The USDA has released its first farm to schools evaluation, and while there are some obstacles, things seem to be heading in the right direction. The biggest challenge is for the farms, becasue they need to be able to provide seasonal and local produce for the entire school year. Many farms are willing to extend their growing season by using greenhouses, but additional funding would be required.
Food safety is another issue as most school cafeteria workers have no experience handling raw meat, but this could be overcome with proper training.
"There are a lot of barriers, but none of them are insurmountable. What this shows me is that there really is a pathway forward to expand farm to school in a big way," said Kathleen Merrigan in an interview with Civil Eats.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if children in this country had access to healthy food at school. At a basic level, food is fuel, and the quality will always affect the outcome. Growing kids need a variety of nutrients every day instead of the chemical-laden "food" that is served in most cafeterias.
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Comments
July 19, 2011
*no experience handling raw meat*
Oh for God sakes..
How is it, that we as a society, have some so far from actual food that we don't know how to handle a piece of meat? C'mon...
July 20, 2011
I was just thinking the same thing :-)
July 19, 2011
And another thing; how much extra funding? I mean really. From mid March until June, there are greens and root veggies, then more beets, carrots, tomatoes(green first then red), peppers, onions, (still more greens) broccoli, eggplant, still more tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash, green beans, cukes..the list goes on and on..nothing about harvesting and storing this by freezing it either. I mean really. All withOUT a greenhouse and I am in zone 5.