National Farm to School Month offers time to reflect on all that schools, childcare providers, agricultural producers, and partners have done to strengthen local and regional food systems and school supply chains. It also offers a time to look ahead to the future.
This year, the Farm to School Program is celebrating with two new resources to help farm to school partners take stock of their recent efforts and plan for and fund the road ahead. These include the results of the 2023 Farm to School Census (Census) and Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Farm to School Grant Request for Applications.
USDA Farm to School Census (Census)
In the fall of 2023, USDA asked all School Food Authorities (SFAs) to answer a comprehensive survey about their use of local food in school meals and the use of nutrition and agricultural education, edible school gardens, and other relevant farm to school activities in child nutrition program settings during the 2022-2023 school year. Farm to school is growing in Oklahoma with more than 870 schools serving local foods in the cafeteria.
The 2023 Farm to School Census website includes high-level data snapshots of national and state farm to school activities, individual SFA responses, and public-use datasets for further data analysis and exploration. The 2023 Farm to School Census Report also organizes and summarizes data to help give readers a quick overview of the farm to school landscape, the policies and (physical and staffing) infrastructure of farm to school programs, and opportunities for farm to school to grow and evolve.
Do you want to learn more? Please visit the Farm to School Census Partner Resources.
