Farm to School Since the 2009-2010 school year, we have partnered with Community Alliance of Family Farmers (CAFF) in an on-going process of community engagement with regards to improving school food for Oakland students. Thanks to a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, we were able to implement our Farm to School program which includes:
investigating the feasibility of contracting with local vendors that feature sustainable products
increasing local produce procurement
increasing the number of school menus that incorporate and identify local produce
educating school communities about the importance of local farms
bringing produce from Oakland Fresh School Produce Market farmers into cafeterias through produce distributors
working with produce distributors to source and label local produce
incorporating school garden grown produce into the menu
featuring 100% local produce in the Harvest of the Month program and a substantial amount in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable snack program
Recent Success
Check out this info-graphic to see our progress on California Thursdays from 2013-2014!
Our Farm to School Supervisor, Alex Emmott, and Ariane Michas from CAFF recently talked about chicken on Heritage Radio Network! But not just any chicken. Oakland has joined with Riverside and San Diego Unified School Districts to serve locally sourced, antibiotic free, sustainably raised chicken to students all year long. Take a listen to the amazing school food system reform that's happening now!
We were awarded a grantfrom the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm to School Program to better connect school cafeterias and students with local farmers and ranchers!
Check out USDA's national data on farm to school programs. It shows the huge impact that purchasing locally has on our meal programs and our economy. (OUSD spends 27% of our food budget locally.)
