafeteria content – from Youth Leadership and Engagement to Equity and Justice in Farm to Cafeteria, and Local and Sustainable Procurement to School Gardens and On-site Farms.  You can check out the full conference agenda and workshop descriptions here. In addition to workshops, we’re also offering 8 short course and 11 field trips to explore the farm to cafeteria landscape across the Ohio Valley region.  And there’s more!

We are thrilled to announce our conference keynote speakers. Rodney K. Taylor is the Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCSP), in Va. FCPS is the 10th largest district in the U.S. with 188,000 students, in 194 schools, providing 149,000 meals per day. Prior to his employment with FCPS, Rodney was the Director of Nutrition Services, for the Riverside Unified School District, in Riverside, California.  

A noted pioneer and expert in farm to school salad bars, he is particularly known for establishing the “Farmers’ Market Salad Bar” program in 1997, while working as Director of Food and Nutrition Services in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, in Santa Monica, Calif. Rodney is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the California Endowment’s “Health Heroes” Award and the Loma Linda University Award for “The Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles---For Outstanding Commitment to the Public’s Health.”

Haile Thomas is 17 years old, an international speaker, health activist, the youngest Certified Integrative Health Coach in the United States, and the founder/CEO of the nonprofit HAPPY (Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth). Haile founded HAPPY when she was 12 years old to address the need for free/affordable plant-based nutrition and culinary education in under served/at-risk communities, as well as in schools and through annual summer camps.

Haile has personally engaged over 15,000 kids and thousands of adults around the world since beginning her activism in 2010. She was inspired to pursue this passion after her family successfully reversed her father’s type-2 diabetes without the use of medication, only healthy eating and lifestyle choices, and upon learning that kids were also increasingly being diagnosed with conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. All of Haile’s programs, projects, and initiatives, are geared towards engaging, educating, motivating and empowering young people to make healthy lifestyle choices to live their best life. Haile and her work have been featured on the Today Show, Food Network, CNN, Dr.Oz, Teen Vogue, Fortune, O Magazine, and Experience Life Magazine to name a few.

To highlight a local perspective of farm to cafeteria, we are honored to share that Dr. Roger Rennekamp, Associate Dean and Director of Ohio State University Extension, will be our Welcome Speaker. Dr. Rennekamp will share how the OSU Extension system and Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation discovery theme, also known as InFACT, align with principles of the Farm to School movement. He will also give examples of how the university—an institution with 17,000 students on its meal plan—is getting closer to reaching its goal of serving 40 percent local or sustainably grown foods by 2025.

Read more about our keynote speakers here.

Early bird registration is open now through March 9th, and we are accepted conference scholarship applications until February 12th at 8pm EST. For more information on registration and scholarships, please visit our conference website. We look forward to hosting you and your farm to cafeteria team in Ohio!

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Advancing racial and social equity is a key priority for the National Farm to School Network, articulated in our 2017-2019 Strategic Plan and Theory of Change. Since 2014, we have taken several steps to prioritize equity in our programming, internal operations and organizational structure, and have elevated it as a strategic priority in 2017, to guide all our activities. Our overarching goals with advancing equity are to:

• Frame and promote racial and social equity as a central tenet of farm to school
• Offer training opportunities for NFSN Core and Supporting Partners, Advisors and staff on advancing racial and social equity in our work
• Articulate clear organizational goals and outcomes for advancing racial and social equity and track progress towards these
• Elevate leaders from communities directly impacted by racial inequities in farm to school as NFSN Core and Supporting Partners, Advisors and staff; engage more and diverse constituencies and communities in the farm to school movement
• Explore and leverage opportunities for policy advocacy, programming and partnerships around a diverse set of barriers to participation in farm to school including but not limited to race, age, gender, socio-economic status and disability
• Leverage NFSN’s information channels and resource creation to promote equitable access to farm to school (e.g., blogs, webinars, translation of materials, photographs used)

Concerted efforts to focus our programming on diverse stakeholders have facilitated a deeper understanding of the need to centralize racial and social equity in farm to school efforts. Our journey has been led internally with staff volunteering to guide conversations and incorporating aspects into programmatic activities. More recently, the staff Leadership Team has transitioned to review the goals in our strategic plan and articulate specific activities to benchmark progress.

• Since 2014, we have convened two cohorts of leaders from Native communities, providing training and networking opportunities, facilitated conversations with USDA for easing barriers to incorporating traditional foods in school meal and child nutrition programs and included support for farm to school in Native communities in our federal policy asks.
• Our Equity in Farm to Early Care and Education Subgroup is exploring the complexities of equity in early care and elevating examples of farm to school from diverse communities of color.
• Our biennial National Farm to Cafeteria Conference has provided a space to discuss racial and social equity with stakeholders across the movement. Recent conferences included dedicated skill building sessions on dismantling racism and featured speakers to elevate equity as a central priority for farm to cafeteria efforts.
• Focusing internally, NFSN staff participated in the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge hosted by Food Solutions New England in 2016 and 2017, and engage in ongoing discussions and learning on this topic.
• We are striving to make our staff and Advisory Board more representative of our network and the farm to school movement.
• In early 2017, we made a strategic shift in our structure to focus resources and efforts at the state level and expand support to the U.S. Territories, now partnering with more than 200 diverse organizations, state agencies and universities as Core and Supporting Partners.
• At the first meeting of these partners in May 2017, we discussed racial equity within farm to school to ground ourselves in a common understanding. Participants engaged with our own personal experiences, biases and understandings – it resonated with some, it raised questions for others – and we recognized that this was only the beginning of a long path of discovery, reflection and action.

As we implement our 2017-2019 Strategic Plan, our strategies, services, and communications will start reflecting changes to accomplish the goals outlined above. We invited you to join us in this work of prioritizing racial and social equity in the farm to school movement. We will continue to share the process of our journey in this work here on our blog and in our monthly newsletters. We’d also like to hear from you: share with us your stories of challenges and successes in making farm to school more equitable by sending us a note here.

Learn more about our commitment to advancing racial and social equity in farm to school, as well as find resources to support your efforts, here.

By: Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

In 2017, farm to school and farm to early care and education activities took root in all 50 States, D.C., the U.S. Territories, and Native Communities. Some highlights from the year include: STEM lessons in school gardens, students cooking in kitchen classrooms, locally-sourced meals on school lunch trays, community partnerships such as those with master gardens and local non-profits, farm field trips, events during October’s National Farm to School Month, state-level policies supporting farm to school funding, and so much more. Check out this list of farm to school stories representing our entire network to see what farm to school looked liked in 2017!

• Alabama: In July, Governor Kay Ivey signed a new Farm to School Amendment into law. This bill allows local farmers to sell produce directly to schools, allowing more locally grown produce in school cafeterias. (Yellow Hammer News)
• Alaska: Fish to School showcases how strategic partnerships benefit the entire community. (Cordova Times)
• Arizona: Evans Elementary in Tempe, AZ uses horticulture therapy a tool to help students better manage emotional and behavioral issues. (Wrangler News)
• Arkansas: Students in the Westside High School Agriculture program raise pigs and goats at school to be sold in their community. (KAIT8)
• California: This fall, the Farm-To-Student Collaborative Program in Marin County, CA supported local sourcing and procurement partnership that make it possible for schools to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers and their very own school gardens. (Patch)
• Colorado: Farm to Early Childhood and Education in Colorado means that preschoolers are learning hands on farming as tool for preventing childhood obesity. (PBS News Hour)
• Connecticut: 20 Foodcorps Servicemembers in 15 school districts worked to support healthy school environments in Conneticut. (CT Post)
• Delaware: “Schoolyard habitat programs like our sensory garden are part of our school’s efforts to go green,” said fourth grade teacher Leona Williams, who worked with Delaware Nature Society naturalists to help design the garden. (Delaware.gov)
• District of Columbia: Students at the DC Bilingual School benefited from an 8,000-square-foot garden that supports science education, community engagement and outdoor exploration of all kinds. (Huffington Post)
• Florida: Let the numbers speak. In spring 2017, Broward County Public Schools served over 40,000 pounds of Florida-grown strawberries to Florida students over a two-week period. (South Florida Times)
• Georgia: Students in Tifton, GA celebrated the 14th annual Children’s Farm Day! Middle and high school students come up with the fundraisers for the event, put the exhibits together, staff the stations and teach third graders about the importance of agriculture. (Tifton Gazette)
• Guam: From buying local food to planting school gardens to teaching kids where their food comes from, Guam is ‘bringing the farm to school.’ (USDA.gov)
• Hawaii: Mālama Kauaí designed and implemented a farm-to-school pilot program that prioritize farm-to-school sourcing, reflects local traditions, and includes culturally relevant foods. (Civil Eats)
• Idaho: There was a lot of buzz in Hailey, ID as Syringa Mountain School incorporated beekeeping into their school garden program. (KMVT)
• Illinois: Illinois State Senator Pat McGuire visited Tibbott Elementary School in Bolingbrook to observe the school lunch program including the school’s garden and hydroponic veggie tower. (The Herald News)
• Indiana: Johnson County master gardeners helped plant a new garden at a Greenwood elementary school with the goal of helping students learn about plants and the environment. (Daily Journal)
• Iowa: This Iowa summer school program gave their students a special treat. They got to taste salsa, pesto, and lemonade made with ingredients they grew all summer, along with using honey from their beehive. (Voice of Muscatine)
• Kansas: KC Healthy Kids’ Ultimate Eat Local Recipe Challenge gave young cooks a chance to shine. (kchealthykids)
• Kentucky: Sales of lunches increased 38 percent at Sts Peter and Paul Regional Catholic School after launching a new, farm to table menu. (LexGo)
• Louisiana: LSU AgCenter hosted a state wide conference dedicated to farm to school initiatives. (The Franklin Sun)
• Maine: Ten Brunswick High School Students spend three mornings a week getting paid $9/hour to tend their school garden. “They’re learning a work ethic: Show up on time. Commit to the job. Give it your best effort. Take initiative.” (The Forecaster)
• Maryland: The Carroll County Public School’s garden operates with these goals: teach students about where food comes from, promote healthy eating, and provide food for students and families that are in need. (Carrol County Times)
• Massachusetts: Since flipping the switch on their new composter in October, Barnstable High School has processed anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds of food waste daily from the 1,100 8th, 9th,and 10th-graders participating in the program. (Cape Cod Times)
• Michigan: Michigan legislators expanded the 10 Cents a Meal for School Kids & Farms program for the upcoming school year (GroundWorkCenter.org)
• Minnesota: In Duluth, new language in the district’s policies and a position dedicated to coordinating the school gardens helped expand farm to school. (Duluth News Tribune)
• Mississippi: Partnerships are powerful. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce partnered with the Mississippi Department of Education to bring Mississippi Farm to School Week to the state. (MDAC)
• Missouri: One St. Louis school has a kitchen classroom where all students -preschoolers included- slice, dice, whisk, and bake for an hour a week. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Montana: Trout to tray means that Montana students are raising trout in their school’s aquaponics system to serve a dual purpose - providing nutrients to plants in the greenhouse and becoming a source of food on lunch trays. (Missoulian)
• Native Communities: At Indian Township School in Maine, the school’s librarian led the school community in planting, harvesting, and finally eating their new three sister’s garden. (NFSN)
• Nebraska: Students at Overton and Litchfield public schools were fed homegrown beef and pork as they launched Nebraska Thursdays as part of National Farm to School Month. (Kearney Hub)
• Nevada: Farm to school programs can be seen as a tool to addressing food insecurity through a two-pronged approach that addresses the immediate need to feed people and systemic problems related to nutrition. (Las Vegas Sun)
• New Hampshire: New Hampshire master gardeners and the University of New Hampshire Extension Services offered free seeds to school and youth gardens around the state. (Valley News)
• New Jersey: September’s Back-to-school night at Kings Road School featured a special reception where parents could visit the school’s communal garden and enjoy homegrown treats before the evening’s events began. (TAPinto.net)
• New Mexico: Stakeholder from throughout New Mexico celebrated their many local food successes at the second annual Farm to School Awards (Green Fire Times)
• New York: Farm to school is a vehicle for change. In the poorest congressional district in America, these Bronx schools are growing a lot of food alongside healthy attitudes. (MBGplanet)
• North Carolina: Teams in nine North Carolina counties joined the NC Farm to Early Care and Education (NC Farm to ECE) Initiative. This program connects local farms and early childhood and education centers throughout the state. (NC State Extension)
• North Dakota: Bob Drees and his family farm hosted fourth-graders from Thompson and Grand Forks. It's the fourth year he's brought school kids to his farm to help them learn more about modern agriculture. (West Fargo Pioneer)
• Ohio: This fall the National Farm to School Network announced that Ohio State University Extension will be the local host for the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference April 25-27, 2018 in Cincinnati, OH. (NFSN)
• Oklahoma: Three Norman schools held a Green Schools Summit, which included discussions on food waste reduction and school gardens. (Norman Transcript)
• Oregon: Unanimous support from the Oregon House, Senate, and Governor passed House Bill 2038 allocating $4.5 million for schools to continue to buy Oregon-grown and processed foods and to support agriculture- and garden-based education. (KATU)
• Pennsylvania: Once overrun with weeds, Pinehurst Elementary School’s PTA adopted the community garden in front of their school and transformed it into an outdoor classroom for several classes a day in all subjects. (The Pilot)
• Puerto Rico: Los estudiantes de Puerto Rico cuentan con un nuevo recurso educativo que visita las escuelas, ofrece clases de cocina, los orientan sobre los alimentos sanos, los ayudan a la elaboración de un huerto escolar y también los llevan a fincas agrícolas para realizar recorridos guiados. (endi)
• Rhode Island: School gardens align with Next Generation Science Standard. In Rhode Island, schools gardens used to promote an “authentic learning experience”. (South County Life Magazine)
• South Carolina: For the third year in a row, kids throughout Greenville County, SC participated in the Healthy Lunchtime Throwdown, which challenges students to create their favorite healthy recipe for a chance to have it appear on menus throughout the school district. (Greenville News)
• South Dakota: Yankton Boys & Girls Club started a kids garden club in June, and they plan to to grow potatoes in pots indoors this winter. (Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan)
• Tennessee: Bolton High students are maintaining their own garden and harvesting fruits and vegetables to feed food insecure families in their community. (WREG)
• Texas: STEM skills blossom in school gardens. Students can see season change, grow food to learn plant cycles, and observing pollinator habitat in the garden. (Community Impact)
• U.S. Virgin Islands: The V.I. Department of Agriculture worked to establish a sustainable Grower’s Collaboration Program with the goal of operating in partnership with farm to school and Harvest of the Month programs. (St. John Source)
• Utah: Third grade students at Canyon Elementary School in Spanish Fork ‘crunched’ into Utah-grown apples while participating in an event to highlight proper nutrition with the Utah County Health Department and Utah Farm Bureau Federation. (Daily Herald)
• Vermont: Policy change alert! In June, Governor Phil Scott signed a new bill, which further enhances Vermont’s farm to school programming by expanding the program and setting new, ambitious goals for growth. (VT Digger)
• Virginia: During National Farm to School Month, students at Virginia L. Murray Elementary School celebrated Virginia Farm to School Week by participating in the "Crunch Heard ‘Round the Commonwealth," a synchronous eating of Virginia apples. (Charlottesville Today)
• Washington: Native plants were included in this Washington school garden. “The plants were chosen for their identification and educational opportunities, significance to Native American culture, and to most please the children, many of the plants will have edible fruit.” (Island Sounder)
• West Virginia: Students at Marlowe Elementary School in Martinsburg rolled up their sleeves to create their own herb garden, whose harvest will be used in their own school cafeteria. (The Journal)
• Wisconsin: Holmen School District served students at all six of its schools a lunch of student-raised chicken served alongside local fruits and vegetables. More than 3,000 portions of chicken were served for Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, a partnership of the Holmen High School FFA and the La Crosse County Farm2School program. (La Crosse Tribune)
• Wyoming: Celebrations were held in Lander to introduce the community to this kid’s garden, which is the first of more to come in the Fremont County School District. (KCWY)

The National Farm to School Network wishes you a happy, healthy holiday season. We cannot wait to plant more seeds of change with you in 2018!

By Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

At our 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in June 2016, LaDonna Redmond gave keynote remarks focused on ending systemic oppression in the food system. In her address, she urged the audience to understand that “every community has the intellect to heal itself.” She explained that the role of individuals working within farm to cafeteria is to use our skillset to uncover the intellect in our communities so that people believe in themselves. What if this approach was seriously considered within farm to school and farm to early care and education work? What would it look like for youth to be leading the movement?

Many organizations throughout the country focus on youth leadership as a way to further farm to school efforts.  In our most recent Trending Topics: Youth Engagement through Farm to School Webinar, our network highlighted three organizations that put youth empowerment front and center in their work:

• YES! Youth Empowered Solutions: Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) is a nonprofit organization that empowers youth, in partnership with adults, to create community change.
• Alameda County Office of Education’s Project EAT:  Project Eat works to end health inequities and close the achievement gap in school communities.
• Vermont FEED’s Jr. Iron Chef VT: This statewide culinary competition challenges teams of middle and high school students to understand how they can effect change in the food system by creating healthy, local dishes that inspire school meal programs.

Mary Beth Louks-Sorrell, Executive Director for YES! highlighted that when youth are not included, “One fourth of the population is being ignored, instead of tapped for their potential to contribute to improving things.” Additionally, Mary Beth offered up a set of best practices to consider before starting work with youth, including asking these questions:

• What will be the role of youth in your work?
• What do you hope to achieve from the inclusion of youth
• Why are you interested in the thoughts, ideas, input, and leadership of youth?
• What are some ways you might envision the way you and your organization operates or the direction of the work changing once youth are involved?

Vermont FEED’s School Food Programs Coordinator, Marissa Watson commented on the importance of holding space for kids to participate, stating that, “school food change takes many players: students, food service, parents, and the community.”
Kate Casale from Alameda County’s Office of Education explained that including youth as leaders within farm to school work is a perfect opportunity to tap into their creativity and innate interest in justice. She also reminds us about the importance of letting youth tell their stories in their own words.

Jason, a seventeen year old from the program Bronx Youth Force explains, “If you had a problem in the Black community, and you brought in a group of White people to discuss how to solve it, almost nobody would take that panel seriously. In fact, there’d probably be a public outcry. It would be the same for women’s issues or gay issues. But every day, in local arenas all the way to the White House, adults sit around and decide what problems youth have and what youth need, without ever consulting us.”

Young people are the changes makers of tomorrow, and today. Their ideas, contributions and voices are invaluable to the work of growing more just and equitable food systems, and we should always be conscious to have a place for them at the table.

Appetite For Change is a North Minneapolis nonprofit organization that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change. "Grow Food" is the culminating project of Appetite For Change's Summer 2016 Youth Employment & Training Program. Urban Youth wanted to share their message - the importance of actively choosing healthy foods - with their peers in a fun, accessible music format. Learn more about Appetite For Change here.

If you are interested in learning more about youth leadership within farm to school and the local food movement, we invited you to join us at the 9th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in April 2018. An entire conference workshop track is dedicated to “Youth Leadership and Engagement” within the farm to cafeteria movement, and we’d love to have you be part of the conversation!

Photo Credits (from top to bottom): Vermont FEED and Alameda County Office of Education (middle and bottom).

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By Molly Schintler, Communications Intern

When I think about food, especially during the holiday season, I think about my traditions with family and friends. From holidays to birthdays and reunions, food has always been a central part of my celebration of life events. In the recently published New York Times Op-ed titled Feeling Conflicted on Thanksgiving Viet Thanh Nguyen explains, “DNA, in any case, tells us little about culture. Food tells us more.“ Farm to school is as much about food, culture, and celebration as it is about education, health and access.

Schools and early care settings across all 50 states, D.C., the U.S. Territories, and Native communities are using farm to school as an approach to deepen their understanding of food as a tool for cultural connection and celebration. At Warm Spring K-8 Academy on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon, there is urgency to connecting school and community culture to food traditions.  District Superintendent Ken Parnell explains:

You can’t just focus on math and literacy, because the rate of diabetes in our community is heartbreaking. Male life expectancy is 38 years. Many adults die from complications from diabetes. You can’t just say that’s a health concern and leave that in the community (outside of the school), because it affects our students. In my first year, eleven students lost parents. We have a responsibility to start working with students at a young age around nutrition.

The school district has framed farm to school as an opportunity to connect students to local, healthy, and traditional foods, such as root vegetables and salmon.  As the school became more engaged with these traditional foods in the cafeteria, they also realized there were opportunities to extend farm to school activities to families. For example, the school district’s family engagement nights, which turnout up to 1,000 students and family members, provided an exciting opportunity to celebrate healthy, traditional foods on a wider scale. After reflecting of how to better incorporate traditions into family nights, the district planned a powwow where everyone participated in dancing and enjoyed traditional food. Ken added, “It would have been much easier from the (school) kitchen (to work alone), but we worked with tribal partners to prepare traditional foods.”  

Every community has different food and cultural traditions – and that’s worth celebrating! Here are several additional snapshots of how farm to school celebrates traditions, relationships, and an overall connection to community-based food:

- Students in Arkansas are celebrating the holiday season and learning about each other cultures with a recipe swap. One student shared a family recipe dating back to 1911!

- In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, middle school students in rural Iowa learned about table settings, polite dinner conversation, and menu selection. To conclude their class, they enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch together where they could put all they learned into practice.

- For about 20 Phoenix School culinary students, preparations to feed a Thanksgiving feast to 200 students and staff would not be complete without a trip to the school’s garden. Picking herbs from the garden was among the tasks needed to be finished before Tuesday’s big event.

By Maximilian Merrill, Policy Director

Farm to school policies have been a key strategy for making local food procurement, food education and school gardens a reality for millions of children. To support the continued growth of state policy advocacy, we’ve updated one of our signature resources that tracks how farm to school-supportive bills are strengthening the farm to school movement.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey: 2002-2017 provides state-by-state summaries of every enacted, defeated or pending farm to school-related bill from January 1, 2002 through March 31, 2017. It also includes analysis and infographics on state farm to school legislative trends; case studies on successful farm to school advocacy efforts in Alaska, Oregon, Texas and Washington, D.C.; and, additional resources to help advocates learn about and replicate the wide variety of existing state farm to school laws, policies and programs.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey: 2002-2017 builds on a survey that was originally released in 2011, and updated in 2013 and 2014. This most recent version reflects legislation through March 31, 2017. With this update, we’ve found that 46 states, including Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have proposed 491 bills and resolutions supportive of farm to school activities. Forty of these states, including D.C., have enacted farm to school-related legislation. Since the last legislative survey published in 2014, Louisiana, Arkansas, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona have enacted their first farm to school legislation, with only a handful of states remaining that have yet to pass farm to school policy.

In the last two years alone, over 200 farms to school-related policies have been proposed in state and territory legislatures. The most popular policy initiatives were food education, funding and promotional events. Other popular policies included price percentage preference legislation to enable schools to purchase local foods and farm to school pilot programs.

In addition to providing summaries on each of these proposed policies, the State Farm to School Legislative Survey also offers tools to help advocates advance new legislation in their states. Check out four case studies that analyze successful farm to school advocacy efforts and compare how different states have tackled farm to school policy opportunities with different approaches. While each state and territory has a different political climate, these case studies offer examples that can be replicated across the board. For example, farmer databases or local preference laws may be more attractive for a legislature concerned by budgets or boosting local jobs.

The State Farm to School Legislative Survey is designed to offer farm to school advocates like you a roadmap to learn about and compare existing, potentially replicable state farm to school laws, policies and programs in order to advance new legislation in your state. So dig in, and start exploring the opportunities!

Have questions about this new resource or need a thought partner on how to connect with your state lawmakers? Don’t hesitate to contact our Policy team for support! We look forward to hearing how your advocacy efforts continue to support the growth of farm to school, state by state.