Farm-to-school programs connect schools and local farmers. These schools
procure from local farmers and include farm fresh foods in meals and snacks.
The most effective farm-to-school programs incorporate nutrition-based
curriculum and provide students with learning opportunities such as cooking
demonstrations, gardening, farm visits, and other lessons that incorporate
agricultural themes.
Research is showing that when children have increased access to high
quality fresh fruits and vegetables, as in farm-to-school programs, they
will eat more servings of these healthy foods, thereby improving both
their eating habits and nutritional health.
Key findings of five research papers are summarized below. The first “research
brief” study from USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) summarizes
the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables as part of a “healthy
school meal environment.”
Summaries of four research studies document the positive changes in eating
habits and child nutrition as a result of serving schoolchildren more
fresh fruits and vegetables.
Three of the four describe farm-to-school programs that served primarily
locally grown produce, and the fourth study describes a national pilot
program designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption by schoolchildren,
where a portion of the fresh produce served was locally grown.
This USDA/ERS Research Brief concludes that the more attractive school
meals are to children, the more likely they are to eat them. Of particular
importance is encouraging consumption of fruits, salad and other vegetables
served with the meals. These foods are under consumed by American children
compared with the USDA Food Guide Pyramid recommendations and are also
the components of USDA school meals most likely to be discarded uneaten
by children (plate waste).
- Increase choices and student input into food service decisions."
- In Oregon, as fruit and veg. choices were increased to
6 items per day, food waste decreased by as much as 36%.
- Improve the selection of USDA-donated commodities.
- One study found that increasing the amount of fresh produce
made available to schools decreased plate waste.
- Increase the use of produce and local foods, and improve preparation.
- Case studies of farm-to-school programs suggest that using
local fresh foods increases school meal participation and
consumption of salad and other vegetables.
Source: Buzby J, Guthrie J, Ralston K. A Healthy School Meal Environment, Food
Assistance Research Brief, USDA, Economic Research Service, Food
Assistance and Nutrition Research Report Number 34-5. July 2003.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr34/fanrr34-5/ Accessed
Nov. 7, 2005
2. Los Angeles Farm-to-School Salad Bar
In 1999, a team of researchers from UCLA team evaluated fourteen low-income
schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District and found a high percentage
of overweight and obese students and a small amount of fruits and vegetables
consumed each day.
Two years later, the UCLA team evaluated a group of students
from three of the fourteen schools who had participated in the original
study. The three schools had, in the previous year, developed farm-to-school
salad bar programs as part of the intervention related
to the study.
One rationale for the farm-to-school program was the fact that
elementary school age children in families from lower socioeconomic
groups eat the majority of their meals at school. The farm-to-school program
broadened the food choices in the USDA’s reimbursable lunch program
and. contained a child and teacher nutrition education component.
Key results: Evaluating the same group of students UCLA
researchers identified
- A significant increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables
(from an average of 2.8 to 4.2 per day) that researchers traced
specifically to the salad bar program
- A majority of children interviewed (56%) ate from the salad bar everyday
or most days
- Calories (kcal) from fat as well as cholesterol intake went down.
- Conclusion: The salad bar lunch menu option can significantly increase
the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption of children living
in low income households
Source: Slusser, W. and C. Neumann, 2001. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness
of the Salad Bar Program in the Los Angeles School District,” Los
Angeles: School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles,
cited in “Farm to School: Strategies for Urban Health, Combating
Sprawl and Establishing a Community Food Systems Approach,” Journal
of Planning Education and Research 23:414-423.
3. Ventura (CA) Farm-to-School Salad Bar
Researchers from the University of California at Davis studied children’s
food choices after a farm-to-school salad bar program was initiated. An
integrated program that includes gardening, nutrition education, on-site
recycling, and farm tours it features a cafeteria salad bar stocked with
farm-fresh, seasonal produce from local farmers.
Key
Results:
- The salad bars raised fruit and vegetable consumption. Kids took more
than the USDA minimum servings and chose more variety than from the
regular lunch line (hot lunch)
- When many kinds of fruits and vegetables are offered, kids take them.
This is most true when options are fresh.
- Conclusion “Children know what tastes good to them. They will
choose fruits and vegetables when they are fresh and presented in an
appealing way. Even children who eat “fast food” are quick
to tell you when their lunch servings are not fresh or have a ‘plastic’ taste.”
Source: www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/newsltr/v16n3/sa-1.htm Accessed
October 31, 2005
4. The Farmers’ Market Salad Bar: Assessing the First Three
Years of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Program.
This report discusses the success of a three-year pilot program entitled “Farmers’ Market
Fruit and Salad Bar,” designed to increase student consumption of
fresh fruits and vegetables and to link the school lunch program to community
food security, and nutrition education objectives. Over the three pilot
years, the program was implemented in 9 elementary schools and two middle
schools in California.
Key results: “On average, more than three times
the number of children selected the farmers market salad bar option than
in the previous year when the produce used was pre-cut and purchased through
a produce broker. At the same time, the unit cost of the farmers’ market
salad bar meal was less than the hot meal option as well as the previous
years non Farmers’ Market Salad Bar items. This Farmers’ Market
Salad Bar program can be considered a major success in
contributing to healthier diets for school children and support for local
farmers.”
Source: Michelle Mascarenhas and Robert Gottlieb, Urban and Environmental
Policy Institute, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, report prepared
for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Food and Nutrition
Services, October 2000.
( www.uepi.oxy.edu/cfsp ) or http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:0OnWUpCChiEJ:www.mcph.org/
PRC.04/IM.March.04/Farmers3.04.pdf+mascarenhas+farmers+market+salad+bar&hl=en
5. USDA Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program (FFVP)
The program provided schools with free fresh and dried fruits and fresh
vegetables (some locally grown) to be served to schoolchildren throughout
the day in 107 elementary and secondary schools in five states in 2002-2003.
Success was determined by the students’ interest. Most participating
schools considered the pilot program to be very successful.
Key results:
School staff believed that the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables
(through the pilot)
- lessened the risk of obesity
- increased attention in class
- reduced consumption of less healthy food
- reduced number of unhealthy snacks brought from
home
- increased students' awareness and preference for a variety of fruits
and vegetables (particularly less familiar kinds, such as kiwis
and fresh pears)
- helped children who would otherwise be hungry get more food, and
- increased students consumption of fruits and vegetables at lunch.
Students liked the pilot because
- They got to eat favorite fruits and vegetables more often
- They liked the health benefits of eating these foods
Students and Staff Both Reported Improved Eating Habits,
- including a greater willingness by students to try different fruits
and vegetables, such as broccoli or cauliflower that they were unwilling
to eat before
- greater consciousness about eating too much “junk food”
- Foodservice staff in one school said that they had sold 25 percent
fewer doughnuts in the morning since the pilot's inception and 50
percent fewer lunchtime desserts.
- In another school, middle school students reported that the sale
of candy through the school booster activity had dramatically decreased
since the pilot's beginning. While 850 pieces of candy had been sold
the week before the pilot started, only 300 had been sold every week
since.
Other Results
- Almost one in three schools felt that the FVPP increased the likelihood
that children would participate in school meals
- 79 out of 105 schools reported that the FVPP increased children’s
acceptance of fruits and vegetables offered as part of school meals.
Source: USDA/ERS Fresh/Dried Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program Final
Report:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ChildNutrition/fruitandvegetablepilot.htm
Research summarized by the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture,
Inc., November 2005.
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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