The Origins of Farm to School

Dana Hudson grew up on a family farm in Washington, D.C. and her childhood memories are filled with spending time with her extended family there. Then, the tide of sprawl swept through and her family had to sell the farm to developers and relocate to different parts of the country. Dana settled in Vermont and years after the move, channeled her motivations and emotions into reconnecting individuals with their local farms. She focused on schools and wanted to connect kids to healthy foods through farms and nutrition education. She partnered with a collective of Vermont nonprofits called FEED (Food Education Every Day) and set up relationships between farmers, food providers, schools and community members. Thus was born the Farm to School movement.

In the years that followed, Dana’s witnessed a lot of positive changes, including seeing teachers and parents change their food habits, attendance improving when farming was on the day’s schedule, new economic markets opening up for farmers and food management companies changing their distribution and corporate practices. Dana knows a lot more needs to be done but clearly understands we all have the power to change our food habits and take back our food systems. Just take it from Dana when she talks about the importance of good food:

When I was a child on my family farm, my grandmother told me repeatedly, You are what you eat, which I always considered in respect to my own health and wellbeing. But my food is linked not only to my daily energy to function, but to my family, my traditions and culture, our shared landscape and all aspects of our functioning society, including our democracy, our economy, our health care and our societal welfare.

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New Documentary Highlights the Hardships of Healthy School Food

The new documentary Lunch Line, by Uji Films, is an intriguing look at the federal policy that shapes the nation’s school lunch program and how complex its become in the past 60 years. It also focuses on an intrepid group of Chicago teens who are cooking up healthier meals as part of an effort to get better options in schools. The film shows how not just a change in meal options, but a new direction in policy is needed to propel important change in the school lunch program.