It’s called Farm to School or Farm to Cafeteria. It’s all about getting locally grown food into local school systems. For farmers that are in need of additional markets or are interested in diversification, it may be an ideal situation. The added benefits are that our children get fresh food from their local community, the food dollars stay in our local economies, our communities learn to rely on local sources for food, and it can be made into a very valuable learning experience – for children as well as adults.
There are pitfalls as well. The growing season and the school year don’t coincide and schools are not accustomed to planning their menus according to the season. Schools often require regular deliveries once or twice per week. Schools may require liability insurance that could be cost prohibitive. Children who have grown up relying on convenience foods may not be ready to make a change. These are obstacles but they are certainly not insurmountable.
As a farmer, you have to start with the Child Nutrition Director (CND). This person is responsible for the procurement of all the food for a given school system. When you can get this person on board, you’ve succeeded in the first step. Farm to School can be as simple as the following true story: the CND of a small school system was discussing the high cost of iceberg lettuce with other administrators. Someone mentioned that their neighbor grew lettuce. That neighbor farmer brought in a sample of his lettuce and voila! Farm to School!
Because almost every farmer or farmer group and school system approaches farm to school differently, it will all depend upon how you and the CND decide to proceed. Most people suggest starting small, with one product. The CND will hopefully supply you with information regarding what produce she uses and in what quantity at what price. This will help you determine what product or products that you can grow for that school system. Typically, if the CND is agreeable, then she is also willing to pay the best price she can. Hopefully, you as the farmer know what price that you need for your product.
Other negotiations consist of delivery, payment schedules and packaging. The CND will appreciate it immensely if the farmer can do business in a professional manner (be able to accept fax orders, have the invoice forms in duplicate, etc.). Here are some tips from Brenda Spence, the Child Nutrition Director of Madison County Schools in western North Carolina:
- The farmer must have a good quality product and in good supply, so it can last as long as possible.
- Farmers need to be ready to "do business"--we expect an invoice with their food delivery, just like we get from the milk company and the food company.
- Good communications in getting deliveries set up is essential and appreciated throughout.
When the cafeteria staff knows/likes the farmer that is a big plus! Our farmer invited my staff and me to his farm, to see where the lettuce we get is coming from. He and his family then had a cookout for us. That paved the way for a good working relationship.
There are other components to farm to school – school gardens, farm field trips, and nutrition education. The farm to school program of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) started with a school garden. The school garden was an ideal way to address the growing childhood obesity concern while re-connecting children to agriculture. Children in western NC (and probably elsewhere in the country) are one generation removed from agriculture. If they know anything about farming or gardening it’s through their grandparents. Children and many adults no longer know where their food comes from (other than the grocery store) and so ASAP launched the school garden program in hopes to address this need and grow the next generation of more educated consumers (and farmers). This approach turned out to be pivotal – getting children excited about growing and eating their own food helped extend their enthusiasm for locally grown food. One class, harvesting beets from their garden, actually ate them raw and asked for more! They did question why beets were not offered in the school cafeteria.
Another aspect of farm to school that really resonates with children (and can supply some supplemental income to farmers) is farm field trips. Children, teachers and parents seem to gain a lot of insight while exploring a farm. On one farm field trip, children were so intrigued by the beauty of the okra plant that before the adults could say anything, they were nibbling away. Teachers, who know how to make the most of a teachable moment, can take this interest back to the classroom and integrate the experience into many different curricular subjects.
Farm to school is all about relationships – the relationship that the farmer can establish with the school system, the relationships made between children and the food they grow in the school garden or that they cook, or the relationship made with the farmer on a farm field trip. This is what is missing from our present food system but we can take steps to change that.
Resources
Community Food Security Coalition
Center for Food and Justice
A Division of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)
Growing Minds Farm to School Program