2006 Essay Contest:
Get Healthy with Oklahoma Farm to School

The Kerr Center invites all Oklahoma high school juniors and seniors to participate in an essay contest. The subject of the contest is “Get Healthy with Oklahoma Farm to School.”

Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of obesity in the entire nation. The health of our citizens and especially our students is being put in danger by our dietary decisions and sedentary lifestyles. Students learn their eating habits early, and those habits often carry on into adulthood where health concerns become even more prevalent with high incidents of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease being linked with obesity. We must find innovative ways to improve the eating habits of all people in Oklahoma.

One place to start in changing dietary habits in our youth is in the nutritional offerings that are available at schools. School cafeterias are required to follow federal and state guidelines for child nutrition. But, often students either choose not to eat in their school cafeteria or they choose “a la carte” items that are lower in nutritional value. Some students cite their disfavor with the taste or texture of the foods in the lunch line as a reason for not choosing healthy foods.

Most of the foods served in schools in Oklahoma is shipped in from other states. In the United States, the typical ‘fresh’ food item is hauled an average of 1500 to 2500 miles before being served. Farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma are capable of growing many products that are currently being bought elsewhere. Schools could purchase many items from farmers in the communities surrounding the schools. Students could have the opportunity to consume fresh farm products soon after they are harvested. Our students deserve the best and freshest food available.

The Oklahoma Food Policy Council instituted a pilot farm to school project in August of 2004 in an effort to get nutritious and fresh produce grown in Oklahoma into our school districts. Currently, six different school districts are involved in the pilot project including: Broken Arrow, Muskogee, Shawnee, Edmond, Tulsa and Tahlequah. The produce was very well received by the students and by school food service personnel. The product was fresh, full of flavor, and of a consistency that students enjoyed. Consequently, the students consumed more of the product and threw away less according to one of the food service directors.

In their essays, contestants should explore the potential positive impacts of providing healthy, locally grown foods in their school cafeterias. These may include student health benefits such as better nutrition and decreased obesity, as well as economic benefits to Oklahoma farmers from opening this new market. Environmental benefits from shipping food shorter distances may also be explored. Contestants should also carefully consider potential barriers to providing locally grown foods in schools, and offer solutions to overcome those barriers.

This essay contest is designed to include young people in a thoughtful discussion of solutions and current challenges facing nutrition advocates in our state. The winning essays will focus on the issues and potential benefits involved in increasing the quality of nutritional choices available in schools by serving locally grown agricultural products. The arguments and ideas in each essay should be well-developed. Essayists will be asked to include their own ideas and convictions, as well as relevant research which could include interviews of other students.

The contest will begin on January 20, 2006. All essays must be addressed to the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture and received in the Kerr Center’s office by 5:00 p.m., March 28, 2006. Winners will be announced on May 5, 2006. GRAND PRIZE is a cash award of $750.00; 1st Runner up is a cash award of $500.00; and one award of $250.00 will be given for Honorable Mention. Winning essays may be published on the Kerr Center website or in the Kerr Center’s newsletter which is mailed to approximately 8,000 people quarterly.

For further information regarding the 2006 Essay Contest, you may contact Anita Poole at apoole@kerrcenter.com or by calling 918-647-9123. Further information will be available on the Kerr Center’s website at www.kerrcenter.com.

RULES

1. All essays must address the stated target topic.

2. All contestants must attend or be affiliated with an Oklahoma high school to be eligible.

3. Maximum length of an essay is 1,000 words while minimum length of an accepted essay is 800 words. Any essays that are submitted that do not conform to these requirements will result in disqualification without exception. The Kerr Center reserves the right to edit the winning essays prior to publication in the Kerr Center’s newsletter.

4. All children and families of Kerr Center employees are excluded from the competition.
5. The essays will be evaluated by an independent committee and will be judged on specific criteria. The criteria for judging will be: the development of ideas, overall use of good writing skills, attention to details and facts, the preciseness of presentation and the emotional responses evoked by the essays.

6. All essays should be typed and double spaced with a standard readable font.

7. All essays should include a title page which contains the participant’s name, address, school, grade, paper title and word count.

8. Each work must be original, and all quotes from other sources must be documented either in the body of the paper or in footnotes or endnotes. You are not limited only to the resources provided, but remember, plagiarism will result in disqualification from the contest.

9. All essays become the property of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

10. Recommended resources include books, magazines, news media, school personnel, and personal contact with individuals either involved with agriculture or an interest therein.

11. Entries should be sent to Anita Poole, Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, P. O. Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953. Inquiries may be made to 918-647-9123.

12. Have fun, and remember that ideas you develop today may make a significant impact on the world of tomorrow.

Hints for Writing a Winning Essay

Persuasive writing is a style in which the writer is trying to convince the reader to agree about an issue that has more than one side. To write in the persuasive style, a writer must:

• acknowledge there are two sides to every controversial issue;
• list and arrange arguments in a logical manner; and
• refute the arguments of the opposing side.

Persuasive writing uses different techniques such as analogies, examples, definitions, compare/contrast, cause/effect and classification. If you have any questions about any of these techniques, please feel free to speak to your English teacher or other writing professionals.

Remember to write a balanced paper, organization is key. One way to organize your thoughts is to first develop an outline. Papers that are persuasive and well organized have a better chance at winning this contest.

Resources

“Get Healthy With Oklahoma Farm to School”
2006 Essay Contest

The following list of potential resources is not intended to be exclusive.  Essay contest participants are encouraged to do further research to support the arguments presented in their papers.  The resources list provided was developed in part by executing a search on the internet for “nutrition farm to school.”

RESOURCE LIST

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

www.NOWFoods.com “UC Researchers Find Farm-to-School Programs Shift Students’ Diets.”

www.billingsgazette.com “More Colleges Buying Food From Local Farmers.”

www.goliath.ecnext.com “A healthy partnership:  innovative farm to school programs address childhood nutrition.”

www.farmtoschool.org “What is Farm to School?”, “Why Farm to School?”, “How Can You Get Involved in Farm to School”, and  “How Can Farm to School Work in Different Climates?”

http://schoolmeals.nal.usda.gov/Resources/farmtoschool.htm  “Farm to School/School Garden Information.”

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/June/15/local/stories/07local.htm “Farm-to-School teaches kids to eat right.”

www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/rsl/mark-winne.html  “Food Security – It Takes a Community.”

 www.todaysdietitian.com/archives/td_0505p40.shtml “The Farm-to-School Movement.”

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