CHICAGO — During the first three years of the USDA’s Farm to School Grant Program, which provides funding for schools to integrate local food into their school meal programs, the department received more than 1,000 applications which would have totaled more than $78 million in grant funding.
But the department only had $5 million to give out per year. “Clearly, the demand is much much higher than what the grant program can currently offer,” said Anupama Joshi, executive director and co-founder of the National Farm to School Network, one of the organizations that advocated for the Farm to School Grant Program to be established through the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA).
The Farm to School Act of 2015, introduced at the end of February, if approved, would triple the funding available through the grant program -- from $5 to $15 million per year -- as well as fully include preschools, summer food programs and after-school programs in the grant program; improve participation from beginning, veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers; and increase access to local food among tribal schools. The National Farm to School Network, in partnership with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, is leading the charge on farm to school provisions in Child Nutrition Reauthorization 2015, and Healthy Schools Campaign is a strong supporter.
Joshi’s desire to increase the capacity of the USDA’s farm to school program is based in a conviction that farm to school serves as a tremendous way for schools to meet the nutrition standards laid out by HHFKA. “Farm to school is one strategy schools can use to meet the new nutrition standards” she said. “Farm to school is not just about providing good food, it is about getting taste tests into the mix, getting children educated about their food and getting kids in the garden.”
Joshi points out that research shows that people -- including children -- have to try a new food 10 to 12 times before they’re willing to make it a part of their regular diet. Introducing children to new foods through taste tests and other educational experiences is a proven way for them to learn to enjoy new fruits and vegetables. That will ensure students aren’t throwing out their school food, which has been one of the criticisms of the new nutrition standards. Several studies have shown that with the right approach, children are indeed eating more fruits and vegetables and not just tossing them in the trash.