Farm to School

Farm to School is a national program that provides school food services with access to local and regional farmers in order to purchase nutritious, local foods for the school cafeteria meals, snacks, and concessions.  Forty-two states currently have schools involved with the farm-to-school program.  Farm-to-school programs benefit students' health, behavior, and academic performance.  The programs also benefit the local and regional economy by allowing farmers to sell to schools, it improves community relations, it encourages sustainability and eco-literacy, and it decreases the carbon footprint of school food services.   Farm-to-school programs also provide lesson plans for K-12 grades that revolve around nutrition education, agriculture, and environmentalism.  These lesson plans fulfill state standards for educational goals and the plans can be applied to science, health, business, math, language arts, et cetera.

Local farmers get involved with schools and provide assistance with school gardens, farm field trips, and farmers' market field trips.  Thus, farmers can develop new incomes in the agritourism market.  

The students learn nutrition education and are encouraged to try new "real" foods.  The effects of farm-to-school programs on children's eating habits has been encouraging.  The children enjoy trying new fruits, vegetables, and less processed foods.  The school food service departments have seen an increase in the number of meal tickets purchased by students and faculty.  Parents have not only seen changes in their children's eating behaviors, but it has also affected grocery store purchases and family food choices.

Farm-to-school programs are a win-win situation for all parties involved.  To find out more about your state's farm-to-school prgrams, visit www.farmtoschool.org .

Indiana Farm to School

Indiana is one of the few states without farm-to-school programs.  There are several individuals and organizations that have been trying to get programs started throughout the state.  If you are a parent, school nurse, teacher, farmer, food service director, school administrator, et cetera, and would like to be involved with Indiana's farm-to-school initiative, or if you just have questions about the program, please feel free to contact me at desiree.hhi@gmail.com .  I will be happy to answer your questions.  We need all people willing to help us get the word out about farm-to-school, so please talk to policymakers, school administrators, PTA/PTO, et cetera.  Farm to School has the potential to not only effect the local and regional economy, but also long-term healthcare costs.