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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.

Why we need to change school food

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.

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

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

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!]

Higher Food Prices Challenge Schools' Efforts to Provide Healthier Meals

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.

Local Farms, Healthy Kids Passes House!

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.

British Targeting Pre-schoolers and Teens with Healthy Eating Initiatives

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.

Fries and Cookies Pay the Bills in North Carolina Schools

Andrea Weigle at The News & Observer, a North Carolina paper, has written an excellent piece entitled Kids' waistlines vs. bottom line about the difficulties of providing healthy food to school children on tight budgets and complicated funding systems. Schools are trying to include healthier choices. As in Seattle Public Schools, they have switched many products and ingredients to include higher fiber and whole grains, for example, and even the brand name a la carte items are often of higher nutritional value than their counterparts in stores and restaurants.

North Carolina has even piloted new standards for nutritional content, but pilots failed because the healthier foods were more expensive and they lost the extra income from selling "a la carte" snack and popular foods, so the schools lost piles of money. In the NC system, those a la carte sales are expected to provide revenue for a significant portion of lunch budgets, withouth which free and reduced lunch reimbursements and paid lunch proceeds fall far short of necessary funds. Part of the problem with the pilot programs for healthier foods is that the state legislature passed dietary rules without enough money to cover the losses during the transition. [Note: In the UK, schools that increased local purchasing, more fresh foods, and meals cooked on-site have found that they experience a dip in sales, but that school lunch participation eventually rebounded and increased. Of course this is specific to the situation and requires extra efforts and ability to weather the dip.] These are important considerations for those of us who wish for change in a hurry, believing that if we just tell schools to serve better food, it will happen. As we're all learning, it's much more complicated than that, and that legislative solutions must be well-researched and include adequate funding to make the transitions a success.

Another interesting tidbit from the article:

The situation is further complicated by a U.S. Department of Agriculture requirement that school cafeteria meals provide a minimum number of calories. Nutritious foods alone often fall short, forcing schools to add high-calorie dishes or risk losing their federal free- and reduced-price lunch subsidy.

Some of the problems raised in the article are specific to North Carolina's method of funding school lunch programs. Does anyone know the details in Washington, and how they affect schools' options? If so, speak up in the comments--we'd all love to learn about it! (Or come to the next Farm-to-School meeting for the School Nutrition Directors panel and ask them how the funding system affects their options.)

Popular Political Blog Addresses School Lunches

Over at Daily Kos, an extremely popular progressive blog with lots of contributors, a writer with alias OrangeClouds115 has written an article, provocatively called Vegetables of Mass Destruction - Farm to Cafeteria that addresses nutrition requirements, budget limitations and other barriers. The author refers to the Seattle farm-to-school concerns in the PI articles last month, as well as to a number of other articles we've noted on this blog. There are 125 comments, and lots of them at the top are not on topic, but there are some interesting ones buried deeper in the list. One parent, "Zic" says,

Big problem? The prices the schools can pay mean most farmers would actually loose money on the deal. Remember, farmers need to pay labor, insurance, and retirement out of their meager take, as well as taxes, equipment, etc.
That's part of the problem, people buy food based on price not on quality.

More News on the Home Front

Jennifer Langston of the Seattle P-I continues to report on local food issues and school food improvement with the latest article, Better cafeteria offerings pushed by middle schoolers.

Orca Middle School has been one of the most active in Seattle in work on school gardens and school food options. Tiana Colovos, who you may have met at F2S Connections meetings, is quoted in the article: "We've made inroads with the snacks and nutrition education, but crossing that threshold into the cafeteria is like a brick wall." There are lots of reasons for this, as have been explored in earlier articles, but Orca may be on the right path with students themselves now getting involved in the campaign. They're also in a better position to approach the issue, now that they have an on-site kitchen! Learn more in the article.

Vote with Your Lunch Money

Deborah Kane, Vice President at Food and Farms at EcoTrust, and a mom (among other credentials), published an article called BACK TO SCHOOL: VOTING WITH YOUR LUNCH MONEY on the Edible Portland blog. The article is a really informative interview with Kristy Obbink,Portland Public Schools (PPS) Nutrition Services Director, on her project of including more local food in Portland schools. Obbink's goals are ambitious, and her dedication admirable. The article details specific projects, like trying to sell kids a custom-ordered high-fiber fruit bar from local processors when there's a competing sweetened and highly packaged option, but also talks a bit of philosophy. Here's a particularly cool quote:

“Increasingly, we’re taking a more holistic approach to nutrition. PPS recognizes its role in informing children about the impact of their food choices not just on their personal health, but also on the health of the broader community. That means we’re incorporating social and environmental dimensions into our definition of healthy, nutritious foods.”

An important point in the article is the need for parents to choose to buy school lunches, particularly on days or meals when local or healthier ingredients are highlighted--such higher levels of participation not only provides evidence that the changes pay off (which can leverage greater change in the future), it also provides more money for the schools to work with. And every school nutrition director I've ever spoken to is excited about the possibilities for local fresh food in schools, if only they had more money.

Carrot Coins in NY

Local Carrots with a Side of Red Tape - Kim Severson of the New York Times writes of how even the relatively experienced New York State Farm to School folks face challenges with each new addition to the program. Her article highlights the amount of creativity and commitment required for the seemingly simple task of buying carrots from local farms for local kids to eat. Testing product and adjusting expectations or redesigning "standard products" like baby carrots (into "carrot coins" in this case) takes time, energy, money and a strong will to make it work! Note also the discussion of risks to the farmers, who sometimes need to plant new varieties and invest in equipment in order to successfully reach the large school markets.

National Policy also Affects F2S

10/4/07 - KQED Quest radio piece by Lauren Sommer about the challenge of getting healthy food into schools, and how it is influenced by the federal Farm Bill. Those interviewed specifically address concerns that the current Farm Bill measures do not support the nutritional guidelines now being given to Americans. (Includes a brief interview with Ann Cooper of the Berkeley School District)

Shared Challenges

10/6/07 - Karen Herzog at the Milwaukee Sentinel talks about local purchasing in Mt. Horeb School District in Wisconsin. The article notes challenges that also affect our Pacific NW school districts: cost, adequate supply, and staff time and skill required to process fresh fruits and vegetables, but it also highlights the benefits of introducing kids to a range of fresh foods.