Local Food Access Team

The following description is a summary of our farm to school plan funded by a 2014 USDA Farm to School Program grant: The overarching goal of our project is to craft policy of incorporating local foods district wide that will be accepted through all levels of the school district while being compatible with food distributors. It is imperative that we start at the beginning by creating a complete plan that becomes accepted policy instead of just trying to haphazardly add local foods here and there. The objectives of this project are to expand our Local Food Access Team; examine school infrastructure and provide education regarding the farm to school toolkit; purchase a salad bar for three elementary schools while educating students about food; examine existing school structure and create a needs assessment for farm to school; and create a farm to school implementation plan. These goals will enable the School District of Springfield R-12 to contract with a food distributor willing to garner local foods, explore supply chain opportunities, and begin to feed students with and educate them about local foods.