Farm to School

Overview

Farm to school is a Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) change and direct education intervention designed to improve access to local foods in pre-k to 12th grade school settings and provides education opportunities that encourage healthy eating behaviors. Farm to school empowers children and their families to make informed food choices while strengthening the local economy and contributing to vibrant communities. Each farm to school program is unique, but often combines elements of local procurement or serving food from local producers in meals and snacks, alongside food, nutrition, and agriculture education in the classroom and beyond, such as the cafeteria and school garden.

PSE backing for farm to school make farm to school practices the norm in classrooms and cafeterias throughout the year. Policy efforts focus on integrating farm to school supports into organizational statements and positions, such as procurement policies, wellness policies, and resolutions. Systems change include those that make organizational procedures and programs more supportive of farm to school. Examples include hiring farm to school or garden staff, partnering with distributors to carry and label local product, creating a grant program to fund school gardens, and building local or State-wide farm to school coalitions. Environmental changes are observable in your physical or social surroundings. Farm to school environmental supports may include, but are not limited to, local foods promotional and marketing materials, school gardens/farms, and food systems courses and classes.

Intervention Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

SNAP-Ed Strategies: Direct Education, PSE Change

Intervention Reach and Adoption

Farm to school educational efforts often target school-age youth in school settings but can also include audiences involved in the broader food system environment, such as school food service professionals, producers, distributors, school administrators, parents, community partners, and more. Direct education may include hosting farm to school trainings, hosting urban farm business classes, offering cooking classes focused on fresh, seasonal food, conducting student-led taste tests of local recipes, offering workshops on hands-on gardening, and providing education about equity in the food system. A separate toolkit submission is available for the early care and education environment (ages 0-5). (Note: this intervention can also apply to after-school and summer feeding programs).

Settings: Schools, Community-wide, Farmers Markets, Gardens (School/Community)

Age/Population Group: Elementary School, Middle School, High School

Race: All

Ethnicity: All

Intervention Components

In each school or community, each farm to school intervention looks different depending on the priorities, values, and agricultural landscape of the community. Farm to school includes 1) Procurement: serving local foods purchased from surrounding farmers, ranchers or fishers in school meals and snacks; 2) Education: creating and promoting curriculum and opportunities for agriculture, food, school gardens, health and/or nutrition education; and 3) Community supports: linking farmers to school districts in online marketplaces, incorporating farm to school into local school wellness policies, building farm to school coalitions, assisting communities in developing Farm to School Action Plans and more.

Intervention Materials

A number of resources, such as technical assistance materials, training events, and resources created by schools and State Agencies, are available at these national websites

Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program: https://www.fns.usda.gov/f2s/farm-to-school
National Farm to School Network: https://www.farmtoschool.org/
The Institute of Child Nutrition: https://theicn.org
Child Nutrition Sharing Site: https://theicn.org/cnss/

Evidence Summary

Farm to School Drivers

Daily Access to Local Foods for School Meals: Key Drivers (USDA, 2017) This study focuses on the prevalence of districts serving local food daily and the characteristics of those that do so more versus less frequently. https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=82944

Benefits and Outcomes

General

To examine and describe the facets of farm to school efforts nationwide, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) fielded surveys and collected data from school food authorities (SFAs) in 2013, 2015, and 2019. The 2019 Farm to School Census reached out to all public and private SFAs that participated in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The 2019 Farm to School Census website summarizes findings from the 2019 Census and reports on key national results. https://farmtoschoolcensus.fns.usda.gov/
The Benefits of Farm to School (National Farm to School Network, 2017) This document provides a concise and comprehensive overview of the benefits of farm to school activities. The summary covers outcomes related to economic development, public health, education, environment, and community engagement. https://www.farmtoschool.org/resources-main/the-benefits-of-farm-to-school
The 2019 Farm to School Census is part of a larger Comprehensive Review Summary Report of farm to school in the U.S., which also includes a descriptive review of the USDA Farm to School Grant Program, a review of published research on farm to school since 2010, and a set of interviews with school food distributors. These reports are available online: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cfs/farm-school-census-and-comprehensive-review

In short, benefits experienced include:

Cafeteria

Improvement in early childhood and K-12 eating behaviors, including choosing healthier options in the cafeteria and consuming more fruits and vegetables through farm to school meals and at home (+0.99 to +1.3 servings/day); consuming less unhealthy foods and sodas; reducing screen time; and increasing physical activity (Source: https://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/BenefitsFactSheet.pdf)
Demonstrated willingness to try new foods and healthier options (in early childhood and K-12 settings) (Source: Research Shows Farm To School Works (azureedge.us))
Districts that participate in farm to school report greater acceptance and participation in school meal programs (Source: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cfs/research-shows-farm-school-works)

Classroom

Enhanced overall academic achievement in K-12 settings; provides children with an understanding of agriculture and the environment; and improvement in life skills, self-esteem, social skills and behavior (Source: Research Shows Farm To School Works (azureedge.us))
Increase in knowledge and awareness about gardening, agriculture, healthy eating, local foods and seasonality (in early childhood and K-12 settings) ( Source: Research Shows Farm To School Works (azureedge.us))

Community

Districts that participate in farm to school report increased support from parents and community members (Source: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cfs/research-shows-farm-school-works)
Studies have shown that the amount spent on local produce ranges from $1.30 to $2.60 of economic activity generated for every $1 spent by schools on local foods (Source: https://www.sdchip.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/State-of-F2S-in-SD-County-2015.pdf)
Farm to school activities help to strengthen the connection and understanding communities have with healthy food and local producers. For every dollar spent on school food, an additional $0.86 is spent in the local economy. (Source: Ecotrust. The Impact of Seven Cents, https://ecotrust.org/media/7-Cents-Report_FINAL_110630.pdf)

Evidence Base: Research-tested

Evaluation Indicators

Based on the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, the following outcome indicators can be used to evaluate intervention progress and success.

	Readiness and Capacity - Short Term (ST)	Changes - Medium Term (MT)	Effectiveness and Maintenance - Long Term (LT)	Population Results (R)
Individual	ST1	MT1
Environmental Settings	ST7	MT5
Sectors of Influence		MT8	LT15