Four major rules announced
Last week, USDA announced four final rules that will ensure that children have access to healthy snacks and
that nutrition standards for the foods marketed and served in schools
are consistent. Here's a summary of the rules and what they mean for farm to school efforts:
1. The Local School Wellness Policy final rule empowers communities to
take an active role in the health of their children. These
policies guide a school district's efforts to establish school
environments that support healthy eating and physical activity.
- As noted in the rule, local school wellness policies offer a prime
opportunity to showcase farm to school efforts and gain buy in from the
community.These examples showcase how other districts have incorporated farm to school elements in their wellness policies.
2. The Smart Snacks in School final rule aligns the nutritional
quality of snacks sold to children during the school day with the
science-based improvements made to school lunches and breakfasts over
the last five years.
- Think about selling local items a la carte or doing a FarmRaiser!
3. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) final rule allows schools and local educational agencies with high poverty
rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students to promote
access to healthy food and reduce administrative burdens on schools and
families.
4. The Administrative Review final rule updates the administrative review
process used by state agencies to monitor federally-funded school meal
programs. It safeguards the integrity of the programs, ensures taxpayer
dollars are being spent as intended, and increases accountability and
transparency by publicly posting how well school food authorities are
complying with various requirements.
- State agencies can
provide onsite technical assistance during these reviews, and answer questions
about local foods, school gardens, and nutrition education.
Reminder: Farm to School Census Webinar
Join USDA, along with co-host National Farm to School Network, for a webinar on Thursday, August 11 at 3:00 pm ET for an in-depth review of the Farm to School Census. Presenters
will provide an overview of the Farm to School Census website
including the recently posted raw data files and soon to be released data
explorer tool. Presenters will also describe ways in which Census data can be
used at the local, state, and national levels in support of farm to school.
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What's your summer story?
Send
us a photo or two and a description of your farm to summer program, and we’ll
feature model programs through our E-letter to shine a national spotlight on
your programming.
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 Now available: New and revised fact sheets
We created a fact sheet outlining all of the different resources that the Office of Community Food Systems has created. It outlines the Farm to School Census, the Farm to School Grant Program and all of the training and technical assistance materials we've created over the past several years. This overview is the perfect piece to take with you on Administrative Reviews or any time you want to start the conversation about how to dive into farm to school.
in addition, every year we comb through our fact sheets to make sure everything is up-to-date and we recently updated all of our fact sheets. Be sure to download these updated versions before printing!
Grantee Spotlight
Lowell Public Schools is an FY15 USDA Farm to School grantee
located in Lowell, Massachusetts. LPS is focused on promoting both local
products into the cafeteria as well as integrating farm to school education in
the classrooms with a special focus on teacher engagement and professional
development.
Lowell Public Schools noted the progress made this past
winter with support from core partner Mill City Grows:
“During this reporting period 15 teachers and 5 parents participated
in our Garden Coordinator Institute where they learned how to build support for
school gardens throughout the school community. We worked closely with the
School Garden Leadership Teams who will be building the remaining two
USDA-funded gardens; Farm to School Curriculum toolkits for both elementary and
middle schools are complete and the first ever 2-part professional development
for LPS teachers was hosted in partnership with Mill City Grows, over 20
teachers received the training and we hope this training inspires teachers to
use school gardens as an interdisciplinary curricular tool."
By Dr. Katie Wilson, Deputy Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Service
Schools across the country are working hard to ensure students
experience a healthy school environment from the moment they walk in the
door until the final bell rings. Imagine for a second that you are
back in sixth grade. In health class, you’re learning about the food
groups and how to eat a balanced diet. During P.E. class, your teacher
stresses the importance of exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle.
School breakfast and lunch included colorful fruits and vegetables,
whole grains, and lean protein. In between periods you are hungry for
an afternoon snack from the school’s vending machine. Your eye catches a
glimpse of a flashy picture of a bottle of water with a logo down the
side of the vending machine, and you think to yourself that water would
be a great thirst quencher. Still, you scan the vending machine and see
that your options are bottles of water, 100 percent juices, and
unsweetened tea—all healthy options! You are thrilled that the school is
supporting your resolve to maintain a healthy lifestyle by making
healthy choices so readily available. Feeling good about the choices
you’ve made so far that day, you are able to choose a healthy snack to
compliment the healthy meals you have eaten throughout the day.
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