LITTLE ROCK — Adam Simmons devotes his days to planning what’s on the lunch menu at the Farmington School District.
This year the menu was supposed to be a little bit different.
Simmons had planned to buy locally produced broccoli and lettuce from farmers within a 75-mile radius of the six-school district.
But, rainy weather wound up putting the kibosh on those plans.
“It was just a tough year for farmers,” said Simmons, who chalked up the lost local growing season as a valuable learning experience. “Now I know what to expect” in case it happens again, he said.
Creating a local food infrastructure like the one Simmons envisioned is part of a statewide discussion going on today at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
By the end of the day, the gathering of local-food advocates is to take a step toward establishing Arkansas’ own Farm to School program, a national network to help local farmers sell to kindergarten through high school cafeterias.
“There are a variety of different ways people are approaching getting school districts to utilize locally produced agriculture products,” said Wanda Shockey, a director for the state Department of Education’s Child Nutrition Unit in Little Rock.
The concept has been promoted in a number of ways over the past 10 years, she said. More than a dozen districts have established relationships with the agriculture community through individual contacts and farmers markets, Shockey said. Her department in February started a Farm to School pilot program in 11 counties. Farm to School initiatives will work to cobble together a coordinated, statewide effort.
But what’s unique about today’s gathering is that it’s “the first time where an entity is bringing together all the stakeholders in a forum where they can share what is important to them and what their needs are,” she said.
Attendees will have a chance to learn how other states have adopted the program affiliatedwith the Center for Food & Justice, a division of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College in Los Angeles and the Community Food Security Coalition.
Chris Kirby, the Farm to School coordinator for Oklahoma, is to present information about her state’s experience.
In 2004, Farm to School started as part of a pilot program, and by 2006 the Oklahoma Legislature signed a bill into law encouraging schools to make the local farmers connection.
“The program is growing very fast,” Kirby said. the program now boasts multiple products, 13 distributors and more than 450 schools, which is a long way from one producer, one product, one distributor and 115 Oklahoma schools.
Emily English, a graduate student who was part of the Farm to School task force committee, said the Heifer International-sponsored event will continue to take shape from aFarm to School steering committee that will be responsible for overcoming some familiar barriers such as the need to access a centralized “processing facility” or the ability to aggregate smaller amounts of produce.
At least one producer likes the idea of selling to school markets.
Stephan Walker, a row-crop producer from Altheimer, northeast of Pine Bluff, already has some experience selling into an established Farm to School network.
Walker, through his role as president of the Tricounty Coalition - a group of farmers from Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln counties - has led seven producers to sell sweet potatoes, collard greens and green beans to the New North Florida Cooperative Association, which is a participating Farm to School program.
The Farm to School program set up to serve districts in Alabama, Florida and Georgia features a template for Walker, who would eventually like to sell fresh produce to school districts stretching from Little Rock to West Memphis.
Walker said he’s learning all he can from the Marianna, Fla.-based program, if not to promote better health among children, than because of the potential to make a profit.
“Vegetables generate more income per acre than a row crop,” he said.
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