Farm to School 

Farm to School is a comprehensive effort to increase access to healthy food options for Indiana students and create new market opportunities for Indiana farmers. The term “farm to school” encompasses efforts that: Source locally grown foods as part of the school meal or snack program; Offer hands-on learning activities such as school gardening, farm visits, food demonstrations and tastings; Integrate food, agriculture and nutrition education into the regular, standards-based classroom curriculum.

Farm to school is shown to:

• Increase fruit and vegetable consumption in students (+1 serving) and positive diet changes at home.
• Increase knowledge about gardening, agriculture, healthy food, local and seasonal food in students.
• Increase willingness by students to try new, healthy food in the cafeteria and at home.
• Lower school meal program costs and increase meal participation 3-16% in the cafeteria.
• Decrease food waste in the lunchroom.
• Improve cafeteria staff morale and knowledge of local food.

Is your school participating?