FarmtoSchool Possibilities, Practicalities, and Policy

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Farm-to-SchoolPossibilities, Practicalities,
and Policy

• Jennifer Wilkins
• Division of Nutritional Sciences
• Cornell University

SAREs 20th Anniversary New American Farm
Conference  Advancing the Frontier of Sustainable
Agriculture March 25-27, 2008 Kansas City, MO
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Presentation Overview

• What is Farm to Cafeteria?
• Who Benefits?
• Why and Why now?
• Challenges
• Policy Opportunities

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What is Farm to School?

• the ability to connect schools with local and
  regional farmers to benefit both..
• A portion of the food served in school meals is
  purchased directly from local farmers
• Schools become a new market
• New relationships between food service, farmers,
  distributors, processors
• Integration between food service, classroom
  education, school gardens, student farms

Vallianatos, Gottlieb, and Haase. 2004.
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What is Farm to School?

• Immediate focus Health, Nutrition, and Diet
• Importance of FTS extends to a wide range of
  other issues
• Farm Viability - small, mid-size family farms
• Farmland preservation
• Urban sprawl
• A Food Systems Approach counter to
• Food from anywhere any time
• Highly processed
• Concentration, Consolidation, Specialization

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Farm to School Goal

• Increase amount of food schools procure from
  local, regional farms
• Can take a variety of forms
• Salad bars
• Seasonal variety
• Value-added
• Fruits and vegetable snacks
• Can involve classroom education, school gardens,
  farm field trips, farmer visits

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Who Benefits?

• Farmers
• Increased sales to nearby schools
• New markets
• Students and Staff
• Access to fresh local fruits vegetables
• Schools Healthier environment
• Improve diets, Lower chronic disease risk
• Improved academic performance
• Communities Economically, socially, culturally

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Why Farm to Cafeteria?
Why Now?
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Child Health Crisis

• As we look to the future and where childhood
  obesity will be in 20 yearsit is every bit as
  threatening to us as the terrorist threat we face
  today. It is the threat from within.
• US Surgeon General Richard Carmona TIME/ABC
  Obesity Summit June 2004

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Childhood Obesity

• Prevalence of overweight
• children aged 25 increased from 5.0 to 13.9
• children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled 7 in
  1980 to 19 in 2004
• adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled 5
  to 17
• Overweight youth are more likely to become
  overweight or obese adults
• at greater risk for adult health problems

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion (CDC) Healthy Youth Health
Topics Childhood Overweight. http//www.cdc.gov/
HealthyYouth/overweight/index.htm
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Obesity Among U.S. Adults
1990
1998
2006
Obesity BMI ?30, or about 30 lbs. overweight for
54 person
No Data 1014 1519 2024
2529 30
DHHS Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion. U.S. Obesity Trends
19852006http//www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/t
rend/maps/
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Hefty National Price Tag

• Health care expenditures related to obesity 98
  billion to 117 billion annually
• Taxpayers paying an increasingly large share
  through Medicare and Medicaid
• Prediction children of this generation may be
  the first to be less healthy and have a shorter
  life span than their parents

Institute of Medicine Preventing Childhood
Obesity Health in the Balance Sept. 2004.
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U.S. Diet Room for Improvement

• and vegetables per day 1
• Only 2 of children eat a healthy diet 2
• servings of fruits and vegetables a day 3
• 3 out of 4 high school students do not eat 5
  servings of fruits and vegetables 3
• Diet factor in leading causes of death 4

1 Cserdula et al. AJPH, June 2004, 94(6)
10141018, 2 Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Childrens Diets in the Mid-1990s.
2001.NCHS/USDHHS. 4 Grunbaum, et al. 2002.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance U.S., 2001 4
CDC/USDHHS Profiling Leading Causes of Death in
the U.S. Chronic Diseases. Nov 30, 2005.
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High Intake of high-calorie,low-nutrient Foods

• HANES 1
• Soft Drinks 1 energy contributor (7.1)
• Top 10 Foods Soft drinks, cakes, hamburgers,
  pizza, etc. (32.4)
• Soda intake 576 12-oz servings (53 gallons) per
  year 2

1Block, G. J Food Comp Analysis. 2004 2 Center
for Science in the Public Interest. 2005. Liquid
Candy.
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Healthy Foods Cost More
Graph source Food without Thought How U.S. Farm
Policy Contributes to Obesity IATP, 2006
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Junk Food A Real Deal

• Calorie-dense foods composed of refined grains,
  added sugars, or fats
• represented some of the lowest-cost options and
  provided dietary energy at minimal cost.
• Poverty and food insecurity are associated with
  lower food expenditures, low fruit and vegetable
  consumption, and otherwise lower-quality
  diets.

Drewnowski, A. and Specter, SE. AJCN, 79(1)6-16.
2004.
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Why Farm to School?

• Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole foods and
  ingredients
• FTS projects see
• Decrease in Vending sales of calorie dense
  low-nutrient options
• School gardens offer physical activity
• Greater acceptance of wide variety of fruits and
  vegetables
• Establish healthful eating habits

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Role of Schools in Child Health

• Schools have significant influencing power
• Lifelong habits and preferences
• Feeding programs in place
• Link to parents and community
• Increasing evidence that both nutrition and
  activity linked to achievement
• Children consume a wider variety of foods through
  school meals a

a Wolfe. Child Nutritional Health and the
Elementary School Environment
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Viability of Family Farms

• 1.2 million acres of farmland are lost every year
  2 acres a minute
• Farmers 65 outnumber those 21
• Number of farmers making a reasonable living and
  stay on farm declining
• Farm prices chronically low market controlled
  by agribusinesses and retail food industry
• Farmers share of food dollar
• 30 (1980) to 19 (2002)

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What if we followed the Dietary Guidelines?
Source USDA, Economic Research Service. 2This
is the total acreage adjustment needed to meet
both the whole-grain and the total-grain
recommendations. 3Not applicabledairy is not
measured in terms of crop acreage. 4This analysis
did not cover meat, added fats and oils, and
caloric sweeteners.
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Schools Potentially Huge Market for Farmers

• 25.4 Million school lunches/day
• Public School Districts 14,559 (94,112 K-12
  public schools)
• All K-12 schools 133,362 (includes charter,
  catholic, private)
• Elementary 95,201
• Secondary 38,161
• Total K-12 enrollment 51,610,806
• Elementary 36,168,631
• Secondary 13,989,239
• Combined 1,452,937

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National School Lunch Program Reimbursement
(Federal reimbursement for snacks free .60,
reduced .30, paid .05. Note programs operating
in areas where at least 50 of kids are eligible
for F or RP meals, can serve all snacks free and
be reimbursed.)
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Value of Federal Reimbursements - NY

• Schools Participating in National Breakfast
  Program 5,160
• Value 110,937,922
• Schools Participating in National Lunch Program
  5,966
• Value 456,243,991
• Nationally Billions

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Peak Oil

• The point at which we have extracted half of all
  oil that has ever existed in the world
• the half that was
• the easiest to get
• the most economically obtained
• highest quality
• cheapest to refine

Kunstler, The Long Emergency, 2005
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Peak Oil and Food

• The crisis in agriculture will be one of the
  defining conditions. We will simply have to grow
  more of our food locally. The crisis will present
  itself when industrial farming , dependent on
  massive oil and gas inputs at gigantic scales
  of operation, can no longer be carried on
  economically.

Kunstler, The Long Emergency, 2005
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Food Miles

• Distance food travels from where it is grown or
  raised to where it is ultimately purchased by the
  consumer or end-user.
• Global Market 1500 miles
• Local Market 50 miles

R. Pirog, A. Benjamin, Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, IA, 2003.
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Food Miles

• Local Global
• Apple 61 miles 1726 miles
• Spinach 36 miles 1800 miles

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Challenges

• Dependence on Commodities
• Competitive Foods
• Vending sales
• Cut costs labor
• Off-site Management

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School Food Service Realities

• Food service is financially independent
• General fund cannot be used for school meals
  program
• The higher the rate of free and reduced lunches
  the greater the budget
• From 10 - 20 of food costs may be subsidized by
  use of Commodity Foods

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Dollars and CentsWhat does Lunch Money pay for?

• Full-price lunch 1.75 Elementary, 1.90 High
  School (2.15 with reimbursements)
• Free lunch School receives 2.55 (Fed State)
• Half goes to labor and benefits
• 60 goes to the center of the plate (protein)
• 20 for milk
• Leaves 50 for bread, fruit, and vegetable
• But also need 5 left for repairs,
• cleaning supplies, utensils, trays,
• straws, etc.

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More Challenges

• Harvest calendar vs. school year
• Packing, grading, handling, and processing
  requirements
• Payment usually 30 - 90 days after delivery
• Deliveries can be frequent, consistency expected
• Distribution
• Potentially very large sales volume
• Low Profit Margins

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Policy School Level Strategies

• Menus and Recipes
• Power and control is at the food service level
• Food Skills
• Increase standard for training and education
• Wellness Policies
• Include local food language
• Infrastructure
• Kitchen facilities, equipment, cafeteria
  environment, space for gardens
• Procurement and Distribution
• Specifications - local, regionally sourced,
  production method, seasonal products

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State Federal Level Policy

• State policies
• Farm to School support
• Increase State reimbursement rates
• School infrastructure - kitchen facilities
• National
• Nutrition standards
• Production standards for food served in schools
• Federal Reimbursement
• Expand fruit and vegetable snack program
• Restrictions on geographic preference

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Example New York Farm to School Law 2002

• To facilitate and promote the purchase of NYS
  farm products by schools, universities and other
  educational institutions.
• Ag and Markets and Education departments should
  work with each other
• Sharing information products, volume, packaging,
  prices, seasonality, recipes, menus
• Coordination, Cooperation Communication
• Formalized Harvest for New York Kids Week

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Example 2004 Law Allowing Direct Purchases

• General Municipal Law Permitting Direct
  Purchases by Schools of Local Farm Products
  Without Competitive Bids (2004)
• Amendment of existing law
• Little known, confusing, cumbersome process
• Response to school districts, farm groups,
  academia and food businesses
• Goal make it easier for schools and farmers to
  do business

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But

• All amendments come
• under question because of uncertainty
• over Farm Bill language and USDA
• regulations which prohibit
• stating geographic preference.
• The farm to school program across the U.S. could
  benefit from a change in the federal language.

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Procurement Strategies

• Cant specify on geography
• Can specify on
• Quality
• Freshness - time from harvest to school delivery
• Variety
• Through specifications, may increase use of NY
  grown foods Empire apples.

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The 5 cent bill

• Title An Act to amend the education law, in
  relation to establishing the fresh fruit and
  vegetable program
• Promote increased consumption of fresh fruits and
  vegetable
• Maximize procurement of NYS grown product
• Mechanism an addition 5 cents per meal served
  for the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables.

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The 5 cent Bill

• The department shall establish a fresh fruit and
  vegetable program providing payments for the
  purchase of fresh or minimally processed fruits
  and vegetables.
• Such fruits and vegetables, to the maximum
  extent practicable and in accordance with federal
  and state statutes and rules and regulations,
  shall be grown and produced in New York state.

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The 5 cent Bill

• The program would promote increased consumption
  of fresh fruits and vegetables by students and
  maximize the procurement of New York State grown
  produce. These offerings are particularly
  important to children's health given the alarming
  rate of childhood obesity in our society. The
  program would promote healthy food choices.

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Related Policy Approaches

• Land trust purchases
• Habitat protection
• Subsidy reform
• Urban Growth boundaries
• Purchase/Transfer Development Rights
• Property Tax relief
• Compensation to Farmers
• Agriculture Districts
• Incentivizing Food Assistance Benefits

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Importance of School Food
the school meal is at the forefront of the
debate about the health of our young people a
prism through which we can examine some of the
larger questions that face us today.
Kevin Morgan, Cardiff University, Wales
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Thank You.