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Main Page Farm-to-School FAQ Farm-to-School News Archive How Farm-to-School Programs Help Kids Eat Healthy Closer to Home Chapter 3: Children's Health and Food Education in Oklahoma (pdf) Farmer Speaker's Form The Oklahoma
Food Connection:
A Directory of Agricultural Producers, Crops
and Institutional Buyers The Oklahoma Farm-to-School Report

More Information For:

Parents/Teachers Farmers Food Service Managers

Resources & Information:

Resources Overview Buying and
Selling Locally Farming and Gardening Food and
Agricultural Issues Organic Agriculture Raising Livestock Sustainable Agriculture

Oklahoma Farm-to-School:
Growing Healthy Kids and a Healthy Rural Economy

Oklahoma Farm-to-School Resource Guide for Food Service Managers

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

CREES logo 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).