October is National Farm to School month, when schools and farmers alike can celebrate the fresh foods grown by local farmers and served to local students. Jenny Lester Moffitt is Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and said a recent grant by USDA will expand the program even more.
“We’re excited that we were able to announce an additional investment of $700 million to support local foods for schools and local foods for child care settings. This adds to investments that we made a couple years ago and really grows the programs and grows the connectivity of farmers in schools.”
Moffitt says local foods in local schools is really a win-win.
“This is a win for our farmers and ranchers. It’s a win for our schools to get healthy food to kids, and I think that is really important. Children get excited when they learn about the food from farmers. I met a cattle rancher earlier this year who talked about how, when he’s at the grocery store, sometimes kids will come and they’ll pull their parents and they’ll say, ‘Hey, this is the person who’s growing the meat that is sold in our schools.’ I’ve met other farmers that are growing corn and really excited about, not just getting the local corn to the kids in the schools, but also the kids are able to shuck the corn and learn about how food is prepared as well, I think, which is also an important part for kids as well.”
She says having kids learn where the food comes from can even grow new farmers.
“When kids can see farmers and see careers in agriculture, whether that is farming, whether that is research, whether that is, you know, equipment dealers and all of the different ways in which they can be involved in agriculture, it starts from a love and appreciation of the agricultural system, which is what Farm to School programs do. They foster that connection and that connectivity and really the culture around food that I think we all very much appreciate, but everyone gets an opportunity to really participate in.”
There’s a website to learn more about the Farm to School program.
“And that is Farmtoschool.org, and then to learn about the work that we’re doing, generally at USDA, they can go to usda.gov/markets.”