Parents, are you worried about the food your child may be eating in the cafeteria? Are you wondering where the ingredients are coming from? Stop the anxiety. In the latest bulletin from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more money is being poured to farm to school projects.
What are these projects? Farm to school projects come in different forms, but they have a two-fold goal: first, to make sure that the school cafeterias have sufficient supply and good source of produce, and second, to support communities and farms, especially small ones.
These projects have already been ongoing. In fact, between 2011 and 2012, school programs supporting this advocacy amounted to more than $370 million.
But during the latest speech delivered by Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, an addition of $5 million will be added to grants to support over 80 projects. These are scattered across more than 40 states and one U.S. territory, the Virgin Islands.
These programs, moreover, will be able to reach almost 3 million students in no less than 4,500 schools, many of which are found in the rural areas.
Some of these projects include retrofitting an old bus to serve as a rolling classroom and a farm bus, which is one of the plants of the Tift County School System. They are also planning to have an area where they can preserve or can tomatoes and create a school farm irrigations system to help them grow their own food over the seasons.
A Delaware school district will recommend both school staff and students to take an active participation in the entire process of food creation and consumption, from growing their own food to designing a healthy menu.
Some of these grants will be focusing on providing education to students about nutrition and healthy eating through seminars and even cooking demos and classes.
