Give Higher Priority to Farm to School Programs

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, held a
conference call last week with about a thousand of his closest
friends to talk about the Obama administration's initiatives on
child nutrition and physical activity. He started by describing the
twin problems that make this a high priority for the
administration: obesity and hunger. A third of the nation's
children are overweight, and 16.5 million children live in
food-insecure households -- those with hunger or fear of
starvation.

For decades, the federal government has sought to address child
hunger through programs such as the National School Lunch Program,
School Breakfast Program, Snack Program, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Program, and Child and Adult Care Food Program. These programs are
coming up for review as part of the reauthorization of the Child
Nutrition Act, which will occur this year, and attention will also
be given to how they reduce obesity. Vilsack says the Obama
administration is committing an additional $1 billion to this
effort.

However, I was disappointed not to hear from Secretary Vilsack
or see in the Obama budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2011 a clear
commitment to fund Farm to School programs, which aim to get
locally grown food served to children in school cafeterias. Among
the groups working to do so are the National Farm to School
Network and the Community
Food Security Coalition.

Yes, Vilsack did say that it makes sense to have local farmers
selling produce to schools, he likes the teaching as well as
nutritional opportunities of school gardens, and he wants to see
such initiatives continue. But he didn't commit funding needed to
make it happen. The $50 million that Farm to School initiatives
require is minuscule compared to the overall costs of most child
nutrition programs. Such seed money is needed to find ways to offer
longer-term structural improvements in school food preparation
kitchens and the distribution system. In the meantime, it helps
children gain better eating habits and builds new markets for
farmers and stronger rural economies today.

Farm to School initiatives are moving forward in many states,
and Wisconsin
is one of them. Bills in both houses of the Wisconsin
Legislature would create technical assistance and other support for
schools to purchase local foods, start school gardens, conduct
creative nutrition education, and implement other Farm to School
initiatives. Happily, at a time when so few things are bipartisan,
the obvious good sense of Farm to School's approach has drawn
support from both parties. And it's no surprise that in the
Assembly, the bill's lead sponsor is the Agriculture chair, Amy Sue
Vruwink, who sees the economic opportunities the legislation offers
farmers and rural communities as well as its health benefits for
children.

First lady Michelle Obama recently launched an initiative aiming
to tackle obesity through physical fitness, the Let's Move!
Program. It got and deserves a lot of press because, like Farm to
School, it applies practical good sense to the way schools treat
two of the building blocks of healthy children: healthy food and
plenty of exercise. And if we're really smart, as we build
healthier children, we'll also be building healthier communities
and healthier economies. Farm to School initiatives at the state
and federal level are smart economics and deserve support.