September 19, 2012 -- A pilot program to Farm to School and School Garden programs in two districts has stalled in implementation – but is picking up steam this fall.
At the end of the 2011 legislative session, both the House and Senate passed House Bill 2800, with support from a broad coalition of school districts, farmers and elected officials. Despite the bill's popularity in both the House and the Senate, the program only received a tiny fraction of the funding the bill's sponsors requested: $200,000 of the requested $23 million was set aside to test out the program in two small- to medium-sized school districts.
Then, the program stalled due to a combination of staffing and budget issues in the state's Department of Education: the staff member who would have been responsible for implementing the pilot program retired. Also, layoffs and a hiring freeze prevented the state from bringing on a replacement.
But at the beginning of September, the department hired child nutrition specialist Rick Sherman to coordinate the farm to school/school garden program.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said Sherman was unavailable to comment, but according to Kasandra Griffin, food policy and coordinated school health policy manager at Upstream Public Health, Sherman's department is working on a request for proposals from schools that want to be part of this pilot program.
Griffin also serves on the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Policy Group, which includes advocates from around the state and just started meeting again last month. The group is getting ready to reach out to state legislators, encouraging them to visit schools and eat lunch with school children to find out what they think of the food they eat.
“We're trying to coordinate as many of these [visits] as possible,” Griffin said.
A case study published by Upstream in May 2011 said farm-to-school programs – which source food for cafeterias from local farms – and school gardens increase participation in school meals, which could ease food insecurity in Oregon because school meals are cheaper, and parents would be freer to spend money normally spent on packing food on other meals. Additionally, reducing the distance across which food is shipped would have an impact on greenhouse emissions, respiratory health and climate change.
Advocates hope to get more financial support from the state in the coming legislative session – which may be easier after the pilot program begins and some farmers and schools are able to discuss the how they’ve benefitted
Image for this story by healthy lunch ideas (CC-BY ND 2.0) via Flickr.
