Two school districts in Iowa have been included in USDA?s latest allocation of grant funds through the agency?s ?Farm to School? program.
Since 2013, the USDA Farm to School Grant Program has offered annual grants to schools, school districts, nonprofits, state agencies, agricultural producers, and Indian Tribal Organizations to plan, implement, or provide training on farm to school activities.
Among the recipients this year were the CAL Community School District in Latimer and the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District. CAL Schools received $80,920, while Vinton-Shellsburg was awarded $99,929. USDA Deputy Undersecretary Brandon Lipps says the 2020 cycle of the Farm to School Grant Program was the largest-ever amount of total awards in the program?s history.
?This year we?re giving out 159 project grants for a total of $12.1 million,? Lipps said. ?Those are going out to 46 states, tribal nations, D.C., and Guam. Those will be serving 7,610 separate schools for about 2.5 million students. Really what Farm to School is about is giving children an opportunity to understand agriculture and to understand where their food comes from. We all know that if kids participate in growing their food and understand that, they are more willing to try new things than they are if we just set a green vegetable in front of them in the cafeteria.?
Lipps adds over 57 percent of the children served in participating schools are eligible for free and reduced price meals.
?It creates an opportunity for kids to experience local, fresh fruits and vegetables and all kinds of agricultural products,? he said. ?It anecdotally shows a great increase in healthy eating. A number of (students) have even been inspired to careers in agriculture by wanting to go to college and study biology, agriculture science, and those types of things.?
The CAL School District is planning an expansion of local food procurement and agricultural education in the classroom as part of its funding.
For Vinton-Shellsburg, they had already made significant changes in their school lunch program after receiving similar grant money in 2018. They plant to continue building momentum in the region to expand farm to school programming in two other districts: Union Community School District and Wavery-Shell Rock Community School District.
For more information on the 2020 Farm to School Grant Awardees, visit USDA?s website.
