Farm to School

Can you imagine a school cafeteria where healthy, fit 4th graders come back for seconds of fresh tomatoes but leave the chocolate pudding untouched? We can.

Ecotrust, in close collaboration with a diverse coalition of project partners, is working on a wide-range of initiatives to promote "farm to school" programs, as they are termed, that enable schools to feature healthy, locally sourced products in their cafeterias, incorporate nutrition-based curriculum in all academic disciplines, and provide students with experiential agriculture and food-based learning opportunities, from farm visits to gardening, cooking, composting, and recycling. Our approach is multifaceted, aiming to effect change in many arenas that each contribute to promoting children’s long-term health and academic achievement; combating obesity, hunger, and global climate change; supporting Pacific Northwest farmers and food processors, both big and small; and enhancing regional economic development and community food security. We work at the local, state, and regional levels.

Event: Red, White & True Oregon Wines

July 3rd – 5th

What are you up to this 4th of July weekend? How about heading to Oregon Wine Country! This year, on July 3rd – 5th, dozens of Oregon wineries and tasting rooms will be celebrating Independence Day with special wine tastings and festive activities, and many will be donating a 4th of their event fees or other proceeds to Ecotrust's Farm to School program. Each participating winery has planned its own array of delights — from barbecues and bocce ball to live bluegrass music and a vintage car show. Learn more about all of the participating wineries' activities here. Cheers to the Willamette Valley Wineries Association's Red, White & True Oregon Wines!

Local: Portland Public Schools

Ecotrust is proud to assist Portland Public Schools (PPS) in its efforts to serve as much regionally grown and processed food in school cafeterias as possible. During the 2008-09 school year, PPS Nutrition Services has operated two complementary programs: Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch.

Harvest of the Month & Local Lunch

Harvest of the Month is a campaign in which all school cafeterias feature a locally grown seasonal fruit or vegetable twice each month. Whether fresh, frozen, or canned, these fruits and vegetables are grown and processed in Oregon; thus their procurement benefits our immediate agricultural community, and their inclusion informs young city eaters of our state's bounty.

Local Lunch is the sister program to Harvest of the Month. As part of this program, once a month, every ingredient of school lunch (save for the condiments) is swapped out for locally grown and processed versions—from the wheat in pizza dough to the beans in chili to the lettuce in the salad bar. The Local Lunch program is the most complete expression of PPS' dedication to purchase more of its food from local farms and processors and to upgrade the quality of the central components of school meals.

These programs were made possible, in part, thanks to a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at the Northwest Health Foundation. The Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch programs are intended not only to benefit PPS students this year, but also to test drive the farm to school policy concept being proposed in the 2009 Oregon Legislative session (see below).

Community Partner Program

Ecotrust has solicited partners throughout the community—from large supermarkets to small food co-ops to hospitals—to promote the Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch programs. Through posters, recipes cards, tastings, special menu items, produce stamp cards, and many other avenues, these community organizations and businesses are reinforcing these programs' messages about local agriculture and healthy eating. As a result, knowledge of PPS' hard work is not confined to the school cafeteria, and the programs' impact resounds more widely and deeply in the community.

We would like to thank the current participants:

Alberta Cooperative Grocery
Bales Marketplace
Food Front Cooperative Grocery
Kaiser Permanente Interstate Campus Cafeteria
New Seasons Market
People's Food Co-op
Safeway
Whole Foods Market
Zupan's Markets

Would your business, organization, or community group like to get involved? Please contact , Ecotrust Farm to School Coordinator, for a toolkit that includes campaign materials and ideas for how to get started.

Parents Make a Difference

Parents can support the changes taking place in Portland Public Schools' cafeterias in three easy ways:

Talk about the upcoming Harvest of the Month fruits or veggies at home.
Serve Harvest of the Month items at home. Watch for special promotions of these foods in grocery stories and let your kids help with the shopping and cooking. Find kid-tested recipes at Oregon State University Extension Service.
Buy lunch on Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch days. Sending your kids to school with lunch money on days when Harvest of the Month items and Local Lunches are served sends a message that you support bringing Oregon grown and processed foods into our schools. Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch menu items are highlighted in your PPS school lunch menu.

State: Oregon

Legislation

Ecotrust, along with its partners, is advocating in the 2009 legislative session for public policies in the state of Oregon that will impact school food. Thanks to previous policy wins in 2007 and 2008, Oregon is the first state in the nation to create positions in both the Oregon Departments of Agriculture and Education focused on school food and food, agriculture, and garden-based education. Read more about the history of farm to school legislation in Oregon here (29kb PDF).

The 2009 legislative agenda (324kb PDF) is designed to increase the amount of money spent on school food and to increase opportunities for experiential learning that advances students’ literacy related to health, agriculture, and nutrition. As currently proposed, House Bill 2800 allocates up to 15¢ per lunch and 7¢ per breakfast served to incorporate Oregon agricultural products into school meals. To qualify for this state investment, schools must purchase an equal amount of Oregon products using federal school meal funds. Mini-grants to support school gardens and other agriculture and food-based learning programs are also included in the bill.

The bill has tremendous potential to return both well fed-kids and a stronger Oregon economy. If you would like to endorse the bill as an individual or a representative of an organization, please submit the endorsement form available here (20kb PDF).

Ecotrust will continue to play a leadership role in championing policy changes that make it easier to bring Oregon school children the very best this region has to offer.

Statewide Leadership Network

Ecotrust co-facilitates the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network, a collective founded in 2007, comprised of more than 100 governmental, community-based, and for-profit organizations, and individuals working together with the following mission:

"We convene statewide leadership to promote the health and well-being of children, families, farms and the environment by increasing access to locally grown and processed food in schools and by supporting food and garden-based education in Oregon."

Participating organizations and individuals have identified an interest in farm to school and food- and garden-based education programs for reasons that include:

Promoting children's health and academic achievement;
Combating obesity, hunger, and global climate change;
Supporting Oregon farmers and food processors; and
Enhancing economic development and community food security.

The Network believes that while these benefits might be achieved through other tactics, farm to school programs have the extraordinary ability to simultaneously address interrelated issues of health, economic development, education, and the environment. For this reason, agricultural interests, community food security advocates, educators, environmentalists, and the public health community all find fertile common ground.

Reasons for working collaboratively as part of a formal network include:

Developing and distributing leadership and expertise across the state;
Increasing the likelihood that methods will be developed and deployed with local knowledge in mind;
Increasing the likelihood that a diversity of perspectives and interest groups are represented at the table; and
Reducing duplication of efforts and unnecessary redundancies.

During a year long process facilitated by Ecotrust, Network participants organized into five workgroups: (1) Policy, (2) Education and Curriculum, (3) Procurement and Distribution, (4) Networking and Communications, and (5) Research and Evaluation.

The Network meets bi-annually. If you would like to become involved, please contact , Ecotrust Farm to School Coordinator.

Farm to Childcare

In partnership with the Oregon Child Development Coalition, Ecotrust is developing a pilot program for Oregon Head Start and Migrant Seasonal Head Start. Together, these programs serve over 8,800 children ages 0 – 5. The preschool years represent a critical time for developing lifelong eating habits; yet only one percent of preschool-age children meet all of the U.S. dietary recommendations. In addition, some of the most dramatic increases in childhood obesity have been seen in this age group. Farm to school programs have the potential of making a long-lasting, profound impact on the health of preschoolers, in turn decreasing their risk of obesity and other obesity-related chronic diseases. Our goal is to create a model farm to childcare program in Oregon that can be implemented by many other pre-kindergarten providers in the coming years.

Specific activities of the pilot project include:

Goal setting and program design;
Making connections with local food producers and processors;
Promoting complementary food and garden-based education; and
Documenting the steps undertaken during the pilot project.

Region: The West

Ecotrust serves as the Western Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School Network. There are a total of eight Regional Lead Agencies across the country working to strengthen and expand existing farm to school programs, assist others that do not yet have programs, avoid duplication of efforts, learn from each others' experiences, and document the budding movement in their regions.

As the Western Regional Lead Agency, Ecotrust serves farm to school advocates and practitioners in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. We host an annual conference with regional farm to school leaders in the fall. We also provide networking opportunities and resource sharing through an online social network, Good Grub and Gardens.

For more information on the national network, as well as the latest national farm to school related media and many invaluable resources such as case studies, evaluation tools, and curricula, please visit www.farmtoschool.org.

Networking: Good Grub and Gardens

Are you interested in networking and sharing resources with other farm to school practitioners in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, and keeping on the frontlines of the farm to school movement? We invite you to join our small facebook-esque social network, Good Grub and Gardens.

Consulting Services

Would you benefit from the support of an experienced consultant to assist in the development and evaluation of farm to school and food, garden, and agriculture-based education programs and policies?

Please contact , Ecotrust Farm to School Director, for more information.