Fall 2003

Bringing Oklahoma Food to Oklahoma Schools

by Maura McDermott

Two groundbreaking publications--The Oklahoma Farm-to-School Report and The Oklahoma Food Connection: A Directory of Agricultural Producers, Crops, and Institutional Buyers— are now available from the Oklahoma Food Policy Council.

The Oklahoma Food Policy Council is a joint project of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (ODAFF), in partnership with the USDA Risk Management Agency. Its mission is to “Bring Oklahoma food to Oklahoma tables.”

Fifteen Oklahomans representing diverse groups with an interest in Oklahoma’s food system make up the council. Current members represent farming and ranching, food processing, retail foods, education, and the media; as well as tribal, conservation, religious, and anti-hunger organizations. Key staff from the ODAFF and the Kerr Center assist members and help coordinate projects.

For its first project, the group examined the potential for increased use of locally grown foods by public institutions, especially public schools.

The council was acting on the belief that serving fresh, locally grown foods would not only improve the quality and the nutritional value of the meals served by these institutions, but would also bring increased opportunities and profitability to farmers interested in this market.

The first step in the project was to learn the buying habits of institutional food service directors in the state. The council, assisted by Barry Bloyd and his staff from the Agricultural Statistics Service and Dr. Kathleen Kelsey of Oklahoma State University, with coordination by council co-chair Jim Horne and Kerr Center staff, devised and mailed a 30-question survey to 638 institutions in Oklahoma: public schools, colleges and universities, correctional centers, state hospitals, technology centers and state resorts.

The response to this survey was very good, nearly 67%. While it is clear from the responses given that currently not much Oklahoma-grown food is served by these institutions, many have a high level of interest in buying it.

Dr. Larry Sanders, professor of agricultural economics at OSU, and graduate student Tihomir Ancev analyzed and summarized the survey results. Their analysis, along with information on farm-to-school programs around the country, an Oklahoma nutrition profile, and a list of food crops produced in Oklahoma are included in The Farm-to-School Report 2003.

The Oklahoma Food Connection builds on the expressed wish of many food service managers to connect with local food producers. The directory includes a list of Oklahoma farms interested in selling to institutions, and what they grow; a harvest calendar; a list of produce grown in Oklahoma; a supply and demand map by county and region of the state; a list of Oklahoma farm market producers; and a list of institutional food managers who may want to buy locally. Kerr Center intern Shawn Campbell did the extensive research for the publication.

What’s For Lunch?
As those with school age children know, the food choices in school systems in Oklahoma and around the nation vary; however, the trend is towards convenience and fast food, often at the expense of nutrition. According to a study cited in a recent New York Times article, over a week’s time 86 per cent of the basic school lunches in the U.S. meet the USDA’s nutritional guidelines on paper. But experts point out that children often can choose between the “nutritious meal” and items from vending machines or fast food restaurants. Excitability, poor concentration, and low achievement in the classroom have been linked to poor diets at home and, sadly, at school.

It doesn’t have to be that way. “Healthier eating options” can make a significant positive impact on student attention and discipline, say teachers at Appleton Central High School in Wisconsin, an alternative school where students are at higher risk for dropping out.

Teachers say that improved school lunches introduced five years ago have made a vast difference in reducing behavior problems—and helped them “get through” to their students. As one teacher said in a recent ABC News Report, “They are on task, they are attentive. They can concentrate for longer periods of time.”

What do the students at Appleton eat? Meals consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads and entrees free of additives and chemicals, supplied by Natural Ovens and Bakery, a local company. Soda vending machines were replaced with ones offering only juice, water and energy drinks.

Students at the school agree that food does have an impact on their behavior. “I am able to concentrate better,” said one student. “Not as tired. More energy.”

Healthy Oklahoma Kids
As has been extensively reported in the national media, the health of American children is not as good as it could be. According to the USDA, 19.3 percent of children in Oklahoma are overweight (compared to 16.1 percent nationally). This is not surprising, given that during the past decade the percentage of overweight Oklahomans of all ages has steadily increased. As the Oklahoma State Board of Health said in its 2002 State of the State’s Health Report, “For our youth the increase has been appropriately called an epidemic.”

Obesity contributes to many serious health conditions over the course of a person’s lifetime, beginning in youth. Obesity contributes significantly to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, certain cancers and other chronic diseases and conditions. Oklahoma has higher rates of death from chronic diseases compared to the rest of the nation, and the health of the adult working population has been called “relatively poor.”

Reflecting these facts, our state’s health ranking has steadily declined, moving from 33rd of the 50 states to 42nd.

Reversing these trends will be a challenge. It is common sense, however, to assume that good health begins in childhood and intervention then will set the stage for good health throughout a person’s life. The time for change is now. Take just one disease: according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three US children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless children start making serious changes to their lifestyles and eating habits.

Diabetes should be of particular concern in Oklahoma, because of our high population of Native Americans and African Americans, both of whom “show a disproportionate number of diabetes related deaths, twice that of whites,” according to the State Board of Health.

Like children around the U.S., children in Oklahoma are getting fat because they do not get enough exercise and they eat too much of the wrong kinds of foods—foods high in fat and sugars. These poor food choices lead not only to obesity but also to nutrient deficits.

While data on children’s nutrient intake in Oklahoma is not readily available, the situation can be extrapolated from more general data. Fewer than half of Oklahomans meet the recommended daily allowance for several key nutrients: calcium, magnesium, Vitamin A, B6, E, and zinc. Fewer than 50 percent of Oklahomans meet the daily vegetable, grain, fruit, meat, and dairy serving recommendations. Slightly over 50 per cent get enough Vitamin C and iron. (Oklahoma consistently rates 3-5 percentage points below national rates.)

Nationally, less than twenty percent of children eat the recommended servings of vegetables and less than 15 per cent eat the recommended servings of fruit.

The problem is big and it is difficult to know where to begin. But because school food programs reach a very large number of our children every day, the USDA, various states, and school systems in many communities around the country have seen them as the ideal place to institute a number of programs to encourage increased consumption of fresh, nutritious produce. In addition to fresh produce, lean meats, grain products and dairy— foods that Oklahoma farmers and ranchers are good at raising and produce in abundance — are of course crucial elements of a balanced diet for children.

In Oklahoma, about 387,000 of approximately 600,000 schoolchildren (about 61%) participate in the school lunch program. It would seem to be an ideal place to positively impact their nutrition.

Farm-to-School
Oklahoma’s fertile soil can grow a cornucopia of crops. People in Oklahoma are raising everything from asparagus to zucchini. What they need are opportunities to market their products and have consumers appreciate the diversity and quality of Oklahoma-grown food.

Farm-to-school (also called farm-to-cafeteria) programs connect farmers and school cafeterias in a direct way. Farmers, or more often, farmers’ groups grow specific food items to sell to schools. Farmers themselves, private companies or groups, or government entities (such as the Department of Defense Fresh Produce Program) help in various capacities to get the produce to the schools that want it.

Both schools and small farmers benefit from these efforts. Schools provide children fresh, tasty, nutritious produce while small farmers acquire new markets. Schools are able to provide fresh produce quickly and with lower transportation costs by buying it from small farmers instead of from distant markets. While fresh fruits and vegetables are often the mainstays of such programs, other locally raised farm products such as dairy, eggs, nuts, meat, even breads and other locally processed products could also be sold to schools.

Spurred by USDA initiatives and facilitated by state efforts (such as food policy councils) and action at the grass roots, such programs are gaining in popularity. Farmers are forming cooperatives or alliances in order to provide the products schools desire. Already existing farmer groups such as farm market growers or commodity organizations are taking advantage of the opportunity to sell to schools. Parents and food activists are also involved in challenging their school systems to get involved.

According to the New York Times in January of 2003, school districts in 17 states have signed contracts with small, local farms in farm-to-school programs. The potential is huge: four billion dollars are spent on school lunches every year in the US.

Farmers are just beginning to tap into that potential. One example is North Carolina, where the farm-to-school purchases in 2002 totaled $289,057.83.

Both schools and small farmers benefit from their participation in farm-to-school initiatives, says the USDA. Schools provide children fresh, tasty nutritious produce while small farmers acquire new markets. Schools are able to provide fresh produce quickly and with lower transportation costs by buying it from small farmers instead of from distant markets. Farmers find a new, profitable market.

In order to make a farm-to-school program successful, farmers must be ready to supply what schools need. According to Ken Wilmoth, a Department of Defense produce buyer who has helped to set up farm-to-school programs in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama, farmers can adjust when and what they plant in order to better match school calendars. He cites the example of Mississippi farmers making mid-summer (in addition to normal springtime) plantings of melons in order to harvest them during the fall school term.

On the other side of the equation, school officials must have a genuine commitment to placing local produce on their menus to make such programs work. The availability of competitively priced, quality, locally grown food, incentives from school boards and other public entities, and parental support, can help school officials adopt such programs.

In many farm-to-school programs, featuring locally grown produce on school menus is just one aspect of a larger focus on nutrition education. In such comprehensive programs, children not only learn how to eat in a healthy way, but also learn how their food is grown from farmers visiting the classroom or during field trips to the farm, thereby experiencing first hand the value and appeal of fresh fruits and vegetables. School gardens, too, add hands-on learning experiences and appreciation for locally grown. Such programs, many feel, are key to improving the eating habits of today’s kids.

The Farm-to-School Survey
Improving the health of our children by making nutritious foods more available and appealing at school is a desirable goal. Another worthy goal is to improve opportunities for Oklahoma farmers, including those running small and medium-sized operations, by exploring new outlets for their products.

Achieving both goals through farm-to-school programs would seem to be a win-win situation. But challenges must be overcome before producers can tap into such a large market and schoolchildren are regularly eating locally grown food.

Discovering the barriers to farm-to-school programs was one goal of the food service survey. Another was to gauge the level of interest in buying locally grown or processed food. “The significant finding of the survey," say OSU’s Sanders and Ancev, "is that a majority of these institutions would be willing to make such purchases [of locally-grown foods] if institutional practices and policies supported such decisions.”

Indeed, two-thirds of respondents agreed that they would buy locally grown items if price and quality were competitive and a source was available. Four-fifths of those who have made local purchases would do so again. About half said they would be interested in contacting local food producers, and many of those provided contact information.

Sanders and Ancev identified a number of factors and concerns that might affect the decision to buy local. They include: the Oklahoma Office of Central Purchasing including local foods in contract services, competitive prices, availability of local sources, consistency of quality, timeliness, food safety, order size, processing and preparation, payment arrangements, awareness of Oklahoma food production and processing, and categories of desired food.

They conclude that most of these concerns can be addressed. For example, private cooperatives could provide competitive prices, and improve the availability and quality of products.
“The state,” they say, “through legislative actions and agency rules, can be supportive of local purchases and education on access, availability and safety.” They suggest further public research on local production, processing, and distribution.

The Next Step
Council members were encouraged by the survey findings. However, since they also learned that current institutional purchases of local food are low (only 25% had purchased locally in the last year), it became clear that that it will take some effort to make consumption of Oklahoma-grown and processed food in our schools the norm, rather than the exception.

The publications are just the first step in establishing farm-to-school programs in the state. Recently members of the food policy council met with staff from the state departments of agriculture, education and human resources, school food service managers, and representatives from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, FSA, and the Department of Defense Farm Fresh program to explore farm-to-school program initiatives.

The dedication and cooperation of people from all walks of life— parents, teachers, health and nutrition specialists, farmers and ranchers, state and federal officials— are all crucial to the success of such a program, and also to realizing the larger goal of both healthier children and healthier farms.

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