Fresh Food in Schools Program
There has been a number of pages in the newspaper and over the television networks about the importance of food in schools. Most of the articles and news reports have concentrated on obesity in young school age children. Washington State has been an active participant of the Fresh Foods in Schools program and the Lake Stevens School District is a major player in the national and statewide effort. Our most recent program, July 12th, featured Mollie Langum, Food & Nutrition Services Supervisor at the Lake Stevens School District and Acacia Larson, currently the coordinator for the Fresh Foods in Schools program in Western Washington. Acacia helps school districts find ways to buy and serve foods from Washington farms.
The Fresh Food in Schools program includes a taste of Washington Day, harvest of the month, school gardens, school nutrition advisory groups, making farm connections and a Farm to School Summit. Mollie Langum said that the School District approached the concept three yo four years ago and started down the path to adopting the Fresh Food in Schools program. Local farmers were approached about the program early on as the program got more serious. A major emphasis of the program is to educate kids and teach them about food labels and highlight the farms where the food came from. A current produce vendor supplies 3,500 meals a day so there is a huge need for more farm suppliers. Shawn's Produce is the vendor supplying the produce and the School District and the State have a great relationship with him. He has the ability to process and deliver large bi-weekly orders of fruits and vegetables.
For example, there are 564 bulk cases of apples per week packed in 4 oz. bags, 446 cases of IW bags which equal 57,088 bags with an expenditure of $45,333 which is $20,000 more than last year. Senator Steve Hobbs was featured in one of the videos showing him participating at a local school. Another activity for the students is make a rainbow at the salad bar. Kids have a great time doing this little educational game. The community plays a big role in the Farm to School program. This is a pilot program in the United States which the State of Washington and the Lake Stevens School District has embraced.
We can help by eating locally from our farms. Great program and something we all can learn from especially the buying from local farms.