Washington Farm to School News Digest

Growing to school: Students taste success with local food program

2012-01-26T10:06:00.001-08:00

Growing to school: Students taste success with local food program

By Joan Qazi, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Joan Qazi photo

Taste Washington Day at Wenatchee High School last fall allowed local growers to tout the quality and value of their produce to teen consumers.

ON THE WEB

• The Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network: wsffn.org

Fresh Food in Schools is a three-year project which aims to increase the amount of public school food budget dollars spent on Washington grown produce, and to build meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships between school food programs and local farmers.

Twenty school districts across the state have been selected to participate in this project in order to create or enhance a farm-to-school program. Within North Central Washington, the school districts selected are Oroville, Tonasket and Wenatchee.

An example of community success related to this project is Taste Washington Day, which took place last year on Sept. 28.

On Taste Washington Day, school meals feature locally grown fruits, grains and vegetables, and provide activities for students to learn about the farms that feed them. The lunch menu in Wenatchee schools included tomato, black bean and cabbage salsa along with carrot “coins” and cucumber “wheels” — all fresh produce grown by Cloudview Ecofarms near Vantage.

Students sampled freshly picked fruits from Smithson Ranch in Peshastin at a mini-farmers market set up at Foothills Middle School. Wenatchee High School FFA students and ASB leadership students visited elementary schools to tell kids that a pluot is a plum-apricot and show them what a carrot straight from the ground looks like (complete with greens). The high school students tried to convey the importance of eating nutritious fruits and vegetables as well as the importance of our agricultural heritage.

Wenatchee schools have been sourcing locally grown fruits and vegetables directly from a number of regional farms over the past year. In fact, Jan Hanson the kitchen manager at Wenatchee High School, says “Everyday is Taste Washington Day in Wenatchee schools,” because schools here are prioritizing locally grown produce.

In the first three weeks of the current school year, Jan’s kitchen bought over 2,000 pounds of produce directly from local farmers rather than relying solely on Food Service of America’s products.

Joan Qazi photo

Wenatchee High School students passed out locally grown fruits and vegetables to elementary school students on Taste Washington Day in late September.

The development of farm-to-school programs in the region has mostly grown from the efforts of individual champions within school or farming communities and timely connections with other collaborators. For example, farmer Albert Roberts of Slow Food Okanogan organized a meeting with the Tonasket superintendent, school board members and the food service director who manages school meals for Oroville, Tonasket and Omak districts. This meeting helped spark a series of discussions in the schools, in community meetings and at the Okanogan Farmers Market to find ways to address the particular challenges related to high insurance liability and GAP (good agricultural practices) certification required for farmers by the schools’ food management company. These barriers remain at this time, but the schools are very enthusiastic to support local farms while improving student access to fresh, minimally processed foods.

The success of Taste Washington Day and the planned harvest of the month programs that turn cafeterias into classrooms inspire us to find the ‘win-win’ community solution. When students can put a face on their food and that food tastes good as well, then they are more likely to eat the half a plate of fruits and vegetables that they should to maintain optimal health and combat the recent tripling of childhood obesity.

Fresh Food in Schools is a project of The Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network and is funded by WSDA through a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, the Washington Women’s Foundation, the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Sustainable Whatcom Farm 2 School Fund and private individual donations.

Joan Qazi is regional coordinator for the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network.

USDA Unveils Historic Improvements to Meals Served in America's Schools

2012-01-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

USDA Unveils Historic Improvements to Meals Served in America’s Schools

New Standards Will Improve the Health and Wellbeing of 32 Million Kids Nationwide

FAIRFAX, Va., Jan. 25. 2012 – First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today unveiled new standards for school meals that will result in healthier meals for kids across the nation. The new meal requirements will raise standards for the first time in more than fifteen years and improve the health and nutrition of nearly 32 million kids that participate in school meal programs every school day. The healthier meal requirements are a key component of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by the First Lady as part of her Let’s Move! campaign and signed into law by President Obama.

“As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “And when we’re putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria. When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home. We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables.”

“Improving the quality of the school meals is a critical step in building a healthy future for our kids,” said Vilsack. “When it comes to our children, we must do everything possible to provide them the nutrition they need to be healthy, active and ready to face the future – today we take an important step towards that goal.”

The final standards make the same kinds of practical changes that many parents are already encouraging at home, including:

Ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week; • Substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods;
Offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties;
Limiting calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and
Increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.

A sample lunch menu with a before and after comparison is available to view and download in PDF and JPG formats.

USDA built the new rule around recommendations from a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine —a gold standard for evidence-based health analysis. The standards were also updated with key changes from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans – the Federal government’s benchmark for nutrition – and aimed to foster the kind of healthy changes at school that many parents are already trying to encourage at home, such as making sure that kids are offered both fruits and vegetables each day, more whole grains, and portion sizes and calorie counts designed to maintain a healthy weight.

USDA received an unprecedented 132,000 public comments on its proposed standards (available on the web at www.regulations.gov) – and made modifications to the proposed rule where appropriate. USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon said: “We know that robust public input is essential to developing successful standards and the final standards took a number of suggestions from stakeholders, school food service professions and parents to make important operational changes while maintaining nutritional integrity.”

The new standards are expected to cost $3.2 billion over the next five years -- less than half of the estimated cost of the proposed rule and are just one of five major components of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, now implemented or under development, that will work together to reform school nutrition. In addition to the updated meal standards, unprecedented improvements to come include:

The ability to take nutrition standards beyond the lunchline for the first time ever, foods and beverages sold in vending machines and other venues on school campuses will also contribute to a healthy diet;
Increased funding for schools – an additional 6 cents a meal is the first real increase in 30 years – tied to strong performance in serving improved meals;
Common-sense pricing standards for schools to ensure that revenues from non-Federal sources keep pace with the Federal commitment to healthy school meals and properly align with costs; and
Training and technical assistance to help schools achieve and monitor compliance.

The final nutrition standards released today also provide more time for schools to implement key changes, which will be largely phased in over a three-year period, starting in School Year 2012-2013. For example, schools will be permitted to focus on changes in the lunches in the first year, with most changes in breakfast phased in during future years.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 nutrition assistance programs including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Summer Food Service Program, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Together these programs make up the federal nutrition safety net.

Farm to School Mobile Tour gives taste of North Olympic Peninsula’s bounty

2011-10-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Farm to School Mobile Tour gives taste of North Olympic Peninsula’s bounty
Peninsula Daily News, Oct 23, 2011

A daylong event for food service directors and farmers on the North Olympic Peninsula, it featured hands-on training in the kitchen, field trips to local growers and, of course, lunch featuring local ingredients.

Food Safety News: Bridging the GAP: Bringing Big Food Safety Regulations to Small Farms

2011-10-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Bridging the GAP: Bringing Big Food Safety Regulations to Small Farms

Food Safety News, Oct 24, 2011

For large farming operations, food safety audits are commonplace. Most buyers require them before purchasing produce. However, small farms are rarely inspected by auditors, because the cost of implementing a safety plan can be too expensive.

That's where Bridging the GAPs - a program designed to help small and mid-sized growers find a way to meet food safety guidelines - comes in.

Organized by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), the initiative will allow modest-sized operations to reach broader markets such as schools, grocery stores and restaurants, most of which now require Good Agricultural Practices certification.

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) is a set of protocols approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that farmers can follow to prove they're growing and harvesting in a way that minimizes the risk of crop contamination.

However, because these standards require extra time, equipment and sometimes land, they are often daunting or even prohibitive to small and mid-sized farmers.

At a farm in Bellingham, WA this month, farmers, state and local health officials and community members gathered to begin a dialogue on how to make GAPs easier for modest farms to swallow. The group toured Cedarville Farms, a family-operated, 7-acre organic farm, in order to get a first-hand look at the obstacles that stand between small farms and GAPs certification.

School Food Focus highlights the Farm-to-School efforts of Seattle Public Schools

2011-09-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

With the help of strong partnerships, Wendy Weyer serves up fresh, new foods in Seattle Public Schools

“You never serve anything fresh, or anything from Washington!”

That’s the criticism Wendy Weyer, Interim Director of Nutrition Services at Seattle Public Schools (SPS), has heard from parents and members of the community many times before. Fortunately, they’re wrong: “We realized we had to toot our own horn a bit” when it came to local and regional sourcing of fresh fruits and vegetables, she says. “Now we make it very clear that we are thoughtful about this. As long as it’s financially possible and we can get the volume we need, we do serve a lot of fresh, Washington-grown food in our schools.”

USDA Blog Post - Bringing More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to Schools

2011-09-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

Bringing More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to Schools

In 1996, only two schools nationwide bought food directly from farmers in their region through what are called farm-to-school programs. Today, these programs exist in over 2,000 U.S. schools – and a new pilot program in Michigan and Florida could send that number ticking quickly upward.

Farm-to-school programs are a win-win-win for America’s farmers and ranchers, our students, and our schools. Last year, members of USDA’s Farm-to-School team visited fifteen schools across the country to check out their programs and were amazed by what they saw: “Kentucky Proud” signs posted next to locally-sourced food in the cafeterias of Montgomery County, KY public schools; twenty local products for lunch at schools in the Independence, IA Community School District; students at Harrisonburg, VA public schools who knew the name of the farmer supplying lettuce for their salad bar.

By partnering with farms in their area, these and other schools across the nation have been able to increase the quantity of fresh, healthy and locally-grown food available to students. They are also supporting the community by buying from farmers who work local land and employ local residents. Teachers love farm-to-school arrangements too: in schools that implement them, local products and visits to farms have been incorporated into science, math, and health classes.

Read the rest of the post here...

News video clip of Seattle Public Schools using local, fresh food in school meals

2011-08-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Q13 Fox News story 'Putting the breaks on childhood obesity' on Seattle Public Schools promoting locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

Watch the video here:

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-putting-the-brakes-on-childhood-obesity-20110801,0,1232662.story

News about recent WSDA Farm-to-School Mobile Tour in Spokane Area

2011-07-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Schools, farms connecting to benefit student meals

Part of process is encouraging kids to try new foods
July 15, 2011 in DTE News
By Julie Schaffer, Down to Earth NW Correspondent

Late last month, local farmers, school nutrition staff, and Department of Corrections representatives spent a day touring local farms, sampling locally-produced food, and learning how to wash, peel, chop, dice, and serve fresh produce in school kitchens.

Leading the tour were Becky Elias and Sue Davis from “Farm to Schools,” a Washington State Department of Agriculture program that works to increase the amount of Washington-grown foods purchased by state agencies, institutions, and schools.

Also helping facilitate the tour was Jennifer Hall, the Eastern Washington coordinator for “Fresh Food in Schools,” a program with similar goals which is run through the nonprofit Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network.

The Farm-to-School tours are one way that Elias and Davis are attempting to connect local farmers with potential buyers and to hopefully facilitate long-term direct purchasing relationships. If successful, the result will be more fresh foods available at school lunchrooms.

To read full article click here

USDA Finds New Ways To Boost Farm-to-School Programs

2011-07-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

MINNEAPOLIS -- The popularity of farm-to-school programs that put locally grown food on cafeteria trays has exploded in recent years – so much so that the federal agency in charge of school lunches is giving them a new stamp of approval.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the programs have become so popular so fast that her agency doesn't have solid figures on how many schools are serving their students vegetables, fruits and meat grown by local farmers.

"We know it's just snowballing," Merrigan said in an interview with The Associated Press before her appearance Tuesday at the School Nutrition Association convention in Nashville, Tenn...

To read full article click here

School Officials Like Buying Local Produce

2011-05-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Check out this article in the Capital Press about a recent Farm-to-School Mobile Tour and workshop for farmers and school food service staff.

Official: Students eager to eat local veggies

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Wenatchee School District buys about 20 percent of its produce for school lunches directly from local farms, and its food services director says it's a good way to meet new federal criteria for more fruits and vegetables.

Kent Getzin said he increased local buying for better quality, improved student nutrition and to support local farms.

Students are educated about what grows locally, said Vicki Kelley, Getzin's secretary.

Last fall, Kelley helped high school kitchen staff get students to sample about a dozen heirloom varieties of tomatoes in school hallways.

"We set up tables and sliced all these goofy looking tomatoes and encouraged kids to try them," she said.

"Some would say, 'I don't like tomatoes,' and I would say, 'You should try this one. It's lower in acid and a little sweeter,'" she said.

Students liked the tomatoes, she said.

The district began buying apples from local fruit giant Stemilt Growers Inc. 12 years ago but buys from several area farms now and places orders before the growing season.

"We get great variety," Getzin said.

The district buys most of its local produce in the fall, but it buys potatoes, winter squash and apples year-round. Suppliers include Cloud View Eco Farms in Royal City, Smithson Ranch and T&T Farms near Wenatchee and Yaksum Canyon Truck Farm near Peshastin.

"The Wenatchee School District is way ahead of the curve on this," Getzin said, noting the buy-local concept appears new to other school food service directors.

Getzin was among 28 school food service directors and 10 farmers who visited Cloud View and Tonnemaker Farms near Royal City on May 18. Getzin showed the group how to make a red Thai curry and stir-fried vegetables at lunch time at Wahluke High School in Mattawa.

The event was sponsored by the state Department of Agriculture's Farm-to-School Program to connect farmers and school food service directors. The 4-year-old program has hosted several such events and holds one in Spokane on June 13.

"I showed them how easy it is to incorporate fresh foods into lunches and a couple of the directors said, 'I think we can do this,'" Getzin said.

Farmers were enthusiastic and included a grass-fed beef producer from Ellensburg and a squash farmer from Whidbey Island, he said.

Joan Qazi, a Wenatchee buy-local promoter, organized similar networking a year ago that prompted Getzin to buy more local produce.

Wenatchee School District serves more than 1 million lunches a year, about 6,000 students a day and spends about $100,000 annually on produce.

It's "marginally more expensive" to buy local produce and takes some initial extra logistical effort, but it means high-quality produce and supporting local farmers, Getzin said.

The recently reauthorized Child Nutrition Act requires schools to increase the servings of fruits and vegetables, he said.

"We get comments almost daily about our vegetables. They (the students) love them," said Jan Hanson, Wenatchee High School food service manager.

"The first time we served asparagus, we prepared 10 pounds and probably threw away eight," she said. "Then I coaxed them to try it and they found out how good it is. Now we serve 27 pounds."

It tastes great with her lemon pepper, olive oil and garlic seasoning, she said.

Sign up for Upcoming Farm-to-School Mobile Tours

2011-05-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

There are two Farm-to-School Mobile tours coming up soon!

May 18th, 2011
Central Washington
Royal City area
To register: www.centralwafarmtoschooltour.eventbrite.com

June 13th, 2011
Eastern Washington
Spokane area
To register: www.spokanefarmtoschooltour.eventbrite.com

These farm tour and kitchen skills workshops allows farmers and school nutrition directors the opportunity to spend a day networking and learning about the environments in which the others work, with the intent to build on-going relationships that will allow farms to access institutional markets and school nutrition directors to feature more Washington-grown produce.

Participants will start by visiting two farms that use diverse production methods to grow a variety of crops, then they'll share an on-farm meal made with farm-fresh produce, and then move to a local School District's central kitchen. At that point farmers and nutrition staff will divide into two break-out groups: one for farmers, focused on market access and development; and the other for nutrition staff to prepare 4-6 recipes that comply with USDA standards for school lunch menu planning, and feature farm-fresh Washington-grown produce.

Click here for more information or call 206-256-6151.

Champions of Change: Chefs Move to Schools - USDA Blog

2011-05-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

USDA and Let's Move highlights Champions for Change and Chefs Move to Schools. Chef Garrett Berdan, RD was honored as a Champion for Change and he writes on the USDA Blog about great things he sees happening in schools in the Pacific Northwest and ways chefs can get involved.

Read the USDA Blog Post and learn more about Chefs Move to Schools.

USDA Announcement on Purchase of Local Agricultural Products

2011-05-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Release No. 0180.11
Contact:
Jean Daniel
FNS Communications (703) 305-2281

New USDA Rule Encourages the Purchase of Local Agricultural Products for Critical Nutrition Assistance Programs

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2011 – Today, Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon announced that USDA's child nutrition programs are implementing new rules designed to encourage use of local farm products in school meals. The final rule, published in the Federal Register, will let schools and other providers give preference to unprocessed locally grown and locally raised agricultural products as they purchase food for the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Special Milk, Child and Adult Care, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable, and Summer Food Service programs. The rule is part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 signed into law by President Obama and one of the key provisions to bolster farm to school programs across the country.

"This rule is an important milestone that will help ensure that our children have access to fresh produce and other agricultural products," said Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon. "It will also give a much-needed boost to local farmers and agricultural producers."

The rule supports USDA's 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food' initiative which emphasizes the need for a fundamental and critical reconnection between producers and consumers. The effort builds on the 2008 Farm Bill, which provides for increases and flexibility for USDA programs in an effort to revitalize rural economies by supporting local and regional food systems. 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food' is helping to break down barriers that keep local food systems from thriving, create new opportunities for farmers, ranchers, consumers and rural communities, and expand access to healthy food throughout the country. USDA expects consumer demand for locally grown food in the U.S. to rise from an estimated $4 billion in 2002 to as much as $7 billion by 2012.

The Farm to School component of this effort is designed to help connect schools with regional or local farms in order to serve healthy meals using locally-sourced products in their cafeterias. USDA currently is sending teams out to select school districts to work on farm to school issues. Some of these programs also incorporate nutrition-based studies, as well as food-learning opportunities such as farm visits, gardening, cooking, and composting activities.

Improving child nutrition is also a focal point of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that recently passed Congress and was signed by President Obama on December 13, 2010. This legislation authorizes USDA'S child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program and the Summer Food Service Program. It will allow USDA, for the first time in over 30 years, the chance to make real reforms to the school lunch and breakfast programs by improving the critical nutrition and hunger safety net for millions of children. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is the legislative centerpiece of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Initiative. To learn more, visit www.LetsMove.gov.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 nutrition assistance programs including the Summer Food Service Program; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; the National School Lunch Program; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. Together these programs make up the federal nutrition safety net. USDA administers these programs in partnership with state and local agencies and works with faith and community-based organizations to ensure that nutrition assistance is available to those in need. Additional information about the programs can be found at www.fns.usda.gov and the USDA's Farm to School initiative at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/f2s/.
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Last Modified: 04/26/2011

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USDA Announces People's Garden School Pilot Program to Promote Garden-Based Learning Opportunities - Washington is Pilot State

2011-04-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

People's Gardens Aim to Provide Nutritious, Safe and Healthier Choices for Children and Communities.

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2011 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that Washington State University will develop and run the People's Garden School Pilot Program which will serve an estimated 2,800 students attending 70 elementary schools in Washington, New York, Iowa and Arkansas. The Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth pilot is an innovative strategy to help our nation win the future through improved K-12 education. It explores the impact of school gardens on learning and on changing student consumption patterns so they make healthier food choices.

"School gardens hold great promise for educating our kids about food production and nutrition," said Vilsack. "Learning where food comes from and what fresh food tastes like, and the pride of growing and serving your own fruits and vegetables, are life-changing experiences. Engaging kids in our efforts to end childhood hunger and curb childhood obesity is critical if we are going to succeed."

Full Press Release

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program for 2011-12 - Now Accepting Applications

2011-04-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) provides all enrolled students in participating elementary schools with a variety of free fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the school day. It is an effective and creative way of introducing fresh fruits and vegetables as healthy snack options. The FFVP also encourages community partnerships to support the schools when they offer free fruit and vegetables to students during the school day.

For school year 2011-12, the grant application process has now begun. To be eligible to apply, a school must have a reported FRP percentage of at least 50%, based on the published October school data (OSPI Bulletin No. B005-11.) While all schools with a FRP ≥50% may apply for participation, the following provides specific guidance for the 2011-12 school year FFVP:

Schools with a FRP ≥84.2% will receive the grant.
Schools with a FRP ≥72% < 84.2% are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more information, visit OSPI Child Nutrition. The application is on the right side in the box titled 'Additional Information'

USDA Expands Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Schools Across the Nation

2011-04-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

USDA Expands Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Schools Across the Nation

Investment Aims to Improve Nutrition and Provide Economic Opportunities to Producers

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2010 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that, as authorized by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill), USDA will expand assistance to state agencies for schools operating USDA's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) in the 2011/2012 school year. The investment is part of the Obama administration's efforts to improve the health of our children by providing access to nutritious meals in schools and also serves as a valuable resource to schools that continue working to improve the health and nutrition of the foods they serve. The assistance will provide free fresh fruit and vegetables to children throughout the school day.

"Improving the health and nutrition of our kids is a national imperative and by providing schools with fresh fruits and vegetables that expand their healthy options, we are helping our kids to have a brighter, healthier future," said Vilsack. "Every time our kids eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable, they are learning healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime."

Full USDA Press Release

Learn more about the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in Washington

Washington will receive: $3,244,569

WSFFN Fresh Food In Schools Program

2011-04-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

New Program to Help Schools Purchase Washington-Grown Fruits and Vegetables

Washington State Department of Agriculture awarded The Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network $172,000 to help implement its three-year Fresh Food in Schools project. The project will build public awareness and support to increase school district purchasing of Washington’s fruits and vegetables specialty crops.

“We are delighted to be able to work across Washington State to support our farmers feeding our kids! Our Fresh Food in Schools program will help farmers enter the school market and help our kids get better access to Washington grown fruits and vegetables.” says Ellen Gray, Executive Director of The Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network.

Partners supporting the Fresh Food in Schools project include: the Washington State PTA, the Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, PCC Natural Markets, the Child Obesity Prevention Coalition and WSDA’s Farm to School program.

The WA Sustainable Food & Farming Network is excited to announce the hiring of three regional coordinators for the Fresh Food in Schools Project. If you are a school district, farm or parent/community group interested in starting or supporting a farm to school program in your area, we can help. Our coordinators will provide free hands-on assistance to help increase your school district’s purchases of Washington grown fruits and vegetables. Twenty school districts across the state will be chosen to participate.

For Western WA contact Rita Ordóñez at 360-336-0932 rordonez@wsffn.org

For Central WA contact Joan Qazi at 509 664-6691 jqazi@wsffn.org

For Eastern WA contact Jennifer Hall at 509 993-1189: jhall@wsffn.org

Orcas Island F2C one of America's 10 Best!

2011-03-08T18:17:00.000-08:00

Orcas Island F2C one of America's 10 Best! An article appeared in The Daily Meal online magazine featuring 10 of America's best school lunch programs - Orcas Island is one of them!! The Huffington Post online magazine also picked up the story! Click here for the slide show and article.

Student Chef Winners! See who won and a slide show on the event which occurred on February 12 by visiting our web site www.orcasislandf2c.org and clicking on the "Student Chef Competition" tab on the left. It was another truly amazing day with amazing kids who love to cook!

Millie Kau (4th grade) and Arla Sutton (3rd grade) teamed up and won a prize with their Salad Noodle Rolls.

Keenan O'Brien (8th grade) won the Grand Prize Overall with his White Bean Chicken Chili which he described as "It tastes delicious, it is chock-full of healthy ingredients, it is fairly economical, it is quick to make and can feed a large group of hungry students!"

Seattle: A Food Revolution in Seattle Schools? (seattleschild.com)

2011-03-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

A Food Revolution in Seattle Schools? | Seattle's Child
Source: seattleschild.com

Get to know a little about Eric Boutin, Nutrition Director for Seattle Public Schools, in this profile and interview with him from Seattle’s Child. He talks about the importance of fresh, wholesome food in school meals, along with some of the challenges of farm-to-school and healthier food service.

Eric also answers questions about school lunch on the Questionland Seattle website. From local food, organics and school gardens to chocolate milk and salad bars, Eric responded to inquiries from readers about Seattle’s school meals program.

Seattle/King County Farm to Table Project

2011-03-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

WSDA Farm-to-School Program is working in partnership with Seattle Aging & Disability Services and Puget Sound Food Network to support senior meal programs and child care programs in getting more seasonal locally-grown produce into the meals they offer. The project was honored on Wednesday, March 3^rd , by a visit from USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn! Dr. Merrigan was in town to learn more about the Northwest Agriculture Business Center and the Puget Sound Food Network. She and the Mayor, along with representatives from Rep. Inslee’s and Sen. Cantwell’s offices, had lunch with the Farm to Table team, participating farmers and senior meal participants at the Central Senior Services meal site and then headed off to Central Market in Shoreline to learn more about NABC’s work with retailers and local agricultural producers.

(This is a CPPW grant-funded project through Seattle Aging & Disability Services and Public Health-Seattle & King County)

Auburn School District and CPPW grant

2011-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

School Lunch Reflects Cultural Values – Cookus Interruptus has begun work on the CPPW (Communities Putting Prevention to Work) grant creating workshops to train school food service workers on the wonders of whole foods cooking. Cynthia Lair, of that project, discusses school lunch funding and comparisons to lunch programs in France in this blog entry.

News from Ferndale School District

2011-02-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Mountain View to offer Ferndale Fries as pilot farm-to-school program (Bellingham Herald Article)– “Students at Ferndale's Mountain View Elementary School will soon be treated to freshly baked potatoes from northwest Washington as part of their school lunch. On Jan. 27, the french fries and tater tots at the school are being exchanged for locally grown potato wedges, as part of a pilot farm-to-school project. ‘This is something that's good for the students and it's good for the local farmers,’ said Alex Singer, Ferndale School District's Food Program director. ‘We have students who may not have ever had french fries that weren't frozen before.’”

Let's Move!

2010-02-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

Michelle Obama’s new initiative is to help kids get healthier. Citing growing obesity rates, rising health care costs and poor food choices, the First Lady has launched a campaign to support healthier food in schools, healthy and affordable food everywhere and more physically active kids. The Healthier Schools page has a long list of research, programs, and ideas including the Washington State Action for Healthy Kids Team.

Calling all Spielbergs!

2010-02-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here’s a chance to have fun, be creative, learn about good food for your school cafeteria and win some money. The Real Food Video Contest (details here) could earn you $1.000 for your school project. Not to mention an all expenses paid trip to the 5th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Detroit, Michigan, May 17-19, 2010. Make a video that tells what real food means to you and your community and submit it before March 29th. Then visit the site to vote for the best one and wait for the announcement of the lucky winner on April 13th.

Need help connecting?

2010-01-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

At the Farm Aid site there is a Farm-to-School 101 Toolkit that can guide your efforts to establish relationships between your school and local farmers. The toolkit outlines 7 steps for getting started, gives some interesting case studies, has a FAQ section to help brainstorm and has a list of tools and resources.

What's good for lunch?

2010-01-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

We all want to eat better and sometimes it’s easy to get into a rut and be bored with the same old foods. Here’s an article from the New York Times that is called The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating. I found I actually had five of them on hand, but I’m going to stock up on the others. They’re all easy to find and easy to eat. In fact, the original article at Men’s Health gives more details and interesting ideas about how to incorporate them easily into your – and perhaps your school’s – diet

The White House garden

2010-01-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

There was a special culinary showdown for Iron Chef America where the First Lady gave the chefs their special challenge: each team had to create the ultimate meal for America, using the White House Garden as the 'secret ingredient.' After the Iron Chef battle was held at the White House, the Food Network published the garden plot and this information:

Garden Fun Facts
The garden cost $200 to start just seven months ago and has already generated more than 700 pounds of produce
15 volunteers a week, plus five full-time chefs, care for the 1100-square-foot space
Grows six types of lettuce along with greens and spinach, eight types of tomatoes plus tomatillos, and five types of cucumbers – plus dozens of other varieties of vegetables, herbs and fruits.

First of its kind here since Eleanor Roosevelt's time
Near this spot is a one-of-a-kind bee-hive that has produced 134 pounds of honey.
Fruits and vegetables that Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello are growing in the White House garden.

Is the theory behind school gardens valid?

2010-01-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Caitlin Flanagan’s article in The Atlantic, Cultivating Failure, is rubbing lots of people the wrong way. Blogs are buzzin’ and the Twittosphere is a flutter with heated opinions. Basically Flanagan contends that the school garden movement makes promises that it can’t keep or confirm and that it’s not a good idea to change school curricula drastically based on a fad. She says it is “predicated on a set of assumptions that are largely unproved, even unexamined”. She also bluntly asserts that Alice Waters of the Edible Schoolyard has been largely responsible for launching this movement without any evidence that the kind of learning that may come from these gardening experiences in schools is a valid substitute for the classes it replaces. Flanagan asserts that Waters has no educational background, yet she admits that Waters enjoys support from Delaine Easton, the California State Superintendent of instruction.

A reason to celebrate - over and over again

2010-01-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Orcas Island has hit on a great idea: the Celebratory Lunch for the Farm to Cafeteria Program. Different island gourmands prepare a special lunch once a month featuring wholesome local food, mostly made from scratch. Professional and amateur local chefs sign up for the month they want and it's practically become a regular feature at the school cafeteria. The students love it! Who wouldn't? It's a great idea that could be adapted by other communities. Read about it in Bullwings

In praise of the rutabaga!

2010-01-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

There is a delightful article in today's New York Times singing the praises of a little known vegetable: the rutabaga. Melissa Clark tells of first resisting and then being totally enchanted with this vegetable. She suggests roasting as the best way to cook it - and isn't roasting the best way to cook so many vegetables? Here in Washington we grow rutabagas, so if you haven't tried one lately, first read this and then try them again. You're in for a treat.

Something to crow about

2009-12-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

13-year-old student Jordan Lederman from Pine Lake Middle School in Sammamish entered a video contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) on the importance of getting a good education. Of the 600 entries received, staffers at DOE picked 10 finalists, including Jordan. Her video, that explains how different subjects have helped her learn about chickens, is a how-to for the cross curriculum connotations of Farm-to-School programs. She is also quite sweet and a little silly in a very charming way. Click on Lederman’s video (lower right hand corner) and watch her chicken story. If you get there by December 4th you can vote for the contest winner.

Gardens are great

2009-12-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

We always say that school gardens can be used to teach anything across the curriculum, and here is a very poignant case in point. At North Adams School in Massachusetts students have donated 232 pounds of produce to the Berkshire Food Project. This is the product of their school gardens and of their study of local social issues relating to hunger and access to healthy food. They also learn and write about growing their crops. Read about it in this article from The Berkshire Eagle.

It's magic!

2009-11-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

There's a School Garden Wizard! This supports your vision of a school garden with the necessary tools to make it a success. There are steps for building a team, designing, getting funds and supplies, learning the basics, planting, activities, resources, teaching and sustaining your garden. Plus lots of photos and wonderful ideas.

26 and counting...

2009-11-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

That's how many Washington State school garden are registered so far. Garden in Every School is a registry of school gardens at kidsgardening.org. It might be fun to register your school garden here, but it is also a fabulous source of who's doing what and how. It is searchable by state or states, grade ranges, country, and gardening emphasis. Maybe your school can become garden buddies with one across the country or in a different nation. Maybe you can invite others to a turnip growing contest. Maybe you'll trade art projects. The possibilities alone are inspiring.

The history of a school garden

2009-11-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

At Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR the school garden includes greenhouses, composting bins, raised beds, barrels for rainwater harvesting and an outdoor classroom. This garden is used for all sorts of education and it is a peaceful relaxing spot as well. This garden was started small and has progressed following the ideas and needs of the school itself. There are teachers, parents, students and community volunteers hard at work, building a successful garden that can meet the very specific needs of the school. Read about the Lewis garden at Edutopia.

Beginning farmers

2009-11-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

At the blog Beginning Farmers, there is a wealth of information available to all kinds of farmers as well as educators and supporters of farms. They offer a wide variety of information with special emphasis on sustainable farming, organic farming, direct marketing and local food systems. This is a good resource for farmers and for others who want to know about them. It has a wealth of articles that would be great for student research.

An alternate type of garden

2009-11-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

Container gardening allows you to grow plants in difficult situations, using different gardening types, many of them very suitable to schools. The blog Container Gardening is completely dedicated to making your growing experience a successful one.

One of the ideas that they explore in great detail is how to grow a vegetable garden in plastic bottles. They have some clever ideas and good advice. There are exhaustive details about containers, soil, drainage, seeds, etc.

This might make a good school project that could then be taken home.

HealthierUS School Challenge

2009-10-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

The USDA has started a challenge for schools that are trying to offer a healthier environment at school. They are awarding four levels of superior performance based on the promotion of good nutrition and physical activity.
The Food and Nutrition site has information, tools and resources about success stories, grants, fact sheets, FAQs and more.
The online application is available now.

National Academy of Sciences urges better diet

2009-10-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

Both school breakfast and lunch programs should be revamped according to the report released yesterday by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science (available now to download free). Their recommendations include:

Increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
Setting a minimum and maximum level of calories
Focusing more on reducing saturated fat and sodium

There is also a webcast of the report release. "The programs that nourish so many American schoolchildren need to reflect the latest child health and nutrition science given the extent to which dietary habits shape lifelong health," said committee chair Virginia A. Stallings.

An example from Washington (the other one)

2009-10-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

A few hours ago Michelle Obama hosted a White House event to spotlight kids and nutrition. Her speech talked about what to eat and how to eat. She talked about child obesity, the USDA HealthierUS School Challenge - more about that in my next post -, getting exercise and ensuring that kids have healthier and healthier options at school. The Associated Press has some photos of Mrs. Obama participating in the fun and games and they report that she was able to do 142 swivels. Pretty impressive on all counts!

Have you heard about the FoodHub?

2009-10-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

What's that? Their site, live November 2nd, defines it as a virtual pantry for Pacific Northwest food buyers and sellers. This is an Ecotrust project made possible in part by funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation, Bullitt Foundation, Newman's Own Foundation, USDA's Rural Business Enhancement Grant (RBEG) program, the Annenberg Foundation, Eugene Water & Electric Board, Farm Aid, Bill Healy Foundation, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Russell Family Foundation, and the Washington State Department of Agriculture. They are holding informative sessions this month to introduce the new system and get feedback from everyone. Here are some of the questions they anticipate being able to answer in these sessions:

How is FoodHub different from or similar to other resources such as the Puget Sound Food Network, FarmsReach, MarketMaker, or EProduceSales? Where are the synergies between and among these various tools and you?
Who is the intended audience for FoodHub? What problem was it created to solve? What is its geographic scope? Who are the partners and funders behind FoodHub?
Who is Ecotrust? Didn’t they used to produce a Guide to Local and Seasonal Products; whatever happened to that?
How will FoodHub help me serve my constituents? What is its larger vision/mission?
What role can I play in influencing FoodHub’s features and services so that it best serves me and my constituents? How will it evolve over time?

Everyone is more than welcome to come. Here are the dates and locations for the sessions:
Wednesday, October 28th
Time: 10-11:30 am
Sodo Park by Herban Feast
3200 1st Avenue South, Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98134

Wednesday, October 28th
Time: 2:30-4:00 pm
Skagit Valley Food Co-op
Community Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, Room #309
202 S. 1st St.
Mt. Vernon, WA

Thursday, October 29th
Time: 10:00-11:30 am
Grand Central Baking (Pioneer Square, business office)
214 1st Ave S
Seattle, WA

Thursday, October 29th
Time: 1:30-3:00 pm
Shorebank Pacific
2720 3rd AveSeattle, WA 98121

As space is limited at all venues, please RSVP to Lola Milholland at lola@ecotrust.org.

Why we need to change school food

2009-10-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

The San Fransico Chronicle published an article last week that really underlines the problems with the state of our schools' cafeterias. It highlights the testimony of Chef Anthony Geraci before a congressional panel Thursday. He recounts his experiences as a school chef and why we need to change how we feed children at school and why we need school gardens.
The experience "forever changes the way a kid looks at food," said Geraci. He says that too many children only know fruit as a flavor, that they have not experienced fruit as an actual food. Schools don't have kitchens and cooks, childhood obesity and related diseases are soaring, and we are paying to process our school food in ways that add expense in both dollars and results. The food that is given to children at school is often over processed and unappetizing leading into this vicious cycle of bad eating habits and higher costs.

We're in fashion!

2009-09-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

An article in the Washington Post, Thinking outside the school lunchbox, highlights how schools are adopting the goal of eating healthy by using fresh, local products in their school meals. This article has examples from schools in and around the captial while estimating that there are "more than 2,000 farm-to-school programs...in about 40 states."

Building 'Tactical Teams'

2009-09-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

The USDA has announced the new ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative. This article in the Chicago Tribune gives a nice analysis of this new program with lots of useful links. The official USDA press release gives more details and even an official USDA YouTube video on the USDA Youtube Channel.

Lessons from Summer Meal programs

2009-09-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

An article in the Spokesman Review details the summer programs for meals for kids and the possible effects of the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization that may be beneficial for feeding the children in our state that need support. Keeping programs viable in the current recession is of high interest to our communities.

Another funding oportunity!

2009-09-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

AeroGrow is a system that allows inside gardening without dirt or weeds. Sounds perfect for an in-class experience, doesn't it? The AeroGrow Growing Kids Award is for K-6 classrooms with at least 15 students. 300 winners will be supplied with eveything needed to start a classroom garden that can help teach kids nutrition and life science. The easy instructions will guide the class through providing water, nutrients and light (imitating nature) to make this garden a replica of what happens naturally. The applications are due October 24th.

Defining Sustainability

2009-08-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

According to the official definition from RCW 15.92.010, in Washington State "‘Sustainable agriculture’ means a systems approach to farming, ranching, and natural resource production that builds on and supports the physical, biological, and ecological resource base upon which agriculture depends. The goals of sustainable agriculture are to provide human food and fiber needs in an economically viable manner for the agriculture industry and in a manner which protects the environment and contributes to the overall safety and quality of life.”
A recent article in U.S. News and World Report called ‘New Tools for Sustainable Farming’ the popularity of the term sustainable and cites a report from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen that endeavors to give the term a more definitive meaning. This group of scientists started out with an ambitious research question: How can the sustainability status of farms with available operating data be determined and systematically improved?
Years of painstaking research allowed them to develop indicators and models to evaluate and optimize the sustainability of agricultural practices. The German Agricultural Society, working in conjunction with the Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim to add the economic and social factors necessary to balance the assessment, now has a certification system that is being used by agriculture and the food industry as well. It is called “Sustainable Farming – Fit for the Future” and it meets European DIN standards as well.
Maybe now ‘sustainability’ will be easier to measure and prove instead of merely a fashionable label.

Grants season - Grants for School and Youth Gardens

2009-08-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

On their web page, The National Gardening Association explains that it "works with sponsoring companies and organizations to provide in-kind grants to projects that actively engage kids in the garden and improve the quality of life for their communities.
To be eligible for these awards your school or organization must plan to garden with at least 15 kids between the ages of 3 and 18."
On the right sidebar there is a list of the upcoming deadlines with links that will help you apply for any and all of these awards for your group. The first deadline is September 18th for the Hooked on Hydroponics award that helps teach children and teens how to grow plants hydroponically (without soil).
There are six other grants listed in order of their deadlines and you can apply for as many as you wish. Winning one does not disqualify your group winning another. In fact, multiple applications are encouraged.
Good luck!

United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency Report on Organic Food

2009-08-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Capitol Press published an article last week titled Study slams organics that seemed to purport that the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) had done a study that found that organic products were not nutritionally superior to conventionally produced food products.

Actually the FSA report is only a literature review that examines 162 articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals from Jan. 1, 1958 to Feb. 29, 2008. It is merely a review of the available and credible published data. It does not examine environmental impact or pesticide use. It does nothing more that compile the data that has been gathered to date. More than any kind of judgement of organic and non-organic growing, it is a review of only what has been studied about nutrition in this field to date.

Evidently, some have misconstrued this and interpreted the study as a condemnation of organic farming. The Capitol Press article interviews producers from Washington, Oregon and California who principally argue against reaching these other conclusions. The study never advocates one product over another and repeatedly states the limits of the study and why it was undertaken. It could be the springboard for more investigation because it evaluates and condenses the information that has been available in a more scattered fashion. One of the reasons it was undertaken was because of the rising global demand for organic food.

How do we spend our lunch money?

2009-07-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

An article in The Des Moines Register by Philip Brasher claims that the government says it wants kids to eat more fruit and vegetable but doesn’t back it up with cold, hard cash.

“For every dollar that the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent buying commodities for school lunches last year, 55 cents went to beef, chicken and cheese vs. about 23 cents for fruits and vegetables.”

The single food item that tops the list is mozzarella cheese.

This is a thought provoking article with many interesting facts cited from a wide range of sources. One important item: Congress is due to update the school lunch program this year. That makes now an important time to be informed and make your opinions known.

What’s for lunch on Labor Day?

2009-06-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Slow Food USA is sponsoring a national eat-in for Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2009. They hope that people will organize public pot-lucks to highlight the importance of children eating healthy. Find out more about this at their website or contact the Time for Lunch campaign team site: timeforlunch@slowfoodusa.org.

American Medical Association Passes Resolution Supporting Sustainable Food System

2009-06-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

The American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a new policy resolution that recognizes the link between better health and a healthy and ecologically sustainable food system. This resolution supports cooperative work between the AMA and health care and public health organizations in order to educate the public about the importance of being able to “provide food and beverages of naturally high nutritional quality.”
The AMA’s new Sustainable Food policy in based on a report from its Council on Science and Public Health, which notes that locally produced and organic foods “reduce the use of fuel, decrease the need for packaging and resultant waste disposal, preserve farmland . . . [and] the related reduced fuel emissions contribute to cleaner air and in turn, lower the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.”

What do we teach in the school cafeteria?

2009-06-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

At School Lunch Talk there is an interesting article about how school lunch is approached in France. There, food is part of a larger picture that includes making good choices, proper eating habits and good manners. The author, Deborah Lahmann, suggests that this is a way to use lunch time as an educational tool for nutrition, preparation techniques and cultural heritage whereas the typical American approach is only to use school lunch as a re-fueling time before getting back to class. She advocates making food a higher priority, and taking advantage of the cafeteria as another classroom.
A later entry deals with Italy where there is a law that mandates schools and other institutions to use local organic products where possible and to comply with the National Institute of Nutrition. Instead of parents advocating, the state is mandating. An important part of this is that the government is willing to pay, like they are in France, and the price of lunches is subsidized by the city. In fact they pay at least half the cost of every lunch, and even more if the students come from poorer economic backgrounds. Compare that to the US where the government pays much less and the total spent on lunches is significantly less.

An interesting read

2009-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

The School Food Revolution: Public Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Development is a new book about the current debates that revolve around the school cafeteria: nutrition, sustainability, social inclusion, economics, etc.
To the authors it it is becoming clear that the school food service can provide many benefits. The book examines many of the fashionable trends in foods and schools and analyzes the results that have actually been produced in diverse communities including programs like the UN’s Home Grown Program.

Is there a free lunch?

2009-05-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to pass along this article from Gourmet online about the Red Cloud Indian School, their history of food self-sufficiency and the path to their current lunch service under the National School Lunch Program. I think the author does a good job of describing the complexity around things like child labor issues under the old system and decisions based on what’s available through the commodity program in the new system. I think it’s worth a read.

One interesting passage challenges a common belief that cutting out unhealthy snacks and vending machines will reduce revenue in schools, or that they’ll just bring snacks from somewhere else:

“Then, three years ago, Red Cloud administrators made the difficult decision to eliminate soda pop, candy, and processed snacks in campus vending machines, and that had expensive repercussions. “Our high school students used to hang out in their lounge eating chips and soda for lunch,” explains school superintendent Robert Brave Heart Sr. “When we took out the machines, those students starting showing up in the cafeteria, and that increased the number of lunches we had to provide every day.”

(Note that for the article presents increased lunch participation was an increased expense for the school, but for most, increased participation means more reimbursable lunches, more paid lunches sold, and more money to put back into improving the lunch program)

The article mentions Senator Harkin and the Farm Bill, but doesn’t bring up the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR). The CNR is the federal law that is updated every five years and is where the nutrition guidelines and reimbursement rates for the National School Lunch Program are set, among other child nutrition decisions. It is currently being debated and hearings are being held in DC now.

The National Farm-to-School Network has partnered with Community Food Security Coalition and School Food FOCUS to summarize the Farm to School Initiatives and their policy priorities for the current Child Nutrition Reauthorization. Some of their priorities are specifically to support farm to school programs, and others are for general improvement of the lunch program by higher reimbursement amounts, funding food service training, strengthening nutrition standards and improved nutrition education. Their document “Nourishing the Nation One Tray at a Time” contains a good overview and history of farm to school, the Child Nutrition Act and then outlines the policy priorities to make it easy for people to contact their legislators to make their opinions known.

A garden grows

2009-05-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

'Classroom in Bloom' is a half acre garden shared by two schools in Winthrop. The garden lets the students (K-12) experience growing their own food and the cycles of food production hands on. The teachers have incorporated the whole gardening experience into the curriculum which increases the learning and gardening aspects for everyone.
Anaka Mines and Lexi Koch are the founders and co-coordinators of the program, which has been supported by the schools since the spring of 2004. Participation in the garden means young people can experience the satisfaction of working with the soil, understand the pleasure and disappointment of caring for a garden that produces food - from preparing and enriching the soil to planting and nurturing the plant to harvesting and consuming to converting the waste back into the soil.
There is a wonderful video on their web page that recounts a lot of their philosopies and experiences.

Gardening tips

2009-05-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Although many may have already seen this article from Seattle’s Child magazine last fall, it has a wealth of information about the process of making a school garden. Eric Boutin, Auburn’s child nutrition services director, was interviewed about the challenges that he and other Washington school districts face as they strive to “eat local”: The interview is a blueprint and a must-read both for schools that want to start a garden and for others that would like to take advantage of his wealth of knowledge. The merits of the garden for community relations, better food, parent involvement, and school learning opportunities as well as the common pitfalls of contacting farms and securing financial support are all touched upon here.

Cafeteria Trays

2009-05-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

For colleges, ditching the tray may reduce impulsive choices and overeating and encourage students to take fewer sugary drinks, in addition to saving money for foodservice! It also improves the cafeteria atmosphere, making it feel more like home. This article from the New York Times examines the latest college cafeteria fashion and where it's happening.

Senate bill on competitive foods in schools.

2009-05-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

A recently introduced federal bill, Senate (S.) 934, from Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and eight bipartisan co-sponsors, regarding competitive foods in schools is the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act. It would improve the school lunch and breakfast programs by updating nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold outside of school meals. It would establish minimum nutrition standards and prohibit the sale of food of minimal nutritional value, as defined by the Secretary of Agriculture, in areas where school meals are sold or eaten.

Peninsula and South Sound Farm-to-Table Regional Workshop

2009-05-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

There's a great event coming up next Monday, May 11th, to bring together farmers with potential buyers for their food. As farm-to-school programs become more popular, I hear from many school nutrition services directors and buyers that they love the idea of supporting local farms and providing more fresh food for their students, but are having trouble finding farms to buy from. This event will provide a friendly, fun and casual venue for meeting with farms and learning about local purchasing.

It's the Peninsula and South Sound Farm-to-Table Regional Workshop at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, WA from 12:30-5pm, attendance is free.

Light refreshments will be provided by local farms.

We invite you to strengthen our local food system by connecting farmers with buyers and discussing new market opportunities.

Contact Information: Mark McIntyre

New grants available - Concept papers due May 21st

2009-05-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

The WSDA has announced $2.5 million is available in grants for specialty crops. The grants will be given to projects that aim to enhance the production of and access to Washington specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined by USDA as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).
They are looking for concept papers now. If you have an idea and want to apply this link at the WSDA website gives all the details. Since the initial concept papers are due May 21st, there isn’t much time, but the process is relatively easy and we would be glad to help If your project is chosen you will have additional time to complete the solicitation process.
If you have any questions or require clarification send an email to FarmtoSchool@agr.wa.gov.

Cereal helps brain

2009-05-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

A Telegraph article reports that eating cereal can boost brain power. A study conducted by Kings College London has shown that cereal is quite beneficial for breakfast. Long reputed as the most important meal of the day, these finding show that within that, cereal is actually the best breakfast choice.
In the study some children were given a glucose drink, and others cereal, and others no breakfast at all. Those that got cereal fared significantly better.
Dr Katerina Campbell, one of the researchers, said: "Breakfast cereal consumption has a potentially significant role in improving morning cognitive performance."

Many students getting most of their daily nutrition from school meals

2009-04-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

If you saw this article by David Sarasohn in The Oregonian you may have been saddened and surprised to learn that many children are only able to get adequate, nutricious food at school. This illustrates why we need more funds and more programs to help support good food in our schools.

"When the kids came back from spring break, they were starving," Shelly Drury says. "They wanted seconds, they wanted thirds. My principal was saying, 'We need to cook more food.' "

If Shelly Drury is at one end of the school lunch pipeline, Tom Harkin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, is at the other. Reauthorizations -- and budgets -- go past the Iowa Democrat, and he has plans. "We'd love to get it up $1 billion a year," said Harkin in an interview earlier this month. "We could use more money. If we want to get better food for our kids, it costs money."

A Proposal to Separate Fast Food and Schools

2009-04-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

The New York Times recently featured an article linking the tendency to be overweight with the location of fast food restaurants in a tenth of a mile or one block radius of the schools.

The study looked at weight rates in teens and pregnant women who lived near such resteraunts and found location to be detremental in both cases. Now Eric Giola, a city councilman from Queens wants to use the California study to ban fast food establishments from opening so close to schools.

"Immediate proximity played a crucial role in obesity, according to the report, the Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity, by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. If a fast-food restaurant opened a quarter-mile or more from a school, obesity rates were not affected."

The enormous impact of buying local

2009-04-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

What are the benefits of using local food sources for schools?
We may just be scratching the surface of understanding the potential advantages according to a study being conducted by Ecotrust and Oregon State University. Preliminary results show that money spent on such programs has great implications in the community. In fact, they estimate that every dollar spent in a grant from Kaiser Permanente to two local school districts resulted in $1.87 of economic activity that reverberated throughout most sectors of the economy, not just in the agricultural industries.
That’s because a multiplier effect includes the impact of buying local food as well as the impact of those food suppliers spending the cash on materials and services in turn. When Portland and Gervais school districts were given funds through a grant from Kaiser they were motivated to reallocate those funds to the local economy. Whereas previously they may have been able to buy food a bit more cheaply, they hadn’t always been able to buy local. With the grant they bought local, sometimes paying slightly more, but the result was a huge boost to the local economy. According to the article in Capital Press Agricultural News, the $66,200 grant generated a total of $225,900.

Learning to live healthy

2009-04-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

Are the kids in your school talking about salad and raspberry dressing before lunch? That’s what’s happening at Veterans Memorial Elementary in North Naples. This school decided to plant a school garden so the students could plant and grow their own food. The goals, to save money and educate children about healthy food, have been met with enthusiasm on the part of all.
The program was suggested by a mother and seconded by the whole community. The children are proud to raise their own food and are learning good nutrition by living the experience. They get fresh, wholesome food in their cafeteria. The hands-on experience of working in their own garden builds self confidence from achieving through hard work and an understanding of delayed gratification. It is also a godsend economically in times when all school budgets are tight.
According to an article about the school and its program in the Macro Eagle, about 60% of the students chose salad for lunch on the day the reporter visited the school. The school sought advice and partnership in the endeavor from their school district, master gardeners and a local foundation. The children benefit by an increased desire to learn about the science related to growing food, time spent outside working in the garden and healthy food.

Five winners announced in "Kids are Growing"

2009-04-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

This year’s winning schools for the “Kids are Growing” contest sponsored by the International Greenhouse Co, Washington State Potato Commission, PCC Natural Markets and King 5 were Concordia Lutheran in Tacoma, Graham Hill Elementary in Seattle, Cedarhurst Elementary in Burien, Rainier Elementary in Rainier and Explorer Community School in Redmond.
Each school had to complete an entry binder that detailed what a greenhouse would do for them: how they would use it and what they could learn from it. They also had to submit an original, healthy potato recipe.
The prizes for each school were an 8’x 8’ EasyGrow greenhouse kit, a $1000 grant from the Washington State Potato Commission, and a $500 grant and garden supplies from PCC Natural Markets.
The winning schools will use these prizes to grow food for school lunches and community food banks and to learn about healthy food choices and how food grows.

Stimulus Package Grant Opportunity for WA Schools to Buy Kitchen Equipment

2009-04-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

There’s an exciting current opportunity for schools to get grants to purchase kitchen equipment that can make it easier for them to prepare, store and serve more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

One of the big barriers for buying from farms is the lack of equipment and available staff time for preparing, storing and serving fresh food. To save labor cost and time, most buy fresh foods already chopped, diced, shredded and bagged—ready to go straight into soup or onto the salad bar. Many don’t even have the option of a salad bar because refrigeration and salad bar service equipment is too costly. Farms often don’t have equipment or time for processing either, so most school food is ordered through distributors after the food has traveled around for processing and may come from very far away. Using the funds from the stimulus package can help schools who wish to buy direct from farms and do more preparation in-house. This is a great time to contact your local school with a positive message and encourage them to apply for equipment to support them in preparing and serving food from Washington farms! Call your local school and ask to speak to the i-grants administrator, the food service manager at the school or the nutrition director for the district.

The economic stimulus package provides $100 million for school food service equipment grants, which can fund new freezers, salad bars, milk coolers, etc. Priority will be given to school food authorities (SFAs) in which at least 50 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-priced meals. Grants will be made no later than June 8, 2009, and the deadline for school districts to apply is May 1st.

For this grant, the definition of eligible equipment is “articles of nonexpendable, tangible personal property with a useful life of more than one year and a per unit acquisition cost of $5,000 (or such lesser amount as the SFA uses when reporting equipment as assets in its financial statements).”

From the USDA Memo on the grant:

“In order to make the most effective use of the NSLP equipment assistance grant funds, when developing the application process, State agencies should incorporate one or more of the following four focus areas:

• Equipment that lends itself to improving the quality of school foodservice meals that meet the dietary guidelines. (e.g., purchasing an equipment alternative to a deep fryer),
• Equipment that improves the safety of food served in the school meal programs. (e.g., cold/hot holding equipment, dish washing equipment, refrigeration, milk coolers, freezers, blast chillers, etc.),
• Equipment that improves the overall energy efficiency of the school foodservice operation (e.g. purchase of an energy-efficient walk in freezer replacing an outdated, energy demanding freezers.
• Equipment that allows SFAs to support expanded participation in a school meal program (e.g., equipment for serving meals in a non-traditional setting or to better utilize cafeteria space)

State agencies may opt to propose alternate or additional focus areas, but must submit the
proposal to FNS for prior approval.”

Some of you may have received a notice about adding a focus area for encouraging local food in this grant. (Wisconsin and Michigan got USDA approval to add this as a 5th focus area: "Equipment that enables Wisconsin schools to use locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.”) We were unsuccessful in getting language added in Washington, simply due to time constraints in getting approval from our Western District USDA office. While it is disappointing not to have this encouragement written into the grant, there is no reason this goal cannot be met within the original 4 focus areas. I know that George Sneller, State Child Nutrition Director, and others at OSPI are supportive of the Washington grown programs in schools.

(The link above goes to the USDA Memo on 2009 Equipment Assistance Grants for School Food Authorities)

I hope this email gives you the information you need to support your school in improving their infrastructure for serving healthy fresh foods, grown in Washington to improve the quality of food served and increase participation in school meal programs.

If you have questions or need advice on approaching your school staff or sharing the message, feel free to contact us here at the WSDA Farm-to-School Program: farmtoschool@agr.wa.gov.

Ann Cooper's Message to Dr. Janey Thornton

2009-04-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Ann Cooper, the chef behind the famous school food reform in Berkeley, CA, has written at Grist.com about the new USDA appointee for Food and Nutrition Service Department, Dr. Janey Thornton. She's not too optimistic about Dr. Thornton's track record as a nutrition services director in Kentucky, but has some recommended revisions the National School Lunch Program:

Make meals, both breakfast and lunch universal, a system where every child is fed every day.
Replace the current system of tracking menus by nutrients, to one where the guidelines are based on healthy, delicious balanced meals. These meals should consist in large part of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and whole grains, and should include plant based protein.
Replace the definition of nutritious food, on which the current system is based, to one that defines and is based on real FOOD. (See full definition below.)
Raise the federal reimbursement rate to $4.00 - $5.00, based on the cost of living of the geographical area, and dedicate a minimum of $1.75 to be spent on food. Additionally, dedicate at least $1.00 be spent on fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and whole grains with a priority placed on procuring regionally produced food.
Dedicate resources to building or rebuilding kitchens in school districts to accommodate scratch cooking.
Dedicate resources to set-up a training program to teach school food service workers to cook from scratch.
Set-up a National Culinary Cooks Corp which allows culinary students to work off student loans by working in K-12 schools.
Institute hands-on experiential learning in the form of cooking and gardening classes that become a mandatory part of the educational system.
Dedicate resources to a National marketing campaign to help change children’s relationship to food, so that healthy/delicious school food becomes cool food.
Underscore the importance of eating healthy food by instituting questions on the SAT tests that highlight sustainable food and agriculture.

Chef Ann Cooper also outlines some general principles that she hopes Dr. Thornton will consider:

Healthful Food is wholesome.
• Includes whole and minimally processed fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, dairy, meats, fish, and poultry.
• Contains naturally occurring nutrients (e.g., vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients).
• Is produced without added hormones or antibiotics.
• Is processed without artificial colors or flavors or unnecessary preservatives.

Healthful Food is produced, processed, and transported in a way that prevents the exploitation of farmers, workers, and natural resources, and the cruel treatment of animals. The process of healthful food production:
• Upholds the safety and quality of life of all who work to feed us.
• Treats all animals humanely.
• Protects the finite resources of soil, water, air, and biological diversity.
• Supports local and regional farm and food economies.
• Replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.

Healthful Food should be available, accessible, and affordable to everyone.
• Is distributed equitably among all communities.
• Is available and emphasized in children’s environments such as childcare, school and after-school settings.
• Is promoted within institutions and workplaces, in cafeterias, vending machines and at meetings and events
• Is reflective of the natural diversity found in traditions and cultures.

Make the connection with Farmers Markets

2009-04-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

An article in the Bend Weekly demonstrates how local schools have been able to take advantage of the farmer's market to find new opportunities to establish relationships with local producers. This may be a fantastic way to connect with local farmers and to learn about what products they will have available shortly. (Bend Weekly)

Federal School Food Vending Standards Being Considered

2009-04-09T11:37:00.001-07:00

According to an article in Gourmet.com, Rethinking School Vending Machines, Senator Harkin has raised the issue of updating the nutrition standards for food sold in schools that is not part of the USDA reimbursable lunch or breakfast programs. He'd like to see rules on these "competitive foods" put into the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization currently under consideration. (The current Act expires in September 2009 and they are working on its replacement.)

In his opening statement, Harkin argued, “We know from surveys and common experience that the majority of our schools offer children ready access to heavily sweetened beverages, highly salted snacks, sugary and high-fat goods, and candy…We know from research what any parent understands from common sense—that junk food obtained from vending machines, snack bars, school stores, or à la carte lines is far less nutritious and far less nutritionally balanced than meals that meet USDA standards.” Unlike USDA-sponsored meals, none of all those other foods and beverages sold in schools needs to meet nutrition standards.

Harkin and others are arguing that these foods should be required to meet the same nutrition standards as lunch and breakfast. (Note: there are also efforts underway in the school food and health community to update those USDA school meal nutrition guidelines, pointing out that those are not strong enough and do not line up with the most up-to-date Dietary Guidelines for All Americans.)

But the idea is not without its opponents:

Testifying on behalf of the National School Boards Association, Reggie Felton urged the Committee to “refrain from enacting legislation that would further restrict the authority and flexibility of local school boards.” Felton also said that “Such restrictions would in all likelihood increase student purchases beyond school grounds, and could potentially “increase misunderstandings and complaints from parents regarding the banning of certain foods” while allowing others.

What does "Processed" Mean in the USDA Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program?

2009-03-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

This article from Civil Eats tracks the latest developments relating to the policy question of what foods are considered “processed” for the USDA Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program. School food was apparently the subject of some last minute rule changes by President Bush--which means it's considered important enough for such maneuvers!

The Battle Over Sliced Apples: New York Senators Gillibrand and Aubertine Take Secretary Vilsack to Task on School Food

In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senators Gillibrand and Aubertine said:

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program requires these snacks be served outside of standard school meal programs. Therefore, it is illogical to prohibit local produce as “processed” simply because it is in a form that can be served to students outside of the lunchroom.

A letter to Michelle Obama about school food

2009-02-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Mom-in-Chief, a letter encouraging Michelle Obama to make healthy food for kids a priority in her work as First Lady. Debra Eschmeyer, a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and the Marketing and Media Director of the National Farm to School Network, lays out the issues and the current opportunity for improving school meals for kids around the country. The letter, which posted on Civil Eats website, hits so many relevant points that I'm posting it in its entirety:

Dear Mom-In-Chief,

As First Lady you have the ability to set the table for what our nation’s children eat by adding a plank of food justice to your platform. Many ideas have already been sent your way, including starting an organic garden on the White House lawn and appointing a First Farmer. But where should you start?

I request that you make the health of our nation’s children your platform priority. Especially with two growing girls to nurture and nourish, you must understand that we will only be successful as a nation when all children in our country are healthy and well-fed.

You have the support of the 44th President. The Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, was quoted yesterday in the Washington Post explaining President Obama’s goals for the USDA, “The vision is, he wants more nutritious food in schools.” Vilsack went on to depict the role of local foods in that mission: “In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that.”

You have a ripe opportunity to make great strides toward that vision with the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which is the federal legislation that establishes the guidelines for our nation’s school meal programs and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. Every four or five years, there’s an opening for all of those concerned with the health of our nation’s children to evaluate, defend, and improve the federal Child Nutrition Programs. That time is now as the current Child Nutrition Act expires in September 2009.

With at least 35 to 40 percent of children’s daily eating occurring during the school day, a reformed cafeteria could improve the health and increase the capacity to learn for the 30 million children that eat at school 180 days per year.

When you invited Chef Sam Kass into the White House Kitchen, your spokeswoman said “he happens to have a particular interest in healthy food and local food.” Mr. Kass has spoken out previously on the need to change the school lunch menu by decreasing the high levels of sugar and fat. He’s right.

Earlier this month the results of the latest school nutrition dietary assessment study by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association exposed that in the 2004-2005 school year, only 6% to 7% of schools met all nutrition standards. This is unacceptable.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25% of children between the ages of 6 and 11 were overweight in 2007. In the late 1970s, that number was only 6.5%. The oft-quoted statistic that one in three children born in 2000 will be diabetic in their lifetime (make that one in two if the child is black or Hispanic) demonstrates we can’t wait a moment longer to act.

If you make the health of our nation’s children your priority, you could save countless lives and potentially save us billions of dollars.

Consider the economic stress of diet-induced diseases such as Type II Diabetes, now inflicting youth. The insulin, needles, test strips, blood sugar monitors, doctor’s appointments, etc. take a considerable chunk of change. The average annual expense for a person diagnosed with diabetes is $11,744, of which $6,649 is directly attributed to the disease. Those with diabetes have medical expenses that are 2.3 times higher than those with working pancreases.

Sasha and Malia are fortunate to be eating nutritious local, organic lunches at Sidwells Friends School. This is what your girls ate at lunch on Tuesday, February 10th:

Organic Vegetarian Chili, Carrot Apple Soup, Roasted Local Beet Salad, Salad du Jour, All Natural Beef Chili, Brown Rice, Steamed Zucchini and Grapefruit Slices

The above shows the solution can be delicious. How wonderful that you and the President can provide local, fresh and healthy foods for the First Daughters, but what about kids in the rest of the country? From your previous neighborhood on the south side of Chicago to your new community in Washington, D.C. with the highest childhood obesity rates in the country, the nutritional divide that stymies the development and potential of youth is an open wound.

The average school cafeteria unfortunately operates on the lowest common denominator of cost, not quality. The USDA currently reimburses schools $2.57 for every free lunch it serves and lower amounts for reduced cost and full price meals. This leaves about one dollar to cover actual food costs, once labor and overhead costs are factored in. What do you expect food service directors to feed our kids with on a $1.00?

Thankfully, kids, parents, food service staff, teachers, farmers, school administration, and other community members have a taste for change and have been working to incorporate fresh, local product—no matter the perceived barriers—through what is called “farm to school” programs.

The farm to school movement has not waited for the federal government to make children a priority. There are over 2,000 known programs in 39 states as reported by the National Farm to School Network, a joint project of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College and the Community Food Security Coalition.

Even though I promote from scratch cooking, you don’t have to start from scratch in your platform.

The Child Nutrition Forum, a collaboration of many groups, including, National Farm to School Network, School Nutrition Association, Food Research and Action Center and School Food FOCUS, has a statement of principles that outlines key issues to champion immediately.

From there you can delve into an extensive menu of ideas such as establishing a national farm to school grant program or strengthening nutrition standards for school meal programs.

On February 26, I invite you to attend one of two Congressional briefings on farm to school and hear directly from those working every day for a healthy America.

Fulfill your wish to be America’s Mom-in-Chief by making sure that every child has the nutrients necessary to carry our country forward—now that is a stimulus plan I can believe in.

Sincerely,

Debra Eschmeyer

Debra Eschmeyer is a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and the Marketing and Media Director of the National Farm to School Network and the Center for Food and Justice. She works from her fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she continues her passion for organic farming raising fruits, vegetables, chickens, and pigs. Debra's previous non-profit work spans the globe in the humanitarian, conservation, sustainable agriculture, and food justice realms. Most recently, Debra was the Project Director at the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, DC where she focused on U.S. agricultural policy and food sovereignty initiatives among grassroots domestic and international rural advocacy and social justice networks.

[Thanks to Kelly Horton for the heads-up!]

New USDA Director Vilsack: Thoughts on School Food

2009-02-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

From the Washington Post interview, the new director of USDA, Tom Vilsack, spoke with staff writer Jane Black. Here are the parts relating to school meals:

... There are ways we can go do a better job of educating young moms and dads about the vital role they have as the child's first teacher. I think there are ways in which we can partner with local school districts and states to do a better job to provide nutrition options at school. It's our responsibility to get this health-care crisis under control.

What specific ideas do you have about how to move forward to improve nutrition in school lunches?

Part of my responsibility is to find people who share my concern and have more expertise than I do. People we nominate will be people who understand this issue and have the desire to effect change. The specifics of how we can do this will come from the experts. My job is to listen to the president, who is the ultimate vision maker, articulate his vision to the people who work in this department and add my two cents' worth. The vision is, he wants more nutritious food in schools.

Will local foods play a part?

In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that. But sometimes that stresses the capacity: the production capacity or the distribution capacity. Especially since we don't have yet a very sophisticated distribution system for locally grown food. One thing we can do is work on strategies to make that happen. It can be grant programs, loan programs, it can be technical assistance.

Breakfast and summer meal grants announced; First recipient to connect kids with local, fresh-cooked meals

2008-10-01T14:43:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I'm a bit out of practice. My summers are spent focusing on coordinating our county-wide Harvest Celebration Farm Tour, and the Farm-to-School blog has been neglected. I apologize.

But here's a little positive news to kick-start it again!

Here's the basic info:

"East Side Entrees, the Woodbury supplier of school meals, yesterday
announced a $9-million, three-year initiative to help school districts around the country boost student participation in breakfast and summer meal programs."

"These programs would target districts and areas where high portions of the student population are eligible for free or reduced-price meals and provide free breakfast to all students, in the classroom, to remove any negative stigma associated with subsidized meals."

Sounds great, but how will it be used, and how does this relate to farm-to-school specifically?
Turns out the first recipient school district, Baltimore Public Schools, "plans to revamp the schools' food services system by building kitchens so that the department can begin cooking its own food instead of reheating processed food, purchasing local food that's fresh and cheaper and turning a 33-acre farm into a classroom to teach children about nutrition and connect them with their foods' origins."

I'll admit I'm a little confused here. The grantor is East Side Entrees, a company who sell pre-packaged, shelf-stable breakfast boxes using branded food items. I'm a bit surprised that they're funding grants that can be used to revive kitchens to cook more fresh, local food. I also can't find info about how to apply for the grants, and their offices are closed for the day. I guess we'll have to wait and see how these grants will be distributed, and how to apply. It's worth checking into if you are connected to a school with a high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced priced meals.

All quotes from: Giving kids a $9M breakfast boost, by Newsday's Keiko Morris. Here's a lengthier article about the program from the Baltimore Sun: "Food for thought: In-class breakfast for city schools"

And then there are gas prices to contend with ...

2008-06-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

Rural schools around the country are going to 4-day school weeks to save money on bus fuel and heating costs, according to an ABC News article, 3-Day Weekend: Schools Out for Gas Prices.

I can't imagine this is doing good things for the budgets of working parents, who must now find childcare for Fridays.

More evidence that our schools need better funding.

I'll try to find some success stories again soon.

via FRAC newsletter

School lunches and the price crunch, etc.

2008-06-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

Food prices are creating challenges for individuals and families, and for those organizations that provide food to vulnerable and low-income communities. Food banks are swamped at the same time they're paying more for food. Schools have had a hard enough time feeding kids on the pennies we toss them through our federal government, and it's getting more difficult every day.

The Virginian-Pilot had an article entitled Rising food prices pinch local school menus about how food prices are affecting Virginia schools, and it's not pretty. For the most part, the schools are having to cut important food items, or raise prices, and as with the whole food system price crisis I can't bring myself to use the argument that maybe it will teach people that food should be expensive when it's causing such hunger and misery in the moment. (hopefully a longer term change will happen as the unsustainability of our system becomes clear to more people, but I'm not giddy to see the difficulties its causing people.) But there are a couple of things in the article that made me think:

Helen Phillips, senior director of Child Nutrition Services for Norfolk schools, said school divisions are taking a hit as well when purchasing disposable supplies, including Styrofoam trays and "meal kits" with a plastic fork, a straw and a napkin.
"Every student that eats every single day gets a meal kit, and they've gone up 18 percent," Phillips said.
To make ends meet, Peterson said, schools also are combining fresh and frozen vegetables, replacing grape tomatoes with less expensive varieties and cutting full-size carrots instead of serving the popular, but more expensive, baby carrots."The name of the game is examining every little cost to determine what makes sense economically," he said. In Suffolk, Williams said he relies on a la carte snack items that meet wellness guidelines - such as reduced-sugar fruit snacks, baked chips and juices - to generate revenue.

Disposable service products and baby carrots are some of my pet peeves about food in general--neither necessary nor environmentally sustainable. I know that labor makes up a major part of school lunch service budgets, and I'm assuming that washing trays is just not in the budget (though I suppose disposable trays could also be about dreaded germs or something). And baby carrots are served because kids will eat them and they come prepared so no one has to wash or cut them. But as food prices soar, will it again become more economical to buy the basics and prepare them in the cafeteria? And will schools make the investment in re-usable utensils and trays, and pay someone to wash them? Oh wait, I just realized--disposable service products are used because individual schools don't have equipment for washing, just as they often don't have the facilities for preparing carrots and other fresh fruits and vegetables. (really, I just realized it and didn't do that for effect, I promise) So not only would there need to be an investment in personnel, there would also need to be some reinvestment in school facilities, and in some cases schools were designed without kitchens from their beginning, so it would be a major project.

I would love to see schools get kitchens and have staff to cook whole foods and use real trays and utensils. So far it's not seen as important in the scheme of skimpy school budgets. We need to consider more carefully the link between food and learning and behavior, and the long-term value to our society that could result from a new food culture and focus on food system citizenship and personal nutrition. Only then does it become an obvious and vital necessity that we fund our school food programs adequately and incorporate education about food and its links to health, rural economies and the environment.

Study finds that school-based nutrition programs reduce numbers of students who become overweight

2008-05-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

There's an encouraging study in the April 2008 issue of Pediatrics about the role of schools in overweight and obesity prevention.

For the study, The Food Trust in Philadelphia created a school nutrition policy initiative that was tested in 10 public schools to see how effective school-based nutrition programs (including nutrition policy changes, social marketing and family outreach) can be at influencing overweight and obesity in students in grades 4-6.

Here's the key finding:

The intervention resulted in a 50% reduction in the incidence of overweight. Significantly fewer children in the intervention schools (7.5%) than in the control schools (14.9%) became overweight after 2 years.

The entire study report is available on the Pediatrics website.

Forgive the lengthy post, but I wanted to include the basic information on what school interventions were used. Here's an excerpt from the report:

"The SNPI included the following components: (1) school self-assessment; (2) nutrition education; (3) nutrition policy; (4) social marketing; and (5) parent outreach. Each component is described briefly below. A more detailed description of the intervention is available at http://www.thefoodtrust.org/.

Self-Assessment. Schools assessed their environments by using the CDC School Health Index.13 Each school formed a Nutrition Advisory Group to guide the assessment. Teams included administrators, teachers, nurses, coaches, and parents. After completing ratings on healthy eating and physical activity, schools developed an action plan for change. Schools proposed various strategies, such as limiting the use of food as reward, punishment, or for fundraising; promoting active recess; and serving breakfast in classrooms to increase the number of students eating a healthy breakfast.

Staff Training. All of the school staff in the intervention schools were offered 10 hours per year of training in nutrition education. At these trainings, staff received curricula and supporting materials such as Planet Health4 and Know Your Body,14 as well as nutrition and physical activity theme packets designed to integrate classroom lessons, cafeteria promotions, and parent outreach. Staff attended trainings both across and in intervention schools, giving them a chance to work together as a team and to share ideas with their counterparts in other intervention schools.

Nutrition Education. The goal was to provide 50 hours of food and nutrition education per student per school year, which was based on the National Center for Education Statistics guidelines.15 The educational component was designed to be integrative and interdisciplinary. Its purpose was to show how food choices and physical activity are tied to personal behavior, individual health, and the environment. Nutrition was integrated into various classroom subjects. For example, students used food labels to practice fractions and nutrition topics for writing assignments.

Nutrition Policy. In each of the intervention schools, all of the foods sold and served were changed to meet the following nutritional standards, which were based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and converted from the percentage of calories to grams per serving,16 which is in alignment with information shown on nutrition labels: all of the beverages were limited to 100% juice (recommended 6-oz serving size), water (no portion limits), and low-fat milk (recommended 8-oz serving size). Snack standards allowed 7 g of total fat, 2 g of saturated fat, 360 mg of sodium, and 15 g of sugar per serving. Before these changes, soda, chips, and other drinks and snacks had been sold in vending machines and a la carte in the cafeteria of schools with full-service kitchens. Schools without full-service kitchens did not sell a la carte food items or have vending machines. Schools were matched by type of food service to control for differences in the sales of vending and a la carte items.

Social Marketing. The SNPI used several social marketing techniques. To increase meal participation and consumption of healthy snack and beverage items, students who purchased healthy snacks and beverages or who brought in snack items that met the nutritional standards from home or local stores received raffle tickets. Raffle winners received prizes for healthy eating, such as bicycles, indoor basketball hoops, jump ropes, and calculators. The message "Want Strength?...Eat Healthy Foods," paired with an easily recognizable character, reinforced healthy messages through incentives and frequent exposure. Both the slogan and the character were developed through focus groups with students who were not in the study schools but were of similar age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Family Outreach. Nutrition educators reached family members through home and school association meetings, report card nights, parent education meetings, and weekly nutrition workshops. They encouraged parents and students, on the way to and from school, to purchase healthy snacks. Students participated in the 2-1-5 challenge to be less sedentary (2 hours per day of television and video games), to be more physically active (1 hour per day), and to eat more fruits and vegetables (5 per day). Intervention schools reduced the amount of unhealthy foods sold at parent fundraisers and discouraged parents from sending sweets to teachers at holiday time. One school chose to have a weekly breakfast club with female athletes from a local university."

via Foodlinks America newletter published by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

Auburn School District Gardens In the News Again

2008-05-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here's more about Auburn School District Nutrition Director Eric Boutin and his garden and orchard program. As far as we know, it's the first school district in the state to grow food to be served in cafeterias. The garden is also an educational tool--students plant and work in the garden.

Auburn High School Program hopes garden is step in healthier direction.

As for the oft-asked question, "Who will care for the garden in summer?"--it will be tended by students enrolled in summer programs at the school district and served in their summer food program.

Local Farms-Healthy Kids Article by WSDA's Director

2008-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Valoria Loveland will be retiring as Director of the Washington State Departmetn of Agriculture as of next Monday, but she took the time to write an article about Local Farms-Healthy Kids Act and it's benefits for the state of Washington. See it in Saturday's Yakima Herald-Republic.

Here's a quote:

It's so gratifying to find solutions and build connections to address seemingly unrelated priorities. This farm-to-school opportunity will help support the profitability of Washington farms and preserve those beautiful open spaces that we all love. And every parent knows that good habits start early. With Local Farms, Healthy Kids, we'll help young people make the right choices for a lifetime.

2 Angry Moms Coming to Seattle! (on film)

2008-04-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Bastyr University, Whole Foods Market of Redmond and Washington State University King County Extension Farm-to-School Connections Team have partnered to host a FREE screening of the documentary, “Two Angry Moms." Check out the film and the women behind it at http://www.angrymoms.org/.

Details:
7pm, May 1st
Bastyr University Auditorium
14500 Juanita Drive, Kenmore, WA 98028
Free Admission
A panel discussion featuring local nutrition and food service experts will follow the screening.

The film addresses nutrition concern issues surrounding the food served in school cafeterias across the country and offers strategies for overcoming roadblocks to replacing unhealthy school lunch menus with nutritious meal options. A conversation about how to bring nutritious meals and fresh local food into school cafeterias will follow the screening. The panel discussion will include:

Anita Finch, Seattle Public Schools
Barb Lloyd, Edmonds School District
Elise Hart, Parent, Laurelhurt Elementary Nutrition Advisory
Committee
Pete Soucy, Bastyr University
Clayton Burrows, Growing Washington
Kerri Cechovic, WA Environmental Counsel

For more information about this event, call 206-205-3206.

Auburn School District's Fabulous Garden Project

2008-04-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

Auburn High School has a great fruit tree and greenhouse garden project and it's in the news!

The garden project is the brainchild of Eric Boutin, School Nutrition Services Director at Auburn School District (and regular attendee of the Farm to School Connections Team meetings). Inspired by the Edible School Yard project in Berkeley, he's working with community partners like Bastyr University and Cascadian Ediuble Landscapes to make it happen. With greenhouses and a dwarf fruit tree orchard, the garden inhabits a one acre lot between Auburn High School and an elementary school. Food from the gardens will be included in school lunches. I hope this project can serve as a model for other schools--we'll watch the progress and hopefully create a more detailed case study soon!

Direct Quote from Seattle PI

2008-04-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Seattle PI Editorial Board responded to the WA Post article about high food costs and school lunches. Since it's short, I'm posting it in its entirety. Enjoy!

School Lunches: It's still good food
Last updated April 15, 2008 5:24 p.m. PT

Rising food costs, which already have hit home, are going to school, too. But it's important to maintain schools' increasing emphasis on healthy eating.

A Washington Post report says some school districts are cutting costs and even switching back to less-healthy but popular fatty items for snacks. Here is the new reality: Food in general, and healthy food in particular, will cost more. That includes school lunches.

Seattle Public Schools' David Tucker said budget discussions have raised the possibility of increasing prices next year. That may well be the financially responsible course.

Just as important in our view, Tucker said there are no plans for changes in nutrition content for lunches or the exemplary rules on healthy vending products. We hope that becomes the standard across a state where the Legislature has recently approved new efforts to get fresh, local foods into cafeterias. At a time when childhood obesity threatens an explosion of health problems, cutting corners on healthier menus would be a mistake, no matter what the cost pressures.
© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Higher Food Prices Challenge Schools' Efforts to Provide Healthier Meals

2008-04-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

As prices for milk and other basic food items increase, schools have to make decisions and cut corners, and just at a time when movements like Farm to School and school nutrition committees are pushing for more local, fresh ingredients and less processed and ready-made food. Maria Glod writes about the concessions schools are making in the Washington, DC area as they struggle to keep lunch programs from going in the red. In her article, Schools Get A Lesson in Lunch Line Economics: Food Costs Unravel Nutrition Initiatives, she notes:

Each year Uncle Sam, in an effort to ensure the neediest children get healthy meals, gives schools a little more cash to help feed students. But school officials nationwide say the federal share hasn't kept pace with rising costs. This year, the U.S. Agriculture Department is giving schools $2.47 per lunch to serve free meals to children from the poorest families, up from $2.40 last year, a 3 percent increase. In the same time, milk prices rose about 17 percent and bread nearly 12 percent.

This serves as an excellent reminder that work at the local and state level must be balanced by support at the federal level. It may also mean that states may need to start kicking in some funds to increase budgets for food in schools. As School Nutrition Directors have told us again and again, they cannot serve healthy fresh lunches without reasonable funding.

Privatizing School Lunches is Not the Solution

2008-04-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

A study at University of Michigan looked at the realities behind a trend toward privatizing school lunch service. The study, conducted by Roland Zullo, assistant research scientist at the U-M Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, found that private lunch services offer more selection, but the additional offerings tend to be in the categories of less nutritious foods, and this affects school performance.

...the study shows that private food service is associated with a reduction of 1 percent to 3 percent in scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP tests for grades 3-9), after controlling for affluence, school resources and student traits.This is especially true for students in grades 3-5 and with the English, reading and writing tests. The culprit? Private food services tend to serve more high-fat and high-sugar foods on their a la carte menu.

Schools often choose to contract with private food service companies to provide meals, hoping to save money that can then be directed to classroom education, but Zullo's study found that they don't save much at all. He also discovered that schools with privatized food service have an average of 1.1 student more per classroom. There are undoubtedly other factors at play and it's not a direct causal relationship, but as Zullo says, ".... the results do not indicate that privatizing food services liberates resources for the classroom."

Here's a link: Privatized School Food Service and Student Performance in Michigan: A Preliminary Report

Food for thought: privatizing school lunches may impair learning. University of Michigan News Service

Legislature Passes Local Farms-Healthy Kids Bill

2008-03-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

It may not make school lunch taste any better, but the Legislature approved a bill Tuesday that will put Washington-grown produce on the menu in school cafeterias around the state.
Senate Bill 6483 relaxes food-purchasing regulations to allow schools and state-run institutions to buy fresh produce and meats from Washington farmers -- even if locally grown products cost a little more than their processed or canned counterparts.
Additionally, the measure creates a number of pilot programs and grants that would allow food banks to accept local produce, allow farmers markets to accept food-stamp cards, and pay for Washington-grown fruits and vegetables to be served at schools where more than half of students get free or reduced lunch.

School Lunches May Get to Go Local!

2008-03-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

The Local Farms-Healthy Kids legislation passed the State of Washington House of Representatives yesterday due, in no small part, to support from concerned citizens around the state.

Michael Bennett, President of Pacific Prepak, a local food processing and distribution company, wrote a great Op-Ed with Joan Crooks of the Washington Environmental Council on the bill: Local Farms — Healthy Kids a hearty investment.

Mad Cows, Bad Enforcement

2008-02-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

The first outbreak of mad cow disease in the US occurred in Yakima, WA. Hence, Washingtonians have a stake in the the federal oversight of food safety.

Local Farms-Healthy Kids still needs funding

2008-02-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Local Farms-Healthy Kids legislation has passed the first critical tests in the Washington Legislature. The policy has passed both the House and the Senate with nearly unanimous support. The next challenge will be attaching the funds to the program.

Diane Urbani de la Paz of the Peninsula Daily News asks whether there is enough support for Local Farms-Healthy Kids to pass the budget test.

If you'd like to have your voice heard on the issue, you can contact the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 this week and ask your Senators to fully fund Local Farms-Healthy Kids.

Local Farms, Healthy Kids Passes House!

2008-02-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

The Local Farms-Healthy Kids Bill is moving along through our state legislature.
The Washington House of Representatives passed the Local Farms-Healthy Kids bill 95-1 on February 15. There are still many hurdles ahead.

To learn more about the bill, see Jennifer Langston's article in the Seattle P-I: Bill aims to put more farm-fresh foods on school lunch menus. She describes some challenges to farm to school programs, and provides some insight into how the Local Farms-Healthy Kids bill addresses them. From the article:

"I don't think there's another state that's putting together such a
comprehensive soup-to-nuts package," said Thomas Forster, policy director for
the national Community Food Security Coalition.

We Are What We Eat

2008-01-31T12:05:00.000-08:00

If you still need an argument for going organic, this may be the ticket.

A year-long study of Mercer Island children finds that the urine and saliva of children eating a variety of conventional foods contained biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.

When the same children ate organic fruits, vegetables and juices, signs of pesticides were not found. Food for thought...

“We need to move food back to the center of a well-lived life” ~ Michael Pollan

Local Produce goes to Olympia

2008-01-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

Published January 27, 2008

Hi all, Rebecca here again...this is an exciting time to be a part of farm to school, because things are heating up!

The momentum for the farm to school bill, Local Farms-Healthy Kids keeps building! The bill had two very successful hearings last week in the House and Senate and support keeps growing. GoSkagit.com provides a perspective on the bill from a Mt. Vernon meeting hosted by the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network. The discussion was the second in a speaker series called Healthy Farms, Healthy Puget Sound, put on by the network, People for a Healthy Puget Sound and the food co-op.

Alongside the efforts to get nutritious food into our kid's lunches, others are catching on to the local food movement. Check out John Dodge's Olympian article about what the South Puget Sound Community College culinary-arts program is up to, right next door to the state Capitol:

Within a stone's throw of the House and Senate hearing rooms where the Local
Farms-Healthy Kids and Communities Act was unveiled last week, the Fresh
Measures cafeteria operated by the South Puget Sound Community College
culinary-arts program was preparing dishes with fruits and vegetables supplied
by Lewis and Thurston County organic farmers.

Local Beef, not so easy to get...yet.

2008-01-28T10:40:00.000-08:00

Hi All-

So, we spend a great deal of time talking about local produce...please forgive me, but, Where is the Beef? Click below to find out, plus get some tips on how to prepare grassfed beef.

Rebecca

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071226/LIVING01/302066453

Local Farms-Healthy Kids heats up!

2008-01-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hi, Rebecca here. Now this is exciting! To learn more about what you can do to support Local Farms-Healthy Kids visit www.environmentalpriorities.org/local-farms

Bill aims to put more farm-fresh foods on school lunch menus

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Last updated 11:59 a.m. PT

By JENNIFER LANGSTON
P-I REPORTER

Kia Kozun knew that lugging 40-pound boxes of vegetables single-handedly from a Sequim farm to a friend's bistro wasn't entirely sustainable.

The outreach manager for Nash's Organic Produce wanted to sell to school cafeterias. For five months, she borrowed a certified kitchen to shred cabbage and wash dirty lettuce.

Because of insurance and liability standards, the payments flowed through a maze of regional and national distributors, who all took a cut.

"No one says kids shouldn't have healthy food in schools, but what we're up against is a really huge industrial food system," said Kozun, who recently took a break from those time-sucking efforts to supply a school district five miles away.
Harvesting carrots
Zoom Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
Eloina Najera stacks carrots harvested this month at Nash's Organic Produce in Sequim in Clallam County as co-worker Adam Mihalik tosses others onto a discard pile.

Legislation to be proposed in Olympia next week could catapult Washington to the forefront of national efforts to get more farm-fresh, locally grown food into lunches at schools and at other institutions. It borrows from piecemeal efforts in other states, but would go further.

Farm-to-school efforts are multiplying as parents worry about food safety, states look to cut greenhouse gases, and environmentalists try to preserve land by bolstering farm economies. There have been relatively few successes in Washington, which the proposed legislation aims to change.

"I don't think there's another state that's putting together such a comprehensive soup-to-nuts package," said Thomas Forster, policy director for the national Community Food Security Coalition.

Changes pending in the federal farm bill would clearly allow public schools to prefer local growers. In the past, the Agriculture Department has maintained that that kind of favoritism is illegal.

If the federal language passes, it would open to the door for states and local school districts to overhaul bidding and procurement rules that require government agencies to buy the cheapest food.

"School nutritionists should have the discretion to say, 'I want to buy these apples from Wenatchee; they're fresher and better for my kids,' without having to go through a bureaucratic nightmare or break the law," said Mo McBroom, policy director for the Washington Environmental Council.

The farm-to-school legislation is one of the environmental community's top four priorities in Olympia in 2008. It has attracted support from parents, public health employees, child advocates, state school nutritionists and some farmers.

But its passage isn't guaranteed. In a short session, the bill could get mired in questions such as how to define "locally grown" and how to allow preferences for Washington products without angering other states.

It also remains to be seen whether the Legislature will spend the $4 million that the groups are requesting in a tight budget year. School nutritionists are lobbying for an additional $4 million to allow low-income children who qualify for reduced-price lunches to eat free.

"We've all been focused on the environment, the health of kids and supporting small businesses, and I'm hoping that will be the right combo to jar loose some of the money," said Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, who is sponsoring the farm-to-school bill. "It may not be everything we want, but it's a starting point."

Eric Boutin, nutrition supervisor for the Auburn School District, visits farmers markets in his off hours. He waits until the lines go down, hands someone a card and asks about buying carrots or raspberries in the quantities he needs to serve 10,000 lunches. Most often, he never hears back.
"I've called or e-mailed every farm from our area, and it's a struggle ... to get that commitment," he said.

That's why the proposed legislation would fund two new employees in the state Agriculture Department to help connect schools and farms and wholesalers, and spread the word about what's seasonally available.

It would also spend $250,000 to research how farms might collaboratively market and distribute products. A community processing plant with proper insurance and food safety certifications could help small farmers crack new markets, for instance.

One of the biggest hurdles on the school side is funding, with food budgets of roughly $1 for each child's lunch.

The proposed bill would spend $2 million on grants enabling schools with large numbers of low-income students to serve more Washington fruits and vegetables as snacks.

The measure would also allow school nutrition directors and state agencies to buy meat, dairy products and produce from Washington without going through a bureaucratic process that forces them to accept the lowest bid.

But in Seattle, the school district has even stricter policies than the state's, requiring quotes for purchases over $15,000 and formal bids for anything over $50,000.

"It doesn't mean it couldn't be changed, but it would take some work," said Anita Finch, nutrition services director for Seattle Public Schools. "Bid laws are set up to make things competitive, so there's no little gentleman's or lady's agreements going on under the table."

McBroom, with the Washington Environmental Council, said the legislation would create a more flexible climate for schools, universities or prisons to take the initiative to support state agriculture. Much more work would be necessary.

But if the environmental community is serious about preserving farmland, it needs to do more than buy development rights and push land-use regulations, McBroom said.

"We want farmers to continue farming, not just because they can't build a condo on their farm -- which is something we want to prevent -- but also because it's profitable to remain in farming," she said.

Large farming interests say they support the farm-to-school bill in concept, but haven't seen the details. Their participation would boost its chances of success.

"One of the biggest detail devils is what is local -- that issue has been profound for at least 29 years that I know of," said Chris Cheney, a lobbyist who represents dairy farmers, poultry producers, hop growers and other agricultural interests.

The legislation currently defines "local" as anything planted, cultivated, harvested, raised or collected within the state.

Because some tree-fruit growers and dairies pool products with producers in Oregon or Idaho, it might make sense to broaden the incentives to food grown in the Northwest, Cheney said.

But small-scale, organic producers might prefer the definition of "local" to be narrowed. If the grant money can be spent on food grown anywhere in the state, schools are likely to go through wholesalers that draw from large Eastern Washington farms, they argue.

"Unless the food manager is someone who really wants to see that happen, a lot of them are going to say this is too much bother, and I'll just order through my distributor," said Steve Hallstrom, who grows organic lettuce and vegetables at Let Us Farm in Grays Harbor County.

Bill supporters say the most important thing is to establish a state farm-to-school program that can be expanded or tweaked in future years.

After battles that have historically pitted environmentalists against the state's agricultural powers, legislators hope such a program could help bridge that divide.

"It certainly is one of those win-wins if we can do it right," said Sen. Brian Hatfield, a Pacific County Democrat and a bill sponsor. "The conversations are taking place between our rural ag communities and the more urban environmental folks to say, 'Hey, we've got a lot in common here.' "

AT A GLANCE

Legislation proposed by the Washington Environmental Council would:

* Spend $2 million to get more Washington-grown fruits and vegetables into at least 75 schools serving low-income students.

* Hire two full-time employees in the state Agriculture Department to connect schools and growers.

* Spend $250,000 to research how farms could collectively process, package and distribute products in quantities that large cafeterias need.

* Allow schools to buy Washington-grown produce, meat and dairy products without formal bids, as long as prices don't "reasonably exceed" other choices.

* Adopt goals and policies encouraging state agencies, universities and schools to buy local food when available and comparable in price.

* Spend $830,000 to allow more low-income families and seniors to buy nutritious food at farmers markets.

* Spend nearly $1 million on a pilot program allowing food banks to buy from local farmers.

For more information, visit wecprotects.org/state/index.cfm.

State Rep. Christopher Hurst favors legislation requiring schools to include "carbon costs" when evaluating food bids. Factoring in environmental damage from greenhouses gases involved in shipping food could make local products "cheaper" than other options.

P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 206-448-8130 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Oregon farmers getting something from the Farm Bill?

2008-01-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and I will be filling in for Tricia for the next few months while she gets to know her new baby. Check out this article on how Oregon farmers are getting the recongnition and support they need from the Farm Bill to invest in conservation, marketing and to get a handle on pest problems.

Speaking of corporate interests in kids' eating habits ...

2007-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Straight A’s, With a Burger as a Prize. Over at the New York Times, Stuart Elliott talks about a Florida arrangement in which McDonald's gives kids free food in exchange for good report cards. They send report cards home in paper sleeves with information and advertising about the McDonald's reward program. It's criticized as just one more way that corporations are advertising to children in order to build life-long "brand loyalty." Interestingly, only one parent had complained at the time the article was written. (They also mention that they had no complaints when Pizza Hut gave away free personal pan pizzas as reward for good grades in an earlier promotion.)

Nutritionists and others warn against using food as rewards, under the argument that obesity is often about emotional eating, or eating in response to the need for comfort or the idea that we've "earned it" and that these responses may be influenced by eating patterns learned in childhood.

Digesting the News at Gristmill

2007-12-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Ann Cooper, Berkeley Unified School District's "Renegade Lunch Lady", and Kate Adamick, a school food consultant based in New York, have teamed up to analyze the links between various food news items that have come up in the past week or so. They conclude that corporations have far too much power in the policy debates around school food. Their post is over at Gristmill, the green blog at Grist.org: The school-lunch dog fight: In the clash over school lunches, who's watching out for the kids?

While we all know that corporate interests are at play in school food practice, especially when it comes to "a la carte" or "competitive" foods sold outside the main school lunches, it is worth reading their opinions about the various groups at the table influencing decisionmaking.

It is nice to know that school food issues have reached the level of public awareness that it's regularly in the news and federal regulation over school food nutrition is controversial even among healthy or sustainable food advocates. The stronger the debate, the better the resulting policies!

British Targeting Pre-schoolers and Teens with Healthy Eating Initiatives

2007-12-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Guardian reported recently that British programs are now beginning to focus on children under five years old to develop healthy eating habits early. Here's the story: A look at the kids' menu.

An earlier Observer article noted that the UK government is launching an advertising campaign linking healthy eating with success at sports, in an effort to increase student participation in school lunch programs: School meals campaign to target teenagers. This is in response to a study that reported that schools were serving healthier meals, but that in 19 of 26 schools, fewer students were eating school lunches because they didn't like them.

Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef frequently credited with starting Britain's school food revolution (though in fact change was already happening in various places), blames underfunding and slow implementation for the poor uptake of healthier school meals, saying that kitchen staff training and kitchen facilities have not been put into place as they should have been. Oliver blames government for dinners failure.

Efforts to Govern School Snack Standards at the Federal Level

2007-12-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

New York Times writer Kim Severson has written an article about the Farm Bill Amendment to define standards for snacks and drinks sold in schools: Effort to Limit Junk Food in Schools Faces Hurdles. Even if the Farm Bill doesn't pass, or passes without the amendment addressing foods sold outside the lunch program, sponsors say they will push to get it passed in some other way. The measure is controversial in that some think it is a good starting place for improving food in schools, and others wanting stronger measures and fewer exemptions for things like sports drinks. One of the touchiest issues is this:

"Although states would not be able to pass stronger restrictions, individual school districts could."

In different places, the battle to improve school food happens at different levels of decisionmaking, often based on where the climate is friendliest for change. If state legislatures are ready to take a stand on school food, they may be the place to enact the strictest rules on healthy food standards. In many places, schools or school districts may be where progress is being made. So the limitation of state power will be more problematic in some places than others. Though, as noted in the article, school district decisionmaking may also be affected by federal guidelines:

“My little fights in school districts are just going to be harder and harder because they’ll say, Well, here are the federal guidelines,” said Dr. Susan Rubin of Chappaqua, N.Y., a nutritionist who helped found the Better School Food advocacy group.

Any thoughts about how this will affect your efforts at improving school food?

Student-Grown Produce in Connecticut Schools

2007-11-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Students in Bloomfield, Connecticut and the surrounding area are coming together to grow produce, raise chickens for eggs, and even raise tilapia fish for the school district's cafeterias. Tim Cipriano, the District's recently hired food services manager, worked with Joe Rodrigues at the Donald F. Harris Sr. Agri-Science & Technology Center to create an agriculture program that feeds students educationally and nutritionally. For more info, read Steven Goode's article Food For Students From Students in the online Hartford Courant.

Washington Farm to School News Digest

Growing to school: Students taste success with local food program

Growing to school: Students taste success with local food program

ON THE WEB

USDA Unveils Historic Improvements to Meals Served in America's Schools

Farm to School Mobile Tour gives taste of North Olympic Peninsula’s bounty

Food Safety News: Bridging the GAP: Bringing Big Food Safety Regulations to Small Farms

Bridging the GAP: Bringing Big Food Safety Regulations to Small Farms

School Food Focus highlights the Farm-to-School efforts of Seattle Public Schools

With the help of strong partnerships, Wendy Weyer serves up fresh, new foods in Seattle Public Schools

USDA Blog Post - Bringing More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to Schools

Bringing More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to Schools

News video clip of Seattle Public Schools using local, fresh food in school meals

News about recent WSDA Farm-to-School Mobile Tour in Spokane Area

Schools, farms connecting to benefit student meals

Part of process is encouraging kids to try new foodsJuly 15, 2011 in DTE NewsBy Julie Schaffer, Down to Earth NW Correspondent

USDA Finds New Ways To Boost Farm-to-School Programs

School Officials Like Buying Local Produce

Official: Students eager to eat local veggies

Sign up for Upcoming Farm-to-School Mobile Tours

Champions of Change: Chefs Move to Schools - USDA Blog

USDA Announcement on Purchase of Local Agricultural Products

USDA Announces People's Garden School Pilot Program to Promote Garden-Based Learning Opportunities - Washington is Pilot State

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program for 2011-12 - Now Accepting Applications

USDA Expands Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Schools Across the Nation

WSFFN Fresh Food In Schools Program

New Program to Help Schools Purchase Washington-Grown Fruits and Vegetables

Orcas Island F2C one of America's 10 Best!

Seattle: A Food Revolution in Seattle Schools? (seattleschild.com)

Seattle/King County Farm to Table Project

Auburn School District and CPPW grant

News from Ferndale School District

Let's Move!

Calling all Spielbergs!

Need help connecting?

What's good for lunch?

The White House garden

Is the theory behind school gardens valid?

A reason to celebrate - over and over again

In praise of the rutabaga!

Something to crow about

Gardens are great

It's magic!

26 and counting...

The history of a school garden

Beginning farmers

An alternate type of garden

HealthierUS School Challenge

National Academy of Sciences urges better diet

An example from Washington (the other one)

Have you heard about the FoodHub?

Why we need to change school food

We're in fashion!

Building 'Tactical Teams'

Lessons from Summer Meal programs

Another funding oportunity!

Defining Sustainability

Grants season - Grants for School and Youth Gardens

United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency Report on Organic Food

How do we spend our lunch money?

What’s for lunch on Labor Day?

American Medical Association Passes Resolution Supporting Sustainable Food System

What do we teach in the school cafeteria?

An interesting read

Is there a free lunch?

A garden grows

Gardening tips

Cafeteria Trays

Senate bill on competitive foods in schools.

Peninsula and South Sound Farm-to-Table Regional Workshop

New grants available - Concept papers due May 21st

Cereal helps brain

Many students getting most of their daily nutrition from school meals

A Proposal to Separate Fast Food and Schools

The enormous impact of buying local

Learning to live healthy

Five winners announced in "Kids are Growing"

Stimulus Package Grant Opportunity for WA Schools to Buy Kitchen Equipment

Ann Cooper's Message to Dr. Janey Thornton

Make the connection with Farmers Markets

Part of process is encouraging kids to try new foods
July 15, 2011 in DTE News
By Julie Schaffer, Down to Earth NW Correspondent