January '06

In the northeast, winter is a time for reflecting on summer's bounty and planning for next year's harvest. As you read, farmers across the state are sending in their seed orders. Farm to School programs need not be dormant either. The winter is a perfect opportunity to explore new ideas, build new relationships and renew your Farm to School program for the coming season. In fact, winter may provide you with the best chance to lay the ground work for future Farm to School activities.

In this month’s e-news we too reflect on Farm to School work. In Kelly Erwin's "Farm to School Programs Move Forward," we learn about the state's Farm to School movement. In the Community article, “Unracism,” Catherine Sands talks about strengthening her school's garden program through a racism training. And finally, I offer a listing of food and agriculture related films for educational use, for those cold, wet winter days.

As always, I invite you to share your own Farm to School story ideas, event announcements, or articles.

Grow well,
Kelly Coleman

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Community: Undoing Racism -- Lessons for Gardens and Beyond
By Catherine Sands, Fertile Ground

For three years youth leaders from Nuestras Raíces have mentored elementary school children in rural Williamsburg, helping to build, plant, and expand a school-wide garden program implemented by Fertile Ground. Nuestras Raíces is a grassroots organization that promotes economic, human, and community development through projects relating to food and agriculture in the largely Puerto Rican community of Holyoke. This collaboration bridges both economic and racial divides by bringing together a largely white rural Williamsburg community with a mostly Puerto Rican Holyoke community. Because of this partnership founded on cultural exchange, we feel it is important to better understand racism and to carefully examine our work together.

Happily, the Haymarket People’s Fund, which recently funded our collaborative work at the Williamsburg Helen James Elementary School, partnered with Undoing Racism Organizing Collective (UROC) of Western MA to sponsor a training on Undoing Racism with People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. In late October of 2005, Kelvin Pedrosa, Yashira Almeyda and Stephanie Maitin of Nuestras Raíces’ Protectores de la Tierra youth program along with Nuestras Raíces staff member Molly Merrett, Fertile Ground director Catherine Sands, and Williamsburg kindergarten teacher Sherrie Marti attended the Undoing Racism training.

The weekend workshop was an open and powerful dialogue about dismantling racism and why it is important. During the workshop, we took a careful look at how racism functions on both the personal and institutional level. The workshop group included inspiring students from Hampshire College, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High school, and Nuestras Raíces, as well as area activists, leaders, educators and community members. The People’s Institute gave us the tools to talk about racism and to have a critical eye towards our dominant culture. The workshop inspired us to keep talking and sharing our struggles, and to acknowledge and challenge the racism we find within ourselves and all around us.

Here are some of our group’s comments after the workshop:

Thirteen-year-old Yashira noted, “We don’t talk about racism in school – between friends or with our teachers. I learned that there’s more to racism than color.”

Teacher Sherrie Marti said in a follow up meeting: "I teach five year olds. It's very simple and very complicated to talk to them about racism. Children this age have a very strong sense of fairness. They know that everyone deservers to be treated with love and respect. To explain that a person could be allowed to treat another like an animal, to steal, buy or even kill that person, is heart wrenching. Teaching about the ongoing racism in our society is something that we in schools do not do enough of. I'm happy to have this group through UROC to support this difficult teaching."

“I found it sad to realize that I didn’t know much about my heritage, as white people we are taught to forget our individual backgrounds and buy into a white identity,” says Molly Merrett.

I was struck by the realization that most white people (myself included) are taught not to see the invisible systems that make our group dominant. We’re taught that racism is just individual acts of prejudice. This is not an excuse, but a call to action in our schools and communities.

Molly continues, “If you’re a white person you have internalized racial superiority. To have an acknowledgment of that is helpful, helps me check myself when I’m in a position of authority. I ask myself what is it that makes me critical of someone’s behavior. Why do I think I know more than they do?”

What can we do? The People’s Institute trainers encouraged us to know the history of this country, to create dialogue, and to keep the discussion about dismantling racism on the table. As a white organizer around food security and celebrating culture, I’m hoping to enhance Fertile Ground’s cultural sharing around food and agriculture in our public schools by engaging others in my largely white community in conversations about dismantling racism. Together Nuestras Raíces and Fertile Ground are now considering opportunities to talk together and amongst our own communities about racial oppression. The journey is necessary, rewarding, and rich with cultural sharing, even if the path is not always clear or comfortable.

We’re so grateful to have had this opportunity to meet a powerful group of individuals working on the hard topic of racism. The tone was set at the outset for safe, honest, difficult sharing. Yashira says, "I liked the mixture of people from different backgrounds. I learned a lot from everybody. The People’s Institute trainers made us feel welcome as youth and didn’t treat us like kids. We were included in the conversation.” This is a conversation that Nuestras Raíces and Fertile Ground plan to bring back to our own tables and gardens to help us keep our cross-cultural partnership strong.

Catherine Sands is the founder and director of Fertile Ground, a grassroots initiative working to build community and create opportunities for cultural exchange around agriculture in schools. Nuestras Raíces (www.nuestras-raices.org) is a grassroots organization that promotes economic, human, and community development through projects relating to food and agriculture in the largely Puerto Rican community of Holyoke. People’s Institute (www.pisab.org) is brought to the Pioneer Valley every year by UROC a local group of activists working to dismantle racism.

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Cafeteria: Farm to School Programs Move Forward
By Kelly Erwin, Farm to School Consultant

This is such a positive time for Farm to School advocates! There are exciting developments popping up everywhere, such as an emerging national Farm to School network and the new Farm to School efforts on the part of our own “buy local” organizations: CISA, SEMAP, and Berkshire Grown. Most exciting is the intense interest in locally grown foods being expressed by schools throughout Massachusetts, and the increased response of our farmers.

MASS. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES FARM TO SCHOOL PROJECT

Now in the second year of our project, the number of schools we have been able to successfully help in their efforts to buy local products has grown from 9 to more than 30. Some of those schools are Westfield, Orange, Amherst, Waltham, Newton, Lexington, Stoneham, and Nashoba Regional public schools, Milton Academy, and the Five College Food Service Directors group. There are many more schools still looking for a farmer “match”. We are working with farmers throughout the state, most intensively with Czajkowski Farm in Hadley and Lanni Orchards in Lunenburg, to help them “grow” their school sales businesses.

Look for more information about developments with the Five College group. They are having a local foods breakfast meeting with more than 20 farms in January, in hopes of forging closer connections between the grower community and the schools.

Encouraging the connections between fresh local food and school children, be they 6 or 18 years old, offers many opportunities to learn new things. Three important things I learned in 2005 were: farms that are able to sell both fruit and vegetables to schools will enjoy a more reasonable profitability than those which only offer vegetables; schools and growers must really make an effort to create good communication systems; schools with an active garden or farming project will have a much deeper and long-lasting commitment to fresh locally grown food, including in the cafeteria.

As managing consultant to this project, I provide individualized technical assistance to farmers and schools - kindergarten through college - and I am available to do workshops or speak at meetings and have evaluative and promotional materials to share. In 2006, look for our annotated directory of food service directors in the state and a listing of Massachusetts farmers who are interested in school customers.

A NEW INITIATIVE

MassDevelopment, a large economic development and financing agency, has decided to support the growth of a more sustainable agricultural economy in Massachusetts and throughout the northeast. To that end, it is launching a Massachusetts farm-to-college analysis and implementation project. The project will initially engage in two areas. First, gathering data on patterns of food consumption at universities and colleges as well as the current and potential production of Massachusetts farms. Secondly, how this understanding can improve planning by and between farmers and institutions in order to greatly increase the usage of locally grown foods in colleges in the Commonwealth. Dr. Dan Lass, of Resource Economics at UMass Amherst, will direct the research and I will act as project manager. An advisory council is in the process of formation and it’s possible a farm to college conference will be held in the spring. Call or email me if you’d like more information.

A PERSONAL NOTE

I am so grateful to all the farmers, food service workers, teachers, community activists and organizational staff who put their shoulders to the wheel with me in the past few years. It feels great to be a part of this movement for changing the food system - let’s take a moment, as 2006 begins, to notice that the wheel has begun to turn and we are actually making progress!

Kelly Erwin extends a special thanks to the Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources for their staunch support of Farm to School efforts during lean budget years. Her sincere appreciation to Project Bread, the Mass. Society for Promoting Agriculture, the Mass. Fruit Growers Association, Professor Anne Carter, and the Mass. Farm Bureau Federation for pitching in. And, she thanks Will Wallace-Gusakov and Nicole Tocco for being outstanding members of the Farm to School Project team.

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Curriculum: Food on Film -- Multi-media resources for the classroom
By Kelly Coleman

Food and agriculture education needn’t stop when the growing season does and there are plenty of examples to demonstrate that it doesn’t. One winter activity is an exploration of “food system” questions such as: where does food comes from? and what are the political, environmental, social, and health implications of our food choices?

Even in a world saturated with media, films and videos can help frame our work’s biggest questions. Below is the summary of two food-related films and a link to a more extensive listing.

Super Size Me (2004) – 90 minutes
Director Morgan Spurlock signs himself up for a month long McDonald’s-only diet, while at the same time trimming back his exercise routine. While putting his own body on the line, Morgan explores the American diet with expert interviews and site visits. The educationally enhanced DVD version features lesson plans and other teaching tools. For more details see the website: www.supersizeme.com.

Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture and the New American Farmer (2004) – 57 minutes
Broken Limbs looks at the plight of apple growers in the age of globalization, and points the way to sustainable US agriculture. It is a moving film directed by the son of an apple grower in Wenatchee Valley in Oregon. The website includes a section for educators with three lesson plans and links to other teaching resources. For more details see: www.brokenlimbs.org/themovie.html.

To see a full listing of films click here.

And if films don’t capture your audience’s attention try the United Nations World Food Programme game, “Food Force.” Now the second most downloaded game on the internet, “Food Force” is designed to teach kids about hunger. Players of the video game air drop emergency food to people ravaged by drought and civil war; coordinate shipping and prices for rice, beans and oil on the world market; design a nutritionally balanced food package; and rebuild the local agriculture community. For more info see: www.food-force.com/.

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Events

February 11th, 9 am to 3:15 pm, Ludlow, MA
“Growing Minds Through MA Agriculture” Annual MA Ag in the Classroom Conference
The conference offers educational and networking resources, activity ideas and framework connections that can facilitate and enhance pre-K through 12th grade classroom teachers alike and help bring agriculture to the classroom. Registration is $45 and includes lunch, materials and 10 pdp’s. For more info see www.aginclassroom.org/.

March 13th, New Orleans, Louisiana
National Farm-To-School Training
The training will cover: Starting and Sustaining a Program; Barriers and Opportunities; Educational Activities; Measuring Farm to School Outcomes; Supportive Policies; Funding Opportunities; Developing a Farm to School Action Plan.
Farm to School Practitioners at all levels of program implementation and all CFP grantees with a Farm to School focus are encouraged to attend. For more info see: www.farmtoschool.org/upcoming.htm.

Announcements

New Grant Available
The Food Project Youth Council RFP released
The Youth Council announced mini-grants for organizations in the North East to hold service learning projects to increase healthy food awareness and inspire the youth to build healthy communities by promoting local foods. Eligible grants must be submitted by non-profits for work with youth leaders between 10 and 18 years of age. The deadline for submission is Friday, February 10th, 2006. For more info please contact Monica at The Food Project 781-259-8621 x 22 or mpless@thefoodproject.org.

New Grant Available
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation (LCEF) -- Lowe's Toolbox for Education
As part of its continued support for public education, Lowe's Companies, Inc. has announced that its new Toolbox for Education program will award grants to parent-teacher organizations and associations for improvement projects at up to one thousand schools across the United States. One of the sample projects is for building a school garden! Any school (charter, parochial, private, etc.) or parent group that has a group tax ID# or official 501(c)(3) status from the IRS is eligible for the Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant program. Projects are eligible for up to $5,000 per school. The application deadline is March 15, 2006, for more information, go to:www.toolboxforeducation.com.

Applications for Youth Delegation
Apply to join BLAST’s Youth Delegation to the FAS Conference in Asheville, NC
April 24-27, 2006

The Food Project’s BLAST (Building Local Agricultural Systems Today) Initiative will be organizing a youth delegation to Kellogg’s 2006 Food and Society (FAS) Conference. The Food Project is running a pre-conference day for the youth to help them prepare to contribute and gain as much as possible from the conference. Youth 16- 25 are eligible. Lodging and most meal costs will be covered in full, and there is some scholarship money available to assist with travel. Applications are due by February 10, 2006.
If you have any questions or are considering applying, please contact Dylan Fitz at 617-442-1322 (x21) or at blast@thefoodproject.org.

New Publications
Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) releases two publications
The “Advocate’s Guide to the School Nutrition Programs.” is a complete reference manual on crucial programs that benefit millions of American children. It includes information about free and reduced lunch eligibility, nutrition guidelines and much more. For more information, see: www.frac.org/pdf/advguide_school.pdf. FRAC also published “Obesity, Food Insecurity and the Federal Nutrition Programs: Understanding the Linkages” which includes information on the prevalence and consequences of obesity and food insecurity for low-income people, along with a detailed examination of child nutrition program operations and their impacts. To learn more, go to: www.frac.org/pdf/obesity05_paper.pdf. (From Foodlinks America)

Recently announced
New York and 4 other states will receive funding for rural transportation to Summer Food Service Program sites
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided multi-year grant funds to explore innovative approaches to addressing limited transportation resources in rural areas for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). A total of $4 million was awarded in December 2005 to Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia for three-year projects that will test new ways of transporting food to children or children to the food. USDA anticipates that the pilot efforts will aid some 18,000 children in getting summer meals at more than 265 rural sites. For additional information, see: tinyurl.com/cboy3.

Recently announced
Farm-to-School Study approved by OK legislators.
The Oklahoma legislation approved funding for a study on farm-to-school programs requested by State Sen. Daisy Lawler, Chair of the State Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. This research will expand on a study commissioned by the Oklahoma Food Policy Council which found that two thirds of the states food managers were interested in buying local. (From Journal Record, Oklahoma City)

Recently announced
Selling ad space on school buses, again?
According to a recent USA Today article, school districts across the U.S. are responding to government funding cutbacks by selling ad space on school buses. For participating districts, banners on the outsides and insides of buses carry ads for everything from soda to pizza to banks. The debate over the issue has become quite contentious among parents and school administrators. The idea of selling ad space on busses has been around for several years now, but the results are mixed; many districts still find ad space a hard sell to businesses, not just the parents. Here are several articles on the subject www.organicconsumers.org/school/billboards122905.cfm and www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20050220/HA_002.htm.

Participation in School Breakfast programs rose nationwide. The number of children participating in the School Breakfast Program rose to record levels in the 2004-2005 school year, but still reached only 44 percent of low-income children who eat lunch at school, according to a December 13, 2005 report from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. Massachusetts’s School Breakfast programs reach 43.4% of students enrolled in the reduced lunch, ranking 19th in the nation. www.frac.org/Press_Release/12.13.05.html.

Current food and beverage marketing practices puts children's long-term health at risk. The US Institute of Medicine’s recent report “Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity”, requested by Congress and sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the products most marketed to kids are high-calorie, low-nutrient snacks, fast foods, and sweetened drink – foods that have the greatest negative impact on our children’s health. The report also makes recommendations to industry, government and the private sector to improve the nutritional message of food marketing.
www.iom.edu/CMS/3788/21939/31330.aspx

Junk food additives stop nerve cell growth. Mixing the common additives aspartame an artificial sweetener and monosodium glutamate (MSG) causes nerve cell damage, say researchers at the University of Liverpool. The results from a two-year study were recently published in the journal Toxicological Sciences. The researchers found the additives were much more potent in combination with each other than on their own. Mice were exposed to concentrations of MSG and aspartame relative to what a child would receive in an average snack and drink. Researchers were surprised to see the additives interfered with nerve signaling systems and actually stopped the nerve cells from growing. Aspartame is commonly found in diet drinks, candies and flavored medicines, while MSG is frequently found in chips, processed cheese and many processed foods. See the Journal for Toxicological Sciences for more info.

School food rewards and food fundraisers associated with student weight gains. Researchers from the University of Minnesota have uncovered an association between body mass index (BMI) in adolescents and schoolwide practices such as the use of food in fundraising incentives and classroom rewards, according to an article published in the December 2005 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Collecting height and weight data from over 3,000 eighth-grade students and school policies from 16 middle schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, investigators found a correlation between student weight gain and the extent to which schools engaged in using food as an classroom incentive or reward or in in-school fundraising campaigns. See archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/159/12/1111.

News

Ann Evan’s article in the Thinking outside the Lunchbox series of the Center for Ecoliteracy's Rethinking School Lunch program, lays out some steps to reintegrate public health with public education. Read it here: www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/rsl/ann-evans.html.

Read David Piachaud’s “Saturday essay: can retailers help to improve nutrition?(child nutrition should improve)” in the UK’s Grocer Magazine.

Carol Glazer’s op-ed “Obesity is not just about food” highlights the role after school programs could play in teaching healthy living.

See CBS Philadelphia’s story on childhood obesity in the suburbs at: kyw.com/topstories/local_story_003165840.html. Although this piece does bring up an important issue: suburban childhood obesity, it does not take a very critical look at the causes and only brushes over the role of food choices.

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Funding for CISA’s 2006 Farm-to-School program is provided by CISA’s community and farm members and by grants from the Lawson Valentine Foundation.

Pictures in header are used with permission from The Food Project, CISA's Local Hero Campaign, and parents.