Browsing by Subject "farm to school"
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Item Open Access Lettuce Improve School Nutrition: Best Practices and Key Impacts of the USDA Farm to School Grant Program(2017-04-11) Wien, KaseyAs national and global food systems have industrialized over the last several decades, many children no longer know where food comes from, how to prepare and cook it, or why some foods are healthier than others. American eating and exercise habits have actually resulted in children today having shorter life expectancies than their parents, for the first time in recent history. To address this issue, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Farm to School Program (F2S) in 2010, as part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). The USDA F2S Program provides grants to school districts around the country, which have allowed for the implementation of programs that educate students about food, gardening, and nutrition, and introduce more fresh fruits and vegetables into school meals. This study investigates whether the USDA F2S Grant Program effectively empowers schools to increase the impact of existing F2S programming on students and communities. This is a qualitative analysis using interviews with F2S Coordinators, Food/Nutrition Services directors, and teachers from 13 school districts nationwide. It illustrates the wide variety of activities that students experience as a result of their school district’s F2S grant, such as nutrition and garden lessons, field trips to farms, cooking competitions, and partnerships with farmers’ markets, to name a few. The interviews reveal several positive impacts on students’ knowledge of food, gardening, and nutrition; willingness to try healthy foods; enjoyment of school; and food security. This research provides substantial evidence that the USDA F2S Grant Program allows schools to scale up F2S programming and increase their impact. In order for F2S to be part of the majority of American children’s education, the federal government needs to allocate more funding toward this program and others like it.Item Open Access Local Farmers and Food Distribution in North Carolina: A Three-Pronged Approach in Support of the Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems (SENCFS) Program(2011-04-29) Cloak, Laura; Ledford, Deidre; Tocco, NicoleLocal food production has the potential to decrease environmental impacts of the modern globalized food system, stimulate local economic development and strengthen communities. To enhance SENCFS’s ability to foster such economic and community development through a regional food system, our team examined key barriers encountered by farmers and institutions to engage in a regional food system. First, we surveyed farmers and examined the current certification process to identify the main barriers small, limited-resource farmers face in acquiring the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification. We recommend that SENCFS provide informational guidance and resources to small farmers throughout the entire GAP process. Second, to advance successful farm to school programs, we interviewed area Child Nutrition Directors to identify barriers between farmers and schools and reviewed successful programs around the country. Given these barriers, we recommend that SENCFS provide informational guidance to Child Nutrition Directors and focus lobbying efforts on increased federal and state funding for local produce purchases. Lastly, as a possible recruitment tool for food service companies operating in the area, we used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantitatively compare environmental impacts of sourcing options for sweet potatoes. The results of the LCA demonstrate the vast potential a local food system has to assist Food Service Companies meet their stated social and environmental goals when conservation agriculture is supported.