The FEED project began in 1999 when three non-profit educational organizations -- the Northeast Organic Farming Association, of Vermont, Shelburne Farms and Food Works -- began to address what is now being called "America's Quiet Crisis." Its team of nutrition educators, teachers, gardeners, and farmers created a hands-on food, farm, and nutrition initiative called, Food Education Every Day.
. FEED approaches school cafeterias through the Three C's: connecting Curriculum with surrounding Communities and school Cafeterias. The three C's are critical to shifting school food to local, healthy, high-quality meals.
. FEED works closely with the Vermont Department of Education and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to facilitate discussions about the inclusion of local products in the federal commodities offered to Vermont schools. FEED was instrumental in helping to pass legislation for farm-to-school programs.
. FEED sets up ongoing workshops to work with educators and food-service staff on ways of using Vermont-grown produce and Vermont food products in school lunches, while educating students and their families about nutrition. The idea is to create connections between food, what's taught in the classroom, and what goes on in the community.
. One of the necessary ingredients in the FEED program is the collaboration that takes place between parent volunteers, teachers, cafeteria workers, school nurses, nutritionists, and state health/ agriculture/education officials.
. Grant money pays for training of food service managers to learn about nutrition and how to prepare local foods. Many cooks are used to opening cans of vegetables or soup when making lunch. It's quite a switch to learn how to use fresh, local tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, and basil to make soup.
The grants also provide money for school-to-farm visits, books, community presentations and garden supplies, as well as support for programs on local farm life and history, and school gardens.
Now in its sixth year and tenth school, Vermont FEED is busy working in many rural communities.
What Has Been Learned Through FEED - Keys to Success:
. Food Service workers and teachers can give students taste tests for different kinds of foods. Students can pass out food samples at snack time or lunch. It works best when students are involved in preparing the food and staffing the tasting table. Students can be the strongest advocates of the program.
. Fresh fruits and vegetables are offered to schools through the USDA Food Commodity system. These foods could also be tested as they appear school lunches.
. Schools could mix the more expensive whole foods and fresh foods with commodity foods. For example, a brown rice pilaf with seasonal produce like zucchini and carrots could be combined with commodity rice and raisins.
. Schools could purchase produce "seconds," which means produce that has a blemish, from local vegetable farmers at reduced prices. And they could purchase lots of zucchini in season, grate it and freeze it for a winter of muffins and cakes.
. Schools could purchase a regular weekly or monthly share of vegetables from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) farm. Because schools would sign up for that service in advance, the farmer could afford to sell the produce at a lower price in some cases. Also, in some cases, local food co-ops give discounts to schools when food is bought in large quantities.
. If local produce is purchased in season, when the prices are more competitive, it would not usually be cost prohibitive. Vermont food distributors have also made a commitment to provide local produce to schools whenever possible.
Source:
Information about FEED and farm-to-school programs came from a comprehensive 35-page booklet entitled Impact Assessment of Vermont Farm2School Program (April 2006) - Prepared for the Vermont FEED Partnership, Richmond, Vermont. The booklet was put together by John Ryan of Developmental Cycles of Amherst, Massachusetts, who used a variety of sources including interviews with state and federal officials overseeing aspects of the school food programs, school food administrators, wholesale food distributors, farmers, and food service managers.
Ryan also drew upon information provided by the Vermont Department of Education, the Vermont Department of Children and Families, the 2002 U.S. Census and a review of farm-to-school programs elsewhere in the U.S. Much of the focus is on Vermont FEED and the impact of efforts to increase the level of Vermont farm involvement in the school food system.
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Part II. of the report by Ryan focused on the key challenges to increasing Vermont food purchases and local farm-to-school partnerships, including: the distribution network, food preparation time, equipment and skill training, student preferences, product availability and price comparability.
There were a number of farm-to-school recommendations, including:
increasing state commodity efforts to highlight the availability of Vermont apples through DoD program. This would also apply to Vermont-grown carrots, potatoes, winter squash and onions, encouraging Vermont's legislative delegation to lobby for a doubling of Vermont's allocation from the DoD Fresh Program.
FEED has a working relationship with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture in getting fresh local products into the schools through the federal Food Commodity Program. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture calls on FEED to answer questions and FEED works with the agency on systemic school-food issues.
All of the FEED partners are part of Ag in the Classroom. AITC doesn't work in school cafeterias or provide services. It is basically a clearinghouse of information and resources for teachers about agricultural education. It networks and brings together the various Ag Ed resources and shares them with its members.
Agriculture In The Classroom (AITC)
AITC is a partnership of many Ag educational organizations including the three FEED partners (NOFA, Food Works and Shelburne Farms), the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the University of Vermont.
* For a compilation of state school food program reports from across the nation, federal policies, other resources, and evaluation tools, check out www.farmtoschool.org.
H456 - The Vermont Farm-to-School Bill
The intent of the act was to provide aid and incentives to local school districts, state agencies, and farmers to:
. serve food to Vermont students and adults that is fresh and as nutritious as possible;
. maximize use of fresh locally grown, produced, and processed foods;
. educate students about healthy eating habits through nutrition education, including hands-on techniques to make connections between farming and the food the students consume;
. increase the size and stability of farmers' direct sales;
. increase school meal preparation by increasing the selection of foods available.
Those playing the major roles included Vermont FEED Program, Vermont Department of Education, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food-Service Personnel, Local School Districts and Vermont Food Venture Center.
In 2006, $240,000 was appropriated, with $125,000 going for mini-grants, such as food-processing equipment like industrial bread mixers and vegetable shredders. In addition to the mini-grants, $25,000 helped train food service staff, teachers and farmers. The workshops were open to anyone who could attend and covered subjects such as how to prepare local food in school kitchens and how to get farmers involved in farm-to-school programs.
An assessment of H 456 was completed in January 2006 and presented to the legislature in order to secure more funding in 2007. At this time. Farm-To-School funding was made permanent with an appropriation of $85,000. The amount will vary each year depending on the availability of state funds.
All of the $85,000 in 2007 went for mini-grants. A school or a school district can apply for up to $15,000 in mini-grants. They can also request a lesser amount. This is a competitive grant process. A school may request more training for their food staff; they may hire someone to develop closer ties with local farmers and how to bring more local food into the schools.
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Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day), played a pivotal role in implementing H 456. FEED consists of three educational groups: the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, Food Works and Shelburne Farms. Some schools contracted with Vermont FEED as a fee-for-service provider to train the food workers in how to use local produce, prepare food from scratch, and develop taste tests with students. The training fee is $250 a day. This can be prohibitive for some schools even though the rate the schools pay FEED is low as they make up the difference by writing grants. The long-term goal of FEED is to empower schools to take more control of their food systems.
* Check out the Farm2School initiative publication in Vermont. You may receive a copy by going on the web at www.VTFEED.org or calling (802)-434-4122.
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