New Farm to School Bill in House

March 1st, 2010

On Friday, February 26, Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced the Farm to School Improvements Act of 2010 (HR 4710), which would provide the USDA with $10 million a year for a competitive grants program to fund projects linking producers with the school lunch program. The proposed legislation’s goal is to improve nutrition in schools while boosting farm sales and stimulating rural economies. NSAC strongly supports this legislation and is encouraging Members of Congress to co-sponsor it.

Farm to School projects could include developing a supply chain (aggregating, packaging, distributing) to serve schools, purchasing equipment to minimally process food so it can be used by cafeterias, adjusting menus to take advantage of regional production, or organizing trips for children to local farms.

Similar Farm to School language is included in the Children’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Act of 2009 (HR 4333), introduced by Rep. Farr (D-CA) and Rep. Putnam (R-FL), that also includes funds for salad bars in schools and other improvements to school nutrition.

NSAC’s end-goal is to have a mandatory funding provision for Farm to School included in the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, scheduled for congressional action later this year. The first step in the process will be consideration of comprehensive reauthorization bills by the House Education and Labor Committee and by the Senate Agriculture Committee. NSAC will continue to work on the pending Child Nutrition legislation with the aim of ensuring inclusion of Farm to School as part of the larger bill.

Farm to School, Grants and Programs, Local Food and Marketing, Rural Development | Comments | Trackback

3 Responses to “New Farm to School Bill in House”

1Seacoast Eat Local » Blog Archive » Action Alert: Local School Lunches
March 2nd, 2010 @ 1:44 pm

[...] more information on the bill, visit NSAC’s blog, http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/new-farm-to-school-bill/, or read the bill itself [...]
2Robert Wood
March 4th, 2010 @ 8:34 pm

I am a chef that is very interested in the bill as well as the organization. I would like to receive further information as it develops. thank you, Robert Wood
3jdaniel
March 5th, 2010 @ 11:16 am

Hi Robert, thanks very much for your interest. To stay up to date on our work here at NSAC, and on Farm-to-School legislation as it develops, you can sign up to receive our Weekly Roundup and Action Alerts here. We also recommend checking out information on the National Farm to School Network page: http://www.farmtoschool.org/