Tag: Kentucky Farm to School Network

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Farm to Summer Meals

CFA Admin

Two peas in a pod – Summer is peak produce season AND summer meals have experienced huge growth in Kentucky. Let’s put them together. Under the umbrella of Community Farm Alliance, the partners of the Kentucky Farm to School Network are planning several initiatives related to farm to summer meals.

A Celebration Week

First, Farm to Summer Meals Celebration Week is coming back for its second year, June 21 to 27. During that week, meal sponsors and sites are challenged to plan special activities to Sprout, Nourish and Understand for SUN meals. Sprout represents gardening activities. Nourish represents serving Kentucky grown farm foods. Understand represents ag education activities. SUN meals is the USDA’s name for summer meals. *New this year* We’ve developed a recognition for participating sponsors and sites. “Lettuce Squash Hunger” recognition will earned by SUN meal sponsors and sites that complete 2 activities: The first required activity is serving a Kentucky farm food (Nourish). The other activity can be either a gardening activity (Sprout) or an ag education activity (Understand).

First Day Fresh

Part of the reason for the growth in meals served is USDA’s allowance for multiple days’ meals to be picked up in one distribution (or home delivery) in qualified locations. In many cases, families are picking up 7 days’ worth of breakfasts and lunches at once for each student. This model is very convenient for families, but leans on processed foods to last for many days. To incorporate Kentucky’s summer bounty into multiple meal distributions, the sweet spot is those meals that will be eaten first. The network is promoting a “First Day Fresh” practice of including Kentucky farm fresh foods in at least the first day’s meals when several days’ meals are distributed at once.

Toolkits

Network partners have developed two toolkits for farm to summer meals. One is for meal sponsors and sites. The other is for farms and farmers markets. By connecting with summer meal programs, farms and farmers markets have an opportunity to reach many families in their community, as well as passing on essential agricultural education to the next generation. Learn more about how to participate on the network website.https://www.kyf2snetwork.com/

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School Garden Grants = Real Growing Experiences

CFA Admin

There are themes in the applications we receive for school garden mini-grants: Kentucky students are disconnected from food production AND schools value hands-on learning experiences for students. School gardens are a great way to address both. Now in the fourth cycle, School Garden Mini-Grants provide $5,000 to Kentucky preK-12 schools for gardening and related cooking activities. These grants are highly competitive. This year, 72 schools submitted letters of intent to apply for a grant. Thirteen of those were invited to submit a full proposal, including a garden plan, an education plan, a financial plan and a project budget.

This year’s grantees are: Hawthorne Elementary in Jefferson County, Cumberland County High School, Royal Spring Middle School in Scott County, Southern Middle School in Fayette County and Munfordville School in Hart County. Plans include garden clubs, STEM activities and garden-to-table cooking. Several of this year’s projects will benefit special ed students and several feature strong student leadership. School resource officers and janitors, parents and principals and teachers are all working together to bring these projects to life.

Last year’s grantees reported over 45,000 hours of student time in the garden. One elementary school project lead said the best thing about their project was “the amazement from the students on harvesting. The children were always so amazed and surprised about what we were able to grow.” Community Farm Alliance would like to thank the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky for their financial support of these grants.

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KY Farmers tell DC legislators they want to grow Healthy Food for Schools

CFA Admin

We are more than two years overdue on passing a complete Farm Bill, actual farm bills (expenses) are rising, and everyone wants to change the way Americans eat.  But are they talking to the family farmers who make up our domestic food system?  Part of CFA’s mission is to make sure farmers get a voice with their representatives, and this month, we had the privilege of attending the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s member meeting in Washington DC, including taking some amazing farmers with us:  Josh and Bittany Johnston of of Windy Hill Farm + Home in Henderson, KY. Josh and Brittany are beginning farmers, but with farming in their heritage.  They not only raise conventional row crops in Henderson, KY but also grow 25 acres of vegetables for sale to their community, including schools.  Over and over, they told congressmen and congressional staff “We just want a fair opportunity with our specialty crops.’

Brittany and Josh started growing vegetables in 2020, and by 2021 they were selling at the farmers market. By 2023, they left their full-time jobs working for a large crop products supplier to become full-time farmers.  Part of what made that possible was the Local Food for School program, which provided federal money to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which then helped schools use it to buy  locally-grown farm food.  Josh said they want to be farmers who help their community be healthy. “Once we got our foot in the door of the school system, and they saw the quality of products, they decided to keep buying from us whether or not there was federal money.  But we needed that program to help us get started.” Today, thanks in part to that opportunity, their farm not only provides jobs for themselves, but also for several others.  In addition to the Johnstons, CFA staff members Laurie White and Myrisa Christy joined the delegation in DC.

The group visited Kentucky Congressman James Comer in his DC office. Josh and Brittany shared the impacts of federal investment in local foods for Kentucky schools and requested the Congressman’s support on H.R.4782, the Local Farmers Feeding our Communities Act. The group also met with staff in Senator McConnell’s and Senator Paul’s offices to request support for the senate’s version of the bill, S.2338, the Strengthening Local Food Security Act. “Previous cooperative agreements that allocated funds to Kentucky to purchase local farm foods were very popular and successful,” said Laurie White. “In Kentucky, those investments supported 148 farms who don’t benefit from most federal farm subsidies.”

“Getting to hear family farmers talk to our representatives about the challenges facing their farm, and what they need to be successful is at the foundation of CFA’s work,” said Myrisa Christy.  “And, we literally put in the footwork – we each got over 17,000 steps making sure Brittany and Josh told their story to multiple lawmakers in both the House and Senate.”

What can you do?

Since our DC trip, the House  has released a draft of the Farm Bill that includes the Local Farmers Feeding our Communities Act (HR 4782) in SEC 4306.   From “back of the napkin” calculations, at its current allocation, it could provide approximately $3 million a year for Kentucky to run programs that directly support schools and food banks by purchasing from local farmers.  The Senate Ag Committee has yet to rel\=-ease its Farm Bill text. To press for this local food provision to be included on the Senate side also, send a message to Senator McConnell to co-sponsor  S.2338, the Strengthening Local Food Security Act. You can use the Senator’s contact form to request his support or ask to meet with his staff in one of his 6 local offices.