Missouri Farm-to-School Bill

Caption: Students from the College School working and learning at New Roots Urban Farm. Photo by Matt Diller.

The Farm-to-School movement has been gaining momentum for years, and Missouri is getting into the game. The Forsyth School, a K-6 private school near Washington University, is the most recent to choose locally grown foods for students. The food will be provided through Bistro Kids in Kansas City and includes whole grains, grass-fed beef and hormone-free milk. Maplewood-Richmond Heights, also located in the St. Louis region, is implementing a Farm-to-School program this year and will be serving food produced by farmers in the St. Louis area.

Farm-to-School programs aren't just about food. They are about sustainability, health, education, and the local economy. Students learn about eating healthy foods produced locally, but also learn how to grow food in school gardens. They see the distinction between food from the ground and food from the supermarket, and can make informed choices for themselves.

Funding for these programs is currently paid for by parents (Forsyth) or grants (Maplewood-Richmond Heights). People are doing the legwork at the local level to make these programs work for individual schools. In Missouri, the current Farm-to-School programs are a patchwork of unconnected efforts.

Nineteen states throughout the nation have taken legislative steps to create and support Farm-to-School networks on a much broader scale in their states. These statewide efforts typically focus on simply connecting farmers to school buyers and removing any red tape that exists for schools to buy locally. Some of the more thorough statewide Farm-to-School efforts have included grant money for local snack programs, improvements to schools’ kitchens, and incentives for farmers and schools that participate in the program. Other states have required that a set percentage of school dollars be used to purchase local foods.

Although Missouri currently does not have Farm-to-School legislation, a coalition of Missouri farmers, educators, and community organizations, with leadership from Trailnet and the Healthy Youth Partnership, came together during the last few months to propose a bill that will create the Missouri Farm Fresh Schools Program. The group hopes to have a strong bill ready to be pre-filed when the MO legislative session begins again in January 2010. We want to thank Representatives Brian Munzlinger and Tom Loehner for their support of this important effort that will improve the health of Missouri children and support our state economy.

It's a win-win situation for Missouri students and farmers. If you'd like to learn more, email phil@trailnet.org

Here are a few links to Farm-to-School resources:
National Farm to School Online:
www.farmtoschool.org
The Community Food Security Coalition:
www.foodsecurity.org/farm_to_school.html
Oklahoma Farm-to-School:
www.okfarmtoschool.com
The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture:
www.kerrcenter.com/farm_to_school/index.htm

And CLICK HERE for a St. Louis Post-Dispatch Article about Farm-to-School programs in the St. Louis region.