Farm to School Opportunities

The national Farm to School program is taking off in many parts of the United States! More and more schools are setting up programs where they purchase food directly from farmers and use it in the cafeteria to make healthy breakfasts and lunches for students. It's a great opportunity for small-scale farmers to connect directly with their community.

Why should you consider selling produce or meat to your local farm-to-school program? The advantages for farmers are similar to selling CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares. You get the security of knowing that the school has agreed to purchase a certain quantity of your products each season. You get the steadiness of a regular check from farm-to-school sales. Not to mention, there can be some free advertising - many schools list the origin of the food on the monthly school lunch menu!

Our little farm sells eggs to our school each week. They've committed to purchasing five dozen eggs a week, which means that we were able to invest in more laying hens and know that we had the income to support the additional grain purchase to feed them. Of course, it's summer now, so we are considering taking our extra eggs to the farmer's market each week because - well - we've run out of refrigerator room! Still, the farm to school program at our little elementary school has gone a long way toward supporting our small-farming efforts.

If you check out the Farm to School website, you can find your local connection for the farm-to-school program. Give them a call or shoot them an email and let them know you're interested in participating!