Many think that our small family farms are doomed to extinction and all of our food dollars are leaving our local economy. Others are bewildered by the alarming rates of childhood obesity. Is there possibly an answer to both issues? The farm to school movement might just be that answer.

School systems spend thousands of dollars each year on food, which is a potentially huge new market for farms and a saving grace for farmland. Farm-to-school programs also give students a taste of the delicious fare grown in fields and orchards all around them. That local awareness, along with the quality difference in foods grown for eating rather than shipping, is key to improving kids' diets with healthy and meaningful new choices.

In May of 2004, ASAP and the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) conducted a day-long workshop on Farm to School ( F2S), one of three such workshops funded by RMA. The response was overwhelmingly positive and the workshop participants – food service directors, farmers, agriculture professionals, health professionals, teachers, parents and others - identified the steps to move forward. Based on the evaluations from that workshop, we know that farmers want more information about the potential for this market (pricing guidelines, packaging, distribution system required, etc.). The overall sense was that this workshop was but a first step and that future steps would need to be more regional in order to reach the farmers in those rural areas.

We are very fortunate to have such innovative and pioneering farmers, such as Sandra and Harold Davis of Yancey County and Dewain and Kathy Mackey of Madison. Both farming families used funds made available through the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission (which funded ASAP’s Transition Program) to purchase the supplies needed to grow hydroponic lettuce. Hydroponics works well as everything is grown in greenhouses, allowing for the lettuce (and other vegetables and fruits) to be grown during the school year. Sandra and Harold were the first to try this, by selling their lettuce to the Yancey County School system. The 2004-05 school year found Dewain doing the same in the Madison County schools and Mars Hill College. In December 2004, Dewain got his lettuce into the Asheville City schools. Everyone is thrilled with the product and ASAP is trying to raise the awareness of it through promotional/educational posters displayed in every school cafeteria.

There is a newly established farm to school committee, coordinated by ASAP and includes Cooperative Extension and Child Nutrition Directors in Madison, Yancey and Mitchell counties, Yancey/Mitchell Health Dept., several farmers, and a Blue Ridge Food Ventures’ staff person. The goal with this committee is to concentrate on the Madison-Yancey-Mitchell county area, in order to gather information and prove whether this is feasible and sustainable for the area schools and farming community.

This is a growing movement, growing in over 400 school systems across the country. Interest amongst educational institutions to purchase products from local, sustainable farmers is gaining momentum; dozens of communities and hundreds of schools, colleges, and other institutions are exploring opportunities to offer fresh, local, sustainably produced foods. For instance, the New North Florida Cooperative provides farm- fresh collard greens to 15 school districts in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Such efforts are opening up new markets for local, sustainable farmers and strengthening regional food systems.

But for hundreds of farm-to-school programs, schools need help with major logistical challenges, such as preparing more food from scratch after years of heat-and-serve. Just getting local food from the field to the cafeteria, or from an apple into applesauce, can be a Herculean task. That's because most "middleman" functions in today's food system - from storage spaces to delivery trucks - are geared to moving food from coast to coast and from central warehouse to superstore. Few smaller-scale or locally oriented distribution companies and food processors are left to serve the new and growing demand from schools and others for fresher choices from nearby farms.

Farm to school might be one of the answers to the health crisis of our children and the farmland loss of our communities, but it won’t be an easy one. Rebuilding a local food system takes time. But the health of our children and our communities is worth it.