Farm to School

Now that school has started again, it can be difficult to know what your child is eating on a daily basis.  You may try your hardest to provide fresh and healthy foods at home, but when they go to school often times the food focus is more about convenience rather than nutrition.  However, you can have a voice in what food is provided to your child during the school day by supporting your local farm to school effort.

There are a number of ways you can support your school’s local farm to school effort, some of which are highlighted below:

• Wellness Committee: Ask the school if they have a wellness committee you could be a part of.  Many schools have a wellness committee that helps implement a school’s wellness policy, which outlines the way foods are used in the school.  For instance, they may control what foods are allowed in the vending machines or if the schools allow vending machines at all.  They also may provide suggestions for foods to be used during school celebrations.  For instance, many schools are not allowing birthday treats like cupcakes and cookies and instead insisting on healthier options such as fruit, fruit popsicles, or popcorn.  The wellness committee also helps get healthier option in the lunch line.
  
• Farm Tour: Ask your child’s teacher if you could help plan a field trip to a local farm.  Farmer’s love talking about their work and it is a great hands-on way to get students excited about fruits and veggies.
  
• School Garden: Ask if the school already has a school garden.  If so, you could ask how to get more of the produce into the classroom or school lunch.   You could also get a group of volunteers together to cleanup the garden later in the season.  If they do not have a garden, you could speak to the school about starting a garden in the spring.
  
• Local Foods Taste Testing: Ask your child’s teacher if you could do a local foods taste test in the classroom.  You could get produce from a local farmers market and bring it into the classroom for the students to taste.  The more exposure students have to fruits and vegetables, the more likely they’ll be to eat these vegetables on a regular basis.

For more information about how to help build your schools local foods efforts, check out the University of Minnesota Extension’s Farm to School website. http://www1.extension.umn.edu/food/farm-to-school/

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Jamie Bain is a Health and Nutrition Extension Educator for the East Metro. Her passions are working with youth, local foods access, and cooking healthy delicious food (preferably from the garden!).  She believes that communities are only as healthy as their food systems. Before working with Extension, she worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the metro area with a focus of holistic health for all and received her Master’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Minnesota in 2006. You can link to the Extension Health and Nutrition website at:  http://www.extension.umn.edu/health/