Cortney Stewart
Bachelor's of Arts in Environmental Studies
December 2002

Schools are in the powerful position of providing nutritious food and nutrition education to millions of schoolchildren every day.  In Vermont, 48,000 children eat school lunch each day; 98,000 have a school lunch program in their schools.

Our schools face mounting pressure for corporate influence to allow fast food and soda companies to become food providers to schools, while at the same time, family farms face the uncertainty of limited direct marketing options.  Increasing local food sourcing through innovative farm-to-school programs and partnerships can provide school children with healthy, fresh, local food while supporting local farms.

The increase of local food can lead to better nutrition, resist increasing rates of obesity and other diet-related diseases plaguing our nation's children, lessen the environmental impact of producing and transporting school food, and increase environmental and agricultural awareness.

Vermont has unique opportunities as a rural state with community schools and working farms to pioneer a statewide model farm-to-school program that incorporates experiential and community-based education, as well as farm visits and field studies for the rest of the nation.

There is some state-level and national policy already in place that supports local food sourcing in schools, and an organization (in FEED) that is doing valuable community level work.  FEED aims to expand their program to work with 13 schools with their program, and help facilitate the purchase of $300,000 of local produce from 26 Vermont farmers.

The influence of the commodity food system and lack of an extensive in-state distribution mechanism present formidable challenges to increasing local food sourcing, and additional development of national, state, district, and school level policy and funding support is essential to extend the influence of farm-to-school programs in Vermont. 

A coordinated statewide effort and the publicity of current initiatives in the state could generate excitement and local action, and further the influence of Vermont's pioneering farm-to-school program.

Specifically, this report recommends that the state Department of Agriculture and FEED work together to develop a local distribution mechanism for larger schools and school districts, and implement policy at the state level to support and fund local purchasing changes.  These two organizations, along with Child Nutrition and Commodity Foods need to work closely together to address these issues.

Vermont's congressional delegation needs to put national pressure on the USDA to change the commodities available to schools and appropriate national funding for these types of projects.

Additional publicity and information clearing house for FEED and Ag in the Classroom is needed to promote these programs, and communicate the good work that is already being done.

Schools and school districts ought to develop comprehensive school level food policy with input from teachers, students, administrators, community members, and school boards.