THE CONCEPT of “farm to school” burst on the scene in the mid-’90s, when a handful of programs sprouted in California and Florida. Berkeley’s Edible Schoolyard was one such, and it transformed an inner-city schoolyard, a sea of blacktop, into an extensive, verdant garden that in turn transformed children’s lives. Responding to those successful initiatives, in 2001 the US Department of Agriculture’s Small Farms/School Meals Initiative cultivated similar projects in Kentucky, Iowa and Oregon. Now there are more than 2,000 programs nationwide.
Columbia County’s Farm to School program may seem new, but it’s been developing over some years. The concept of food as something that, voila! magically appears only to satisfy requirements of palatability and low cost, is, we hope, entering its twilight among the broader population. In our schools, that outdated food concept has been a subject of enormous concern and discussion, and our teachers and school food services had been keeping a sharp eye on the various farm-to-school efforts elsewhere that were improving, among other things, children’s health and nutrition. Read more…