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How to Start Your Own Farm-To-School Program:
Be Like Berkeley!
Berkeley Unified School District, California
By Lindsey Middendorf
Dandelions Unlimited Intern
Western Washington Univeristy
The Berkeley Unified School District sees the big picture when it comes to school lunches. These lunches not only affect the students and staff that eat them, they affect students’ families, the agricultural community, and the environment. Berkeley Unified School District, through a program called the Student Lunch Initiative, has developed an environmentally sustainable, community-supporting lunch program that focuses on providing students with healthy food and educating them on the importance of their food choices. The School Lunch Initiative recognizes a “connection between a healthy diet and a student’s ability to learn effectively and achieve high standards in school.” (1) The program strives to “establish and maintain life-long healthy eating habits.” This is done through nutrition education; hands-on garden experiences; providing healthy, local, organic food choices in the lunch room; and implementing relevant lessons into the classroom. (1)
The food served in the Berkeley Unified School District lunchrooms is enough to make any health nut or environmentally conscious person’s mouth water. Every school in the district has a salad bar that is filled with fresh fruit and veggies every day. They serve antibiotic-free milk, provide natural and grass-fed beef, serve whole-grain breads, and make almost all of their food from scratch. Most of the food that is not made on-site is purchased locally, like baked goods, organic breads, and salad dressing. They buy as much local and organic food as possible (2), and eliminate harmful additives and processes like growth hormones, irradiation, and genetically modified foods (1). On top of all this, the school district is dedicated to “recycling, reusing, composting, and purchasing recycled products.” (1) Can it get any better?
Actually, it can. The school district is also dedicated to serving as a model for other schools who wish to develop similar projects. The program was “designed to be replicable” (1), and the Student Lunch Initiative, in collaboration with the Center for Ecoliteracy, is working on developing resources and curriculums that can be accessible to schools across the country with a wide range of state academic standards and agricultural climates. The Center for Ecoliteracy website offers tools and resources for schools that are interested in implementing this kind of program into their school. For anyone interested in developing a farm-to-school program for their school, that is a good place to start.
Click here for program plans similar to those of Berkeley Unified School District that walk you step-by-step through the process of developing a farm-to-school program at your school. Every individual has the power, and the resources, to make a difference!
1- http://www.schoollunchinitiative.org/about/index.shtml
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