Oklahoma Farm-to-School:
Growing Healthy Kids and a Healthy Rural
Economy
How Food Service Managers Can Get Involved
with Farm-to-School
• Get a copy of The Oklahoma Farm-To-School
Report and The Oklahoma Food Connection 2005: A Directory
of Agricultural Producers, Crops and Institutional Buyers.
Oklahoma Food Policy Council
c/o Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture,
PO Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953. (918) 647-9123.
Farm-To-School Report, www.kerrcenter.com/ofpc/farmtoschool.htm
The Food Connection, www.kerrcenter.com/ofpc/foodconnection.htm
Make sure your school district is listed in The Food Connection
Check The Food Connection to see what items farmers
are growing in your area.
• Learn more about the many great farm-to-school
programs taking place around the country by checking out
these organizations and publications:
ATTRA - National. Sustainable Agriculture Information
Service
PO Box 3657, Fayetteville, AR 72702. 1(800)346-9140. Bringing
Local Food to Local Institutions: A Resource Guide for Farm-to-School
and Farm- to-Institution Programs. http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/farmtoschool.html
Community Food Security Coalition
PO Box 209, Venice, CA 90294. (310)822-5410. http://www.foodsecurity.org/farm_to_school.html
Rethinking School Lunch
Center for Ecoliteracy,
2528 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702
Food and Health:Rethinking School Lunch Guide http://www.ecoliteracy.org/programs/pdf/rethinking_food-health.pdf
Procurement: Rethinking School Lunch Guide http://www.ecoliteracy.org/programs/pdf/rethinking_procurement.pdf
• Work with school principals and PTA. Ask
for parent volunteers to assist with kitchen prep of fresh produce,
or in planning and coordinating hands-on nutrition education activities,
such as food tastings, cooking activities, farmer visits and school
gardens. Member of your school's Health Advisory Committee may be
able to help. To learn about some great working models of these
type activities, take a look at these resources:
Cooking with Kids 3508 Camino Jalisco. Santa Fe, NM 87507. http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/13629.html
Feeding Young Minds: Hands-on Farm-to-School Education Programs.
Community Food Security Coalition, http://www.foodsecurity.org/pubs.html#feeding
Slow Food USA
Slow Food in Schools,
20 Jay Street - Suite 313, Brooklyn, NY 11201. (718)260-8000.
www.slowfoodusa.org/education/
• Make the Connection with Local Farmers
1. Using the Food Connection as a reference, contact
a few farmers to inquire about the availability of specific produce
items for use in your school meal programs.
2. Request from each farmer a list of produce grown, showing
typical periods of availability during the school year. Many crops
normally harvested in the spring and summer months can also be
grown in Oklahoma for harvest in the fall and early winter. Just
ask the farmers to indicate which produce could be available during
the periods Aug. - Dec., Dec. - Mar., Mar.- May, and also May
- Aug. if you have summer feeding programs.
3. Upon reviewing the lists of available produce, estimate the
approximate volumes used weekly for each item in which you're
interested.
4. Arrange appointments to meet with farmers to gather information
about possible quantities available, grading, packaging, delivery,
pricing and payment. Use this information to help create appropriate
product specifications. To ensure the freshest product possible,
consider using a “days from harvest” requirement in your product
specs.
5. Obtain price quotes for produce items as you specify, in order
to get the freshest product at the best price.
• Find out about the Department of Defense (DoD)
Farm-to-School Program, which allows schools to order Oklahoma-grown
produce through a special DoD program. Contact Oklahoma Department
of Human Services, Commodity Distribution and School Nutrition,
405-521-6079.
• Other Useful Resources:
5 A Day for Food Service Produce for Better Health Foundation,
5341 Limestone Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808, (302)235-2329 www.5aday.org/html/industry/foodservice.php
Community Food Security Coalition
Distribution Models for Farm to School http://www.foodsecurity.org/f2s_distribution_method.pdf
DoD Farm-to-School Program - Frequently Asked Questions http://www.foodsecurity.org/dod_f2s.pdf
 This
project is supported by the Community Food Projects Program of
the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension
Service, grant # 2004-33800-15141
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits
discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis
of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable,
sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion,
sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal,
or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived
from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases
apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require
alternative means for communication of program information (Braille,
large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center
at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).
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