Local Farmers Improve School Lunch Programs

The economic crisis is having a positive impact on the diets of children in thousands of schools across the U.S. School budgets may be shrinking, but family farmers are filling in the gap with low-cost locally-grown foods.

It's getting prohibitively expensive for family farmers to ship their goods to customers thousands of miles away, so groups like the National Farm to School program, a national network of community-based food systems that assist farmers and improve student health, are connecting schools directly to local farms.

More than 8,700 schools across the U.S. are actively participating in these programs, which can vary everywhere from simply stocking locally grown foods in the cafeterias to developing vegetable gardens on school property. This will effect the health of all involved.
Learn more about these programs and how to start a similar program in your own community here.