'In' for 2024: Farm to School and Scratch-Cooking
‘In’ for 2024: Farm to school and scratch-cooking
How purchasing locally supports students, schools, farms and economies.
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Farm to School programs in the United States provide students with access to locally sourced, nutritious foods and educational opportunities such as edible school gardens, hands-on cooking lessons and farm field trips—all while supporting local food producers and local economies. Similarly, scratch-cooking builds recipes using fresh, whole, local ingredients rather than using pre-packaged or processed products.
To better understand the impact and future of Farm to School and scratch-cooking, we spoke with both Tammy Yarmon, a Center for Nutrition and Health Impact (formerly Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition) Board member with over 30 years of experience in healthy food initiatives, and the Chef Ann Foundation’s Executive Director of School Food Operations, Lori Nelson, who is an accomplished chef and culinary leader with over 25 years of experience.
Farm to School and scratch-cooking programs create numerous benefits for students, farmers and local communities, according to Nelson.
“Purchasing local foods helps stimulate the local economy, it creates local jobs, protects farmland from development and creates important community connections between schools, students and local farmers.” Nelson added, “[Farm to School programs] establish mutually beneficial relationships between schools and local farms/producers, which help sustain agriculture in the community, preserve farmland and strengthen regional food systems. In turn, students eat local foods, which tend to be more nutritious as they are harvested when ripe and in season, and they typically have very short travel times from the farm to the plate.”
When asked about the impact of locally sourced foods, Yarmon shared, “It’s important for students to know where healthy foods come from, how beneficial they are and how much local food purchasing gives back to the people who really need it to survive. Farm to School creates a livelihood for small families and farms who need it, are passionate about this work and proud of what they do. It means a lot to them when their products are on the menus of local school districts.”
Nutrition initiatives like Farm to School and scratch-cooking have gained considerable momentum thanks to increased federal funding. In 2022, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would award up to $200 million to states to purchase local foods for schools and, 2023, invested over $60 million in school meal grant and training opportunities through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program.
And according to USDA’s third national Farm to School Census, approximately 65 percent of almost 13,000 school food authorities reported participation in Farm to School activities and 77 percent served local food in their child nutrition program meals in over 60,000 schools across the U.S.
Pictured above (left to right): Lori Nelson, Executive Director of School Food Operations at Chef Ann Foundation, and Megan Munson, Dryden Central School District Director of School Lunch.
However, it is important to understand that Farm to School and scratch-cooking programming is not one-size-fits-all. Both Nelson and Yarmon said there are important variables to consider when building and implementing well-rounded, effective school meal programs, such as:
Training opportunities
Staffing skill levels
Administration support
Available budget
Existing facilities and equipment
Student acceptability of new items
Student demographics
Procurement regulations
An additional barrier students face in consuming nutritious foods is the stigma and shame around receiving free and reduced-cost school meals. In fact, a Center for Health Inclusion, Research and Practice 2023 research brief reported that “42 percent of families eligible for free or reduced-price meals said that their child would be less likely to eat a school meal unless it was free for all students. Evidence from the past few years suggests that if that stigma is reduced, more kids will eat a school meal.”
USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows schools to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost, combats this issue. Yarmon firmly believes in the CEP and the opportunities it presents.
“The main benefit for the CEP is that students can go through the line without the stigma of being ‘free’ or ‘reduced-cost’ school meal students. You have students who are right on the edge of qualifying for free or reduced-cost meals but don’t make the cut. So, now they must opt for reduced-cost or paid school meals instead. With the CEP, you don’t have to worry about being on the edge because all students are equal.”
Nelson echoed this sentiment.
“No student in our country should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. [The CEP] allows students to enjoy a healthy meal, with their peers, which builds the fundamental social skills and healthy habits they can take with them throughout their lives."
Pictured above: Greenhouse Growing from Hardin High School's Farm to School Program in Hardin, Montana. Hardin High School is part of Chef Ann Foundation's 5th Get Schools Cooking cohort.
Additionally, the CEP doesn’t require students and families to complete school meal applications.
“Some people are hesitant about completing school meal applications or applying for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which require federal forms,” Yarmon said. “Instead, they would prefer to just find the cash. So, the CEP helps those who would typically fall between the cracks or families who refuse to fill out formal applications.”
All things considered, Nelson strongly felt the opportunities that come with implementing Farm to School and scratch-cooking programs outweigh any challenges.
“When you start taking control of your menu, the ingredients and where you’re purchasing them from, you begin to transform the health and well-being of your students and the planet.”
The new five-year Farm Bill is expected to pass in early 2024, and Nelson and Yarmon believe this is a critical piece of legislation in the Farm to School and scratch-cooking movements that will continue to expand and strengthen programs across the country.
“The upcoming Farm Bill presents a unique opportunity to purposefully integrate healthy scratch-cooking into our schools by increasing access, providing funding and procurement support, and more,” Nelson explained. “The bill directly influences funding, support and regulations that impact our schools’ capacities to procure local ingredients for scratch-cooking. [It] authorizes important programs such as SNAP, ensuring that qualifying students have access to free school meals.”
Yarmon believes some people are hesitant to get involved with school meal programs like Farm to School because they worry it will add more to their already-full plate of staff shortages and supply chain issues.
“After the COVID-19 pandemic, things totally changed. People seemed more anxious and stressed because things didn’t flow the way they did before the pandemic. Funding Farm to School initiatives means we can provide people with ‘plug-and-play’ request for proposal and procurement models which can help them get started and be used moving forward.”
Pictured above: The CAF team and Board gathering for their annual in-person Renegade Retreat.
We asked our experts what advice they would give people looking to implement Farm to School and scratch-cooking in their schools.
“All you have to do is put one toe in the water. Start with the easiest produce you can think of—it can be as small as tomatoes,” Yarmon replied. “Take it one step at a time and, before you know it, you’ll see the benefits of Farm to School and students will taste the difference.”
Nelson advised, “Take it slow, change is hard and it does not happen overnight. To make long-lasting change, you need to ensure you have the fundamental procedures in place to sustain this work.” According to Nelson, this means becoming an expert in five key areas of a school food program:
Know the vision for your menu and what kind of food you want to bring in.
Get involved with the budgeting process for your program by understanding and controlling the financials.
Make sure you have a seat at the table when facilities and infrastructure are being discussed and, most importantly, take great care of your staff.
Develop a solid training program for any new processes and procedures. Communicate well and often.
Learn how to market your program. Prioritize communicating all the great changes you are making to your staff, your students and their families.
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The Chef Ann Foundation has many great resources available to assist school districts on their journey to scratch-cooking. One of their keystone programs called Get Schools Cooking will be launching applications for their next cohort in late 2024. The Get Schools Cooking program is an intensive 3-year assessment and strategic planning program that provides public K-12 schools with the operational knowledge to transition their programs from heat and serve to a scratch-cook operational model.