Now that the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm to School Month in October has come to a close, school districts throughout the United States still have an opportunity to participate. The program benefits the schools, nonprofit entities and the local farmer, rancher and/or grower. The grant provides assistance to eligible entities who want to implement farm-to-school programs to improve access to local food sources. The USDA awards up to $5 million in competitive grants annually for training, support, planning, equipment purchases, school gardens, partnerships and the implementation of farm to school programs.
The planning awards range from $20,000 to $45,000 with a required 25 percent match of the total project cost. Implementation and support service grant awards range from $65,000 to $100,000 in addition to the required 25 percent match. There are also Farm to School grants for eligible farmers.
Katie Kovar-Strack, Farm to School Coordinator with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture said, “The program has several components. There is the planning, implementation and support services.”
The Planning Grants are intended for schools or school districts to start incorporating the farm-to-school elements into their daily operations. This is done by connecting with local farmers to bring the farm knowledge into the school or take the school to the farm. The grant also helps schools update their kitchen equipment, get certifications and training. It includes educational components such as participating in the garden and taste testing.
“It would be nice if the schools could do canning from their summer harvest since the season ends near the first month or two of when the schools are in session. Canning is a lost art,” said Katie.
Being able to update kitchen equipment and provide training helps the school to become a large-volume processor of local produce.
“The Implementation Grants are intended for school districts to start or further develop sustainable programs and incorporate them into existing programs. Some schools do not go forward with implementation and find that the planning grant is enough to help them build sustainable programs. The key is connecting to local growers,” said Katie.
Growers/local farmers may have a misconception of how to get on board with selling produce to the schools. “On our website, we have a cheat sheet for farmers to understand what is involved in being able to sell directly to the participating schools,” she added.
For a grower to sell directly to the schools can be done several ways. They may be linked to a business who acts as the hub and recommends their produce to an entity seeking a specific fruit or vegetable or a farmer may seek a participating school on their own.
“A GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) is a part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which is really about the food safety on the farm. We work with farmers and educate them. They can be GAP certified but will have to go through a third party auditor to get that. A lot of farmers are put off from that because of the cost. But we like to train them so they know that they are doing everything to eventually get GAP certified. Rita Scott with Oklahoma Food Alliance does the training. She brings farmers in to go over specific areas,” said Katie.
Rita Scott with the Oklahoma Food Alliance in Tulsa said, “If a farmer is not GAP certified, it does not really matter unless it is written into the school’s policy. If the grower wants to produce for the school, and the school visits their farm to see an agreeable safe practice of how the food is handled, then the school may want to buy from them. Better yet, there is nothing stopping the producer from backing his truck up and selling directly from his truck to the school.”
“The farm to school program is meant to supplement what is already being served. There is no way that just one grower can provide all the needs for the school. We have ambassadors that go to different schools to promote the programs. We work with others to try and align an overall strategy to make sure we are not duplicating efforts,” explained Katie.
Farmers who are just beef producers may have untapped property that could be used for an acre of corn, watermelon, lettuce, tomatoes or other popular foods. They do not even need to be GAP certified yet – but according to Laura Cochran of Chouteau-Mazie schools in Mayes County, “The legislature is trying to pass it into law that farmers be GAP certified. I am more than willing to buy locally because you know how it is grown. I have local producers who donate cucumbers, tomatoes, apples and more because they know I will use it in the kitchen. Any food we purchase locally has to be unprocessed,” said Laura.
Laura had the help of Two Sisters in Tulsa to grow a garden at Chouteau-Mazie School. “We made a small garden near the administration building and started three raised beds for the middle school. There was an old greenhouse and we got it up and going. We use it as a growing classroom and had five counties being represented in the growing classroom. Debbie Shanks gets a lot of credit for helping. We used this for as much education as we can and used it for the summer school program,” said Laura.
“Most of the produce/fruits we would actually use in our cafeterias would be watermelon, tomatoes, berries, cucumbers and lettuce. We are not looking for beef, pork, poultry or dairy producers at this time,” said Carmela Kegley Farm to School Coordinator of Pryor Public Schools.
In addition to encouraging farmers to dabble in crops to benefit local schools, the farm-to-school program also includes farm tours. “I have yet to find one that works with either the school’s, teacher’s and the farmer’s schedule. We are using this Planning Grant to build up our school gardens. Roosevelt Elementary has used fresh veggies from their garden in their school lunch meals, educated on buying locally fresh fruits and vegetables and promote the benefits of buying/eating locally. We also use the grant to buy the necessary equipment for our school cafeteria’s to be able to prepare and cook the fresh fruits and veggies in a productive fashion. It will also help us sustain our usage of such fresh fruits and veggies in our school district. We had the kids taste test some recipes using the garden and then they took a survey as to what they thought,” said Carmela.
Carmela also purchased new books for the Roosevelt Elementary Library on agriculture, eating healthy or fruits and vegetables. “Education is key in getting families to eat healthier,” said Carmela.
