Research Article
Farm-to-School Programs: Perspectives of School Food Service Professionals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2008.09.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

This qualitative study used a case study approach to explore the potential of farm-to-school programs to simultaneously improve children's diets and provide farmers with viable market opportunities.

Design

Semistructured interviews were the primary data collection strategy.

Setting

Seven farm-to-school programs in the Upper Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States.

Participants

Seven school food service professionals, 7 farmers, and 4 food distributors recruited from 7 farm-to-school programs.

Phenomenon of Interest

Interviews probed why farmers, school food service professionals, and food distributors participate in farm-to-school programs and how they characterize the opportunities and challenges to local school food procurement.

Analysis

Data were analyzed using thematic coding and data displays.

Results

School food service professionals described 3 motivators for buying locally grown food for their cafeterias: (1) “The students like it,” (2) “The price is right,” and (3) “We're helping our local farmer.” Students' preference for locally grown food was related to food quality, influence of school staff, and relationships with farmers. Buying food directly from farmers and wholesalers was associated with lower prices and flexible specifications, and the “local feel.”

Conclusions and Implications

Understanding school food service professionals' motivations for buying locally grown food is critical to the sustainability of farm-to-school programs.

Introduction

Farm-to-School programs are among the many efforts across the country aimed at improving the quality of school meals. These programs include a range of activities designed to connect children with local agriculture such as harvest festivals, field trips to farms, and educational visits from farmers. Integrating locally grown food into school meals has been described as the “cornerstone” of farm-to-school programs.1

Health professionals agree that schools can and should play a key role in improving children's dietary habits.2, 3 In addition to their ability to reach the majority of the nation's youth, schools are uniquely positioned to promote healthful eating because children eat a large share of their daily food while they are at school.3, 4 Although the nutritional quality of school meals has improved substantially over the past decade, researchers say the overall school food environment continues to need improvement.3, 4 However, budget pressures have complicated schools' efforts to improve the quality of their food programs. School food service in the United States (US) is funded primarily by federal subsidies based on the number of meals served. Since participation in the school food program is not mandatory, schools need to serve as many meals as possible to generate the revenue needed for financial solvency. According to some researchers, the severe budget constraints of school food service generally have forced many schools to serve popular but sometimes nutritionally inferior food that is appealing to children.3

According to advocates, farm-to-school programs have the potential to improve children's diets, without posing a burden on school food service budgets, through increased access to fruits and vegetables.5 According to 1 report, buying produce directly from farmers allows schools to buy fresher food than they can purchase through their broadline distributors—one-stop shops that carry nearly all of the food, supplies, and equipment needed to operate a food service kitchen—while eliminating the transportation and handling costs associated with shipping food across long distances.6

As the percentages of children who are overweight reaches epidemic levels, another trend is taking place. In less than one hundred years, agriculture in the US has been transformed from one of small, family-owned and -operated farms that produced a diversity of commodities to one in which a handful of large, industrial-scale, specialized producers control the bulk of the food produced in this country.7 This trend toward concentration and consolidation in food production is reflected throughout what has become a global agrifood system.8 These structural changes have destabilized markets for farmers, especially those who are too big to take advantage of direct market opportunities such as farmers' markets but too small to compete in the global market.9 Scholars across diverse disciplines have argued that these agrifood system trends threaten the public's health as well as the environment and rural communities.9, 10, 11 Farm-to-School program advocates have asserted that school food service represents a substantial and stable market for small- and mid-size family farmers who could sell their products directly to schools.5

Nationwide support for farm-to-school programs is increasing. The National Farm-to-School Network, a portal for information about and technical assistance resource for farm-to-school programs across the nation, estimates that more than 1,900 farm-to-school programs—up from 400 in 2005—across the country are connecting their students with local agriculture either through the cafeteria or the classroom.12 Data remain scarce on how many school food service professionals (SFSPs) have integrated locally grown food into their cafeterias. Given the high level of interest in and rapid adoption of such programs across the country, an in-depth understanding of their opportunities and challenges is critical for enabling advocates to achieve their goals—providing viable market opportunities for farmers and improving children's health—and to minimize unintended or potentially contradictory outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to explore why SFSPs, farmers, and food distributors participate in farm-to-school programs and how they characterize the opportunities and challenges of local school food procurement. Our research focused on institutional sales because this dimension of farm-to-school programs appears to hold the greatest short- and long-term potential to improve children's diets and farmers' incomes. Although surveys of SFSPs' perceptions of farm-to-school programs have been conducted, they do not necessarily capture the perspectives of those individuals who have experience integrating locally grown food into their cafeterias. For example, only 10% of the SFSPs who responded to a Michigan farm-to-school survey reported having purchased food directly from a farmer within the prior year.13 Similarly, anecdotal reports, success stories, and how-to manuals that focus on integrating locally grown food into the cafeteria have largely been generated by academics and advocates of farm-to-school programs versus those who are directly involved in school food procurement. By using qualitative methods, this study sought to add depth to the understanding of farm-to-school programs by capturing and communicating the perspectives of SFSPs, farmers, and food distributors, 3 stakeholder groups who are directly involved in efforts to integrate locally grown food into the cafeteria. This paper focuses on the motivations of SFSPs; reports on the perspectives of farmers and distributors will be presented elsewhere.

Section snippets

Methods

Research participants were recruited from 7 farm-to-school programs in the Upper Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States between January and April 2006. Seven SFSPs, 7 farmers, and 4 food distributors participated in the study. Farm-to-School programs were selected through maximum variation sampling, a purposeful sampling technique aimed at capturing the central themes that emerge from diverse cases.14 The Upper Midwest and Northeast regions of the US were selected as the geographic

Results

Sample site and program characteristics are shown in Table 2. The farm-to-school programs were located in rural, urban, and suburban school districts, and student populations ranged from about 2,300 to more than 40,000 students. The free- and reduced-price lunch eligibility rates of the school districts ranged from about 30% to more than 85%. Six of the school districts had a warehouse or central kitchen where food could be received. One SFSP did not have central receiving and required farmers

Discussion

This study suggests that SFSPs' motivations to buy locally grown food are diverse and complex. The broad themes—“The students like it,” “The price is right,” and “We're helping our local farmers”—create the illusion of independent categories. However, these themes are very much interrelated and together illustrate SFSPs' efforts to balance their child nutrition and financial goals with their desire to support their local community.

Recent quantitative studies have highlighted the fact that SFSPs

Implications for Research and Practice

This study demonstrates that SFSPs buy locally grown food because doing so helps them to balance their need to meet their food service program goals with their desire to support their local community. Relationships with farmers and vendor characteristics emerged as important variables that may have contributed to the benefits that these food service professionals expressed. This study suggests a relationship between locally grown food and potential benefits such as increased consumption of

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University, North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. The authors would like to thank Gail Feenstra, Joan Gussow, Jennifer Wilkins, and 3 anonymous reviewers for their invaluable input on this manuscript and the school food service professionals, farmers, and food distributors whose time and energy made this study possible.

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Dr. Izumi was affiliated with Michigan State University when this study was completed.

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