Passaic Farm to School Program

The following description is a summary of our farm to school plan funded by a 2014 USDA Farm to School Program grant: Passaic Public Schools is enthusiastic about developing a farm to school program in our schools and community. Farm to School Passaic will build upon efforts to provide nutrient rich, tasty, attractive food selections and to increase the procurement, serving, awareness and production of locally grown fresh fruits, vegetables, other foods. Passaic Public Schools has built capacity for this project through Fresh Fruits and Vegetable and Great American Salad Bar grants, awarded for strong leadership and higher education resources. Our planning year objectives are to identify local farmers, supply chain partners, and other stakeholders and mobilize a strong and effective Farm to School Passaic team to work collaboratively to increase procurement of regional foods by 20%; conduct a needs assessment to examine existing infrastructure, opportunities and challenges for farm to school activities and propose workable solutions to facilitate a 20% increase in farm to school purchases, storage, preparation, serving, and successful integration of farm to school nutrition‐based education; and create a comprehensive farm to school implementation plan with objectives, activities, action steps, persons responsible and timetables to increase local procurement by 20%, raise nutrition awareness and encourage healthier eating.