Today’s Good News: Schools Feed Kids Local Produce

We all remember the “tuna surprise” and other awful choices in the school cafeteria.  Nowadays, I understand it could even be McDonald’s.   There is a movement afoot, however, to see that kids in school get tasty and nutritious local produce.  The Wall St. Journal had a nice article recently about this phenomenon.  Apparently 18 states have passed legislation encouraging schools to use local produce.  The federal government used to prevent schools from using “geographic preferences” in procuring food, but the Farm Bill passed earlier this year loosened that restriction.

Two nonprofits — the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College in Los Angeles and the Community Food Security Coalition in Portland, Ore. — formed a program last year to link up schools with nearby farms across the country.  Even Los Angeles has gone local: Rather than relying on a single food distributor, the school district now sends a buyer to farmers’ markets in the wee hours of the morning each day.

The National Farm to School Network estimates 2,000 programs have been set up.  Since its inception, the network has advised parents, farmers and school administrators interested in starting their own farm-to-school movement, and also lobbied for changes in federal legislation that would make it easier to do so, says co-director Marion Kalb.

It’s a win-win-win:  kids love the food and eat more,  local farms get money, it builds the market for local produce.  Even large food suppliers like Sodexho and Sysco are working more with local suppliers rather than trucking all the good in from far away.

Filed by Karen on September 5th, 2008 under Education, Food, Grassroots Organizing