October is Farm to School Month, prompting observations across the state, with emphasis on local food in many schools

School districts throughout Kentucky will hold special events throughout October to celebrate Farm to School Month.

“Farm to School helps Kentucky students get access to fresh, nutritious local foods that will help them to grow up strong and healthy,” Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said in a news release. “At the same time, Farm to School enables farmers to tap into a local market for their products."

A few of the celebrations include:

• Grant County’s middle and high schools are roasting pumpkins as a side dish and toasting pumpkin seeds for their salad bars. The elementary schools will roast pumpkins as their "Try Day" Friday special Oct. 18. The schools will have coloring contests.
• Barren County’s Future Farmers of America chapter, culinary arts students, staff, and farmers’ market will host a hog roast Oct. 10. County schools will serve all-local lunches on Oct. 24, and Red Cross Elementary will hold a Farm to School event on Oct. 17.
• Wayne County is serving local lunches in all schools. Students worked a garden at the high school that produced 85 percent of the food for the district.
• In Fayette County, Sandersville Elementary School will serve local foods daily the week of Oct. 14, with side salads made from lettuce and apples from Reed Valley Orchard in Paris. Rosa Parks Elementary will serve local foods daily the week of Oct. 28.

The Farm to School program also runs the Junior Chef program, a statewide competition of high-school culinary teams. The regional champions of this competition compete in a state tournament in August at the state fair. This year's winner was Montgomery County (Mount Sterling).

During Farm to School month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will measure activities and trends in the Farm to School movement. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture encourages local school food authorities to complete the census, due by Nov. 4. For more information, contact your USDA Farm to School regional lead person or send an email to farmtoschool@fns.usda.gov.

Carolyn Richey of Allen County Health Department named latest Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion for 'veggie tasting' program

Carolyn Richey receives the Healthy Kentucky
Policy Champion award from Ben Chandler,
CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
(Photo by Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky)

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has named Carolyn Richey, a nurse supervisor with the Allen County Health Department who has worked to increase access to health foods for youth, as the latest Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion.

Richey, who has served nearly 30 years at the agency, organized the Community Health Action Team, bringing together representatives of schools, extension, library, chamber, Rotary Club and other organizations to address food access issues. From this collaboration, Richey created a farm-to-school "veggie tasting" pilot program.

"Carolyn has created and nourished many collaborative partnerships, applied for and won several grants, and established extensive health education programming along the way," Foundation CEO Ben Chandler said in a news release. 

Chandler presented Richey with the award on July 24 in Scottsville at the Need More Acres Farm, which the release notes is an "important element" of the farm-to-school project. Richey was nominated by Michelle Howell, co-owner of the farm, who said in the release that Richey's efforts "have increased the consumption of fruits and vegetables as well as raised awareness of the local farming community."

The programs Richey launched "provide numerous healthy food options for kids not only during the school year but also during the summer at multiple community locations," added Melanie Harston, her co-worker at the health department.

Richey is now eligible for the Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion of the Year award, which comes with a $5,000 grant from the foundation to a Kentucky-based nonprofit of the winner's choice. The winner will be announced at the foundation's annual health policy forum Sept. 23 in Lexington.

Tobacco-settlement funds will subsidize summer meal programs' purchase of Kentucky fruits and vegetables

The state Department of Agriculture is offering a subsidy for summer meal programs in Kentucky to buy fruit and vegetables produced in the state. The program is funded by $185,000 in tobacco-settlement money awarded by the state Agricultural Development Board and administered by the Kentucky Association of Food Banks. 

"The program is the first of its kind in the nation," the department said in a news release about the Kentucky-grown Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Program, which it calls K-VIP.

“When we started the Kentucky Hunger Initiative two years ago, we began a conversation about how to combat the unfortunate reality that one in five Kentucky school children are food-insecure,” Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said Jan. 8 at the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Lexington. “The K-VIP program gives summer feeding programs an added incentive to provide fresh, locally grown fruit and vegetables for hungry kids in the summer months while expanding market access for Kentucky farmers.”

Warren Beeler, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy, said the ag-development board “jumped at the chance to expand market access for farmers and feed hungry kids at the same time.” The board spends half the money from the states' 1998 settlement with cigarette manufacturers, with the goal of broadening the state's agricultural base.

Tamara Sandberg, executive director of the food-banks group, said in the release, “The summer meals program helps ensure children receive the nutritious food they need to thrive during the summer months when school is out. K-VIP will help increase the portion of local Kentucky produce served through summer meals.”

Meal programs served 2.8 million Kentucky children last summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture "reimburses summer site sponsors for meals served at feeding sites, and claims for reimbursement are processed by the Kentucky Department of Education," the release said. "For every lunch served, the summer feeding site sponsor receives reimbursement from USDA of $3.83."

To participate in K-VIP, sponsors must be approved by the Education Department to serve as summer meal site sponsors and submit an enrollment application to the food-banks association at www.kykidseat.org/kvip by April 15. Contact Cathy Gallagher (cathy.gallagher@education.ky.gov) at the Kentucky Department of Education to become an approved summer feeding site sponsor.

Enrolled sponsors will be eligible for reimbursement for up to one-third of their spending on Kentucky-grown produce. "Due to the limited number of funds, there is no guarantee of reimbursement," the release says. "K-VIP payments will be capped at 10 cents times the total number of meals reimbursed by USDA."

Kentucky growers may contact Tina Garland (tina.garland@ky.gov) at the state Agriculture Department to connect with summer feeding site sponsors in their area.

Wellness coalition in Perry County, where life expectancy is state's lowest, gets funding from Foundation for a Healthy Ky.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has funded the Perry County Wellness Coalition's three-year plan to encourage fitness and better nutrition in school-age children, "Kids on the Move!"

The wellness coalition will receive $144,450 from the foundation this year, matched by $124,944 from the community, to increase access to physical activity and provide healthier food options and nutrition education. Perry County has the lowest life expectancy in Kentucky.

"Our children are the most valuable resource we have," said Gerry Roll, executive director of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, which is serving as fiscal agent for the coalition. "It's the best investment we can make as a community partner."

The health coalition will work with local schools to implement physical activity and nutrition-policy changes, collaborate with local farmers' markets for a strong farm-to-school component, and coordinate with other community agencies to create a lasting and collective impact.

The project also will implement best-practices nutrition and exercise programs in schools, support community gardens, summer feeding programs, and a "Farmacy" program to increase the purchase of healthier produce at farmers' markets and local grocery stores, among other changes to be coordinated by the agencies in the coalition.

The Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital in Hazard will be the administrative hub for the coalition, providing leadership and sharing its expertise in promoting community health. "We have already begun these efforts by providing fitness fairs and health screenings to over 20 schools in our service area and reaching a little more than 2,500 middle school and high school age kids this year alone," said Hazard ARH Community CEO Dan Stone said.

The coalition is among seven Kentucky communities funded by the foundation's "Investing in Kentucky's Future" initiative, which is spending $3 million over five years to fund communities working to improve the health of their school-aged children. The other groups are in Breathitt, Clinton, Grant, Jefferson and McLean counties, and in Boyd and Greenup counties. Perry County was in the original announcement and recently completed its detailed plan. It shares with Breathitt and Wolfe counties the state's lowest life expectancy, 70 years.

Childhood obesity rates continue to rise nationally while Ky.'s rate has leveled off, but 1/3 of kids are still overweight or obese

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Nationally, childhood obesity rates are not declining and severe obesity rates are still rising, especially among minority children. However, in Kentucky, child obesity rates have remained stable and the rates of obesity for minority children are not rising.

“Understanding the ongoing trends in obesity is important for public health and policymakers,” lead researcher Asheley Skinner, who is with the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said in a news release. “Our study suggests that more than 4.5 million children and adolescents in the U.S. have severe obesity."

The study, published in the journal Obesity, examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2014 and found that 33.4 percent of children in the U.S. were overweight, meaning their body mass index (BMI) was above the 85th percentile for children their age. BMI levels estimate body fat based on height and weight.

In 2013-14, the study found that nearly 24 percent were obese, or above the 95th percentile, and that 2.4 percent were severely obese, or more than 140 percent of the 95th percentile.

The authors noted that the only statistical increase in child obesity since 2011 was found in those who were severely obese, which went up 2.1 percent, and this increase was most prevalent among African American and Latino children. The report also said that while there has been an increase in obesity in all age groups over the past 30 years, it "may be leveling off."

It could be that this "leveling off" effect is happening in Kentucky, where more than one-third of children are either overweight or obese.

The State of Obesity report found that 18 percent of Kentucky's high school students are obese, almost 20 percent of its 10- to 17- year olds are obese and 15.5 percent of its 2- to 4- year-olds from low-income families are obese. The report also shows that these rates have remained consistent for high school obesity since 2003, 10- to 17- year-olds since 2004 and the 2- to 4- year-olds since 2003.

The Kentucky Youth Risk Behavioral Survey also shows no overall statistical changes in obesity rates among  Kentucky's high-school students, including the state's African American high school students, whose rates range from from 15.5 percent obese in 2005 to 19.1 percent in 2013, or its Hispanic high school students, whose obesity rates were 15.5 percent in 2007 and 18.8 percent in 2013, the only two years with available data.

These reports did not break down the different levels of obesity.

Studies have shown that children with severe obesity are at an increased risk for heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes and even cancer when compared to children who are only considered overweight or mildly obese, says the release.

Skinner said it is time to expand local interventions and to find new treatment approaches.

"Addressing obesity in children is going to require a true population health approach, combining efforts at individual, healthcare, community and policy levels," she said in the release.

What is Kentucky doing about childhood obesity?

Kentucky's schools, as community partners in the battle against childhood obesity, are working to combat it through both nutrition and movement initiatives.

For example, most public Kentucky schools participate in the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that requires schools to provide healthier foods for their students; many schools participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provides a daily fruit or vegetable snacks to every student in participating schools; and more than 80 Kentucky school districts participate in the National Farm-to-School program.

Jamie Sparks, the school health and physical education director for the Kentucky Department of Education, said in an e-mail to Kentucky Health News that Kentucky schools are working to get students more active through several initiatives.

Sparks pointed out several successes, including school partnerships with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation initiative; a partnership with Humana Vitality called Students with Active Role Models, which encourages teachers and school staff to earn Vitality points by leading physical activity with their students; and partnerships with an online program called GoNoodle, which increases physical activity time in the classroom.

In addition, Sparks said, "Kentucky ranks second in the percentage of public schools enrolled with Let’s Move Active Schools. We have hosted 10 Physical Activity Leader trainings in the past three years."

But is that enough to make a difference?

Dr. Willian Dietz, author of an accompanying journal editorial, said there is a shortage of care-givers to treat obesity, noting that every primary care provider who takes care of children is likely to have about 50 pediatric patients with severe obesity in their practice. He also said that most of these providers aren't trained to treat childhood obesity, nor are they compensated appropriately, if at all, to treat it.

"We need more effective, cost-efficient and standardized approaches and services to manage children with the most severe obesity. This research emphasizes the urgency with which we must develop and validate a reimbursable standard of care for severe obesity in children and adolescents,"Elsie Taveras, spokesperson for The Obesity Society, said in the release.

It should be noted that Dietz, who is the director of the Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University, said in his editorial that other data shows obesity rates have declined in two- to five- year olds. He said that this doesn't mean this study is incorrect because different time frames were used. "It all depends on how you look at it," he said. He did, however, acknowledge that severe obesity is increasing among adolescents.

He said, “The authors’ observation that severe obesity has increased is of great concern, especially because children with severe obesity become adults with severe obesity.”

Visiting chef at Harlan County High helps incorporate fresh, local foods and flavors into menus; 1 of 8 Ky. districts in program

image: foodtank.com

The "Chefs in Schools Collaborative" project, which helps school cooks learn how to incorporate fresh, local foods in their menus, is up and running at Harlan County High School, reports WYMT-TV.

"Fresh ingredients are always important to a cook," Judy Gurnee, visiting chef through March, told the Hazard station. "We like to work with the closest available products that we can get ... the finest quality."

Harlan County is one of eight Kentucky school districts in the program. Its cooks asked the visiting chef to help them better use spices on the local vegetables, so that students, whom they described as their "customers," would eat them.

"I'm for anything that's going to get the children to eat," Kitchen Manager Jan Hicks told WYMT. "That's what we are here for."

Making sure the kids eat their school lunch is especially important because for some, it is the only meal they get a day, WYMT reports.

"Our kids, one in four are homeless," Director of Food Service Jack Miniard said. "That means that they are living with a grandparent or they are living with some other family member ... so, this may be the only meal that they get a day."

The program is led by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Farm to School Program in partnership with the Community Farm Alliance and the National Farm to School Network. Participating school districts are in Boyle, Clark, Grayson, Oldham, Harlan, Martin, Morgan, and Pike counties.

Chefs to show how to get fresh, healthy, local food in Boyle, Clark, Grayson, Harlan, Martin, Morgan, Oldham, Pike county schools

image: nkyhealth.org

Chefs will help eight Kentucky schools learn to incorporate fresh, local foods in their menus as part of a "Chefs in Schools Collaborative" pilot project, according to a news release from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

 "School food service workers want to serve healthy, delicious meals to Kentucky children, and these projects will help them do that," Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said in the release. "These investments will help the next generation of Kentuckians grow up healthy and strong, and they also will teach them to value farmers and local food systems as a way of life."

The project will educate food service employees on how to incorporate fresh, local foods into their menus, help them develop new recipes that include local foods and provide opportunities for local farmers to engage with the staff and students. 

The pilot program will run from February through May and is led by the Agriculture Department's Farm to School Program in partnership with the Community Farm Alliance and the National Farm to School Network. 

The National Farm to School Network will use a grant from Seed Change to support the program in Boyle, Clark, Grayson, and Oldham counties. The Community Farm Alliance will use funding from the Central Appalachian Network to support the program in Harlan, Martin, Morgan, and Pike counties.

Farm to School program teaches Perry County students how to eat healthier, explores local food as an industry in Eastern Ky.

Image from WYMT Mountain News

Perry County students are learning about nutrition through the Farm to School program, which aims to inform students about healthy food while supporting local food systems, Callie Rainey reports for WYMT-TV in Hazard.

"We teach the kids where the food comes from, how it's produced, how you can do that in Eastern Kentucky," Farm to School teacher Reda Fugate told Rainey. "We try to let them know that there are other industries in Eastern Kentucky that you can do other than just coal mining," which provides half as many jobs in the eastern coalfield as it did three years ago.

About 80 Kentucky school districts and more than 200 farmers participate in the Farm to School program, Tina Garland, the state Department of Agriculture's coordinator for the Kentucky Farm to School program, said in a telephone interview. The latest official data says Kentucky schools spent $1.6 million on local foods in 2011-12.

Several eighth grade students in Perry County told Rainey what they had learned through the farm-to-school program.

"Too make sure that I don't overeat and make myself sick and have the correct serving size," said Jade Neace.

"On my plate you're supposed to only have a certain amount of milk, meat and vegetables," said Cayden Castle.

"I don't eat a lot of sugars and fats and I stay healthy," said Jade Adams.

The Farm to School program has distributed 31, $5,000 mini-grants to schools across the state to either help develop new farm-to-school programs or to enhance existing programs, Garland said.. Eleven of them were USDA Farm to School support service grants and 30 of them from the National Farm to School Network Seed Change pilot grant program, in which Perry County schools were chosen to participate.

"It actually makes you feel really good," Fugate told Rainey. "I have a 12-year-old and knowing that they are listening and are making healthier changes so that they possibly won't have to face some of the health issues that we as adults now have to face."

A preliminary U.S. Department of Agriculture report finds that schools that participate in Farm to School programs show an increase in the number of meals sold, an increase in the consumption of healthier foods and decreases in plate waste.

Nationally and statewide, farm-to-school program is a success

With approximately 80 Kentucky school districts participating in the Farm to School program, many of them are finding special ways to celebrate National Farm to School Month, with much to celebrate, as a preliminary U.S. Department of Agricuture report finds that schools that participate in Farm to School programs show an increase in the number of school meals sold, an increase in the consumption of healthier foods and decreases in plate waste.

“By investing in Farm to School not only will the next generation be healthier but they will be more informed consumers who value the farmer and support their local food system, not as a novelty but as a way of life," Tina Garland, procedures division coordinator for the Kentucky Farm to School program, said in a telephone interview.

The Jefferson County Public Schools are celebrating National Farm to School Month with its cafeterias serving a menu full of locally grown food at district elementary, middle and high schools on Oct. 23 and 24, Ja'nel Johnson reports for WFPL Radio.

JCPS began its farm-to-school initiative about eight years ago with apples from a farm in Indiana, but has since grown to include seven local farmers in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, Johnson reports.

The district's goal is for 10 percent of its produce to be locally grown, Dan Ellnor, manager of the Nutrition Service Center at JCPS, told Johnson, explaining that because they serve 112,000 meals a day, it is difficult to incorporate locally grown produce into every meal.

"Last year, 3 percent of the district’s produce came from local farmers, and JCPS spent $124,000 on local produce. So far this year, $131,000 has been spent on local foods," Johnson writes.

Ellnor told Johnson that this program helps teach students where their food comes from, which is part of the program's mission.

“There are kids, honestly, who don’t know that ketchup comes from a tomato,” he said.

More schools than ever are participating

Although the farm-to-school initiative has been around for many years, the national Farm to School Grant Program was created more recently through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to help eligible schools implement programs to improve their access to local foods. To date, the grant program has funded 221 farm to school projects, totaling $15.1 million, according to its website.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has been the recipient of a USDA Farm to School support service grants, which allowed them to re-grant 11, $5,000 mini-grants across the state to either help develop new farm-to-school programs or to enhance existing programs, according to Garland.

"Farm to school is one of many tactics and resources that USDA makes available to help schools successfully serve healthier meals to kids," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. "Farm to school partnerships have a proven track record of encouraging kids to try, like and eat more healthy foods and creating new market opportunities for the farmers that grow them."

Preliminary results from from USDA's Farm to School census found that 17 percent of school districts that participate have reduced plate waste; 28 percent are more accepting of healthier school meals; 17 percent have increased participation in school meals; 21 percent have lowered the school meal program costs; and 39 percent have more support from parents and their community for healthier school meals.

The preliminary report also found that since the inception of the grant program two years ago, there has been a 55 percent increase in the local purchase of foods, to $598.4 million in 2013-14 from $385.8 million in 2011-12.

JCPS's goals of increasing its share of locally grown produce to 10 percent fits with the preliminary census findings that found almost half of its respondents said they planned to increase their local food purchases in the coming years.

Nationwide, more than 42,000 schools have farm-to-schools programs,according to the release.

According to the latest official data, in 2011-12 Kentucky schools spent $1.6 million on local foods, which involved 60 school districts and approximately 702 schools, according to Garland. To date, Garland said this number has increased to approximately 80 school districts and over 200 farmers participating in the Kentucky Farm to School program.

Kentucky was also one of three states to receive a National Farm to School Network Seed Change pilot grant, made possible through a generous donation from the Walmart Foundation, that allowed them to distribute 20, $5,000 mini-grants across the state to create or support Farm to School programs, according to Garland, noting that this is a different program than the Farm to School Grant Program.

Kentucky is one of three states to get Walmart Foundation money to expand farm-to-school programs

Kentucky will use money from The Walmart Foundation to partner with the National Farm to School Network to expand efforts to get more local foods into schools.

A project called Seed Change will “jump start” programs that get local foods into schools and enhance food education for more than 1.8 million school children at 100 sites in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, the network said in a news release. Each site will get $5,000 grants, with applications to be accepted later this spring.

The state Department of Agriculture’s farm-to-school program connects schools with local farmers and food producers and helps students "learn to appreciate the importance of local foods and grow into well-informed consumers who demand local foods as adults," the release said. The program served an estimated 364,000 children in about 700 schools in 84 districts in the 2011-12 school year. For more information on the program, go to www.kyagr.com or contact Tina Garland at 502-382-7505 or tina.garland@ky.gov.

Students in poor Louisville neighborhoods learn healthful behaviors in Farm to Family Initiative

A program to fight childhood obesity and foster healthy habits in Louisville’s under-served youth has seen positive results since its launch in October 2013, says KentuckyOne Health. Results include:

• 41 percent of students now eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, up from 23 percent.
• 91 percent of students engage in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, up from 63 percent.
• 90 percent of students have eaten a vegetable they harvested or picked themselves, up from 59 percent.
• 93 percent of students know how to prepare a healthy recipe, up from 63 percent.

The Farm to Family Initiative is a collaboration between the Food Literacy Project and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, part of KentuckyOne. It aims to influence long-term health and food literacy for students at Hazelwood and Wellington elementary schools, where more than 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

The project is funded by a $200,000 grant from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program Award for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity.

Lexington preschool becomes Kentucky's first with a farm-to-school food program

About 20 years from now, today's preschoolers will be purchasing and preparing their own food. What if they spent 13 years in an educational setting that taught farm-to-school practices? Children who represent the next generation would learn not only to eat healthy food but also to support local food systems, state Farm to School Program coordinator Tina Garland told Cerise Bouchard of Lexington Family Magazine.

This year, Growing Together Preschool in Lexington became the first Farm to Preschool program facilitated by the state Department of Agriculture. Bouchard returned to GTP in July 2013 as the executive director with the goal of improving the menu by working with a farm to provide community-supported agriculture.

When Bouchard told Garland about her idea, Garland connected her with Lazy Eight Stock Farm and Carla Bauman, who told the magazine, "I am excited about being part of a project that encourages young children to like eating fresh fruits and vegetables while their food preferences are still forming." Bauman said the the GTP project also will give the students' families weekly access to fresh, local, organic produce.

Childhood obesity rates in Kentucky are very high, and many children eat most of their meals in school, Bouchard writes. Instead of exacerbating the problem, schools have an opportunity to improve the health of children. GTP's focus has always been on quality improvement initiatives, and "Implementation of the Farm to School program is simply the next step to ensuring that we are making the best decisions to improve and support the development of the whole child," Bouchard writes.

New resource guide and school curriculum aimed at expanding farm-to-school programs in Kentucky

A resource guide and school curriculum are the latest efforts to expand farm-to-school programs in Kentucky. With fewer than 30 percent of Kentuckians consuming the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables every day, farm to school is a “win-win for students, school food service, farmers and local economies,” said Elaine Russell, coordinator for Kentucky Obesity Prevention Program and chairwoman of the Kentucky Farm-to-School Task Force.

The guide includes advice from Kentuckians who have already participated in projects; resources to connect farmers and school food service directors, how to follow procurement rules; recipes; a produce calculator; funding sources; and how to get kids to eat their vegetables.

The curriculum helps students recognize the sources of the food they eat and explains how eating locally-grown food can improve their diet and nutrition.

The undertaking is a joint effort between the Kentucky Department for Public Health the state Department of Agriculture the state Department of Education and the University of Kentucky. The new resources will be presented to school food service personnel June 19 at the Kentucky School Nutrition Association’s conference at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington. (Read more)

Agriculture commissioner visits six counties to promote local food, better nutrition in school lunches

State Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, watches
as Commissioner James Comer speaks at Green
County High School.(Greensburg Record-Herald)

To encourage child nutrition and healthier school lunches, state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer visited six Kentucky school districts earlier this week. He met with school boards in Owsley, Jackson, Knox, Marion and Metcalfe counties, and visited Green County High School, according to a news release from his office.

Many Kentucky children consume more than half of their daily calories at schools. During a typical school day, 4 in 10 American students buy and eat snack foods and drinks, the Pew Health Group found. More than 23 million children and teens in the U.S. are overweight or obese.

"Children who are overweight and obese are at greater risk of chronic ailments that can damage their quality of life and even shorten their lives," Comer said. "Schools can help students eat better, but many schools simply don't have the resources, the equipment or the training necessary to serve healthy meals on a consistent basis. I want to talk to local leaders about how the Kentucky Department of Agriculture can help."

"Just a small amount of money would enable many school districts to make healthy and nutritious foods available to their students," he said. "The KDA can help these schools wade through federal bureaucracy and find the necessary funding. We can also help with our Farm-to-School Program, which connects schools with local producers who can provide fresh Kentucky Proud foods. That's food for our kids, and it helps local farmers make a living." (Read more)

USDA launches online tool to link farmers with nearby consumers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled its newest tool to promote local food systems, an online instrument that lets viewers see what local and regional food projects are under way in their area and read case studies, watch videos and see pictures from the field.

The "Food Compass" is the latest effort in the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" project, meant to expand the number of small, local farmers and ranchers who serve their communities. An interactive map lets viewers see USDA-supported projects related to local food systems in place across the country. That includes information about access to local meals, careers in agriculture and access to healthy food.

The written section includes stories about local food system projects, whether that pertains to farm-to-school, farm-to-hospital and farm-to-institution programs; local meat processing; hoophouses; urban farms; organic farms; and school gardens. Readers can see how people are putting their USDA funds to work to connect to their communities.

The compass notes that buying and selling food at the local, rather than mass consumer, level is a growing trend. In 2011, more than 85 percent of customers asked by the National Grocers Association said they chose to shop at a grocery store based in part on whether it carries food grown from local producers. More than 2,000 schools across the country have farm-to-school programs, and more than 7,000 American cities and towns have farmers' markets. The growing trend is a positive thing since it is "spurring job growth, keeping more farmers on the land and more wealth in rural communities," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. To view the compass, click here.

Signups due tomorrow for nutrition workshops June 29-July 1

Tomorrow is the deadline to register for two affiliated workshops that will focus on school nutrition and the overall health of Kentucky children. The Coordinated School Health Institute will focus on how schools and communities can work toward creating healthier schools. The Growing Healthy Kids in Kentucky workshop will address how to create healthy, hunger-free communities.

The CSHI event is June 29. The Growing Healthy Kids gathering is June 30 and July 1. Both events will be at the Marriott Griffin Gate Hotel in Lexington. All school staff, community organizations, parents, dietitians, nurses, school food service staff, journalists and any stakeholder in the health of Kentucky children are welcome.

The CSHI workshop will cover topics focusing on fitness, staff wellness, school health services, mental health, school nutrition and Medicaid managed care. It is presented by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The two-day Growing Healthy Kids event will address physical activity, farm-to-school success stories, local foods, the Let's Move initiative, Kentucky Proud, breastfeeding, worksite wellness and culinary arts programs. It is sponsored by the Kentucky Dietetic Association.

Click here to register online. The cost for both events if $205. For more information, click here.

Two nutrition workshops will address school lunch, local foods, childhood obesity

Two workshops focusing on school nutrition and the overall health of Kentucky children will be hosted at the end of next month. The Coordinated School Health Institute workshop will focus on how schools and communities can work toward creating healthier schools. The Growing Healthy Kids in Kentucky workshop will address how to create healthy, hunger-free communities.

The CSHI event will be June 29. The Growing Healthy Kids gathering will be June 30 and July 1. Both events will be at the Marriott Griffin Gate Hotel in Lexington. All school staff, community organizations, parents, dietitians, nurses, school food service staff, journalists and any stakeholder in the health of Kentucky children are welcome.

The CSHI workshop will cover topics focusing on fitness, staff wellness, school health services, mental health, school nutrition and Medicaid managed care.

The two-day Growing Healthy Kids event will address physical activity, farm to school success stories, local foods, the Let's Move initiative, Kentucky Proud, breastfeeding, worksite wellness and culinary arts programs.

The CSHI event is presented by the Foundation for a Health Kentucky. The Kentucky Dietetic Association will host the Growing Healthy Kids in Kentucky workshop.

Registration deadline is June 21. Click here to register online. Cost for both events is $205. For more information, click here.

Eating local: Farm-to-school gaining ground as way to fight childhood obesity and otherwise improve students' nutrition

By Tara Kaprowy
Kentucky Health News

With the faint hue of green appearing in thousands of gardens and farms, the growing season has officially begun in Kentucky. While most of the resulting produce is destined for store shelves and personal pantries, there is growing demand for it to appear in kitchens that haven't seen locally-grown fruit and vegetables for decades but are keys to children's nutrition.

Schools are the newest frontier in sustainable farming, with their collective power not only capable of transforming the agricultural landscape, but also fighting childhood obesity, one of the biggest health crises facing the nation. (Kentucky Department of Agriculture photo: Montgomery County farmer Gayle Arnold picking tomatoes)

This growing trend is called "farm to school," in which school cafeterias serve food grown by local farmers. Across the state, food-service directors in 78 school districts have made their schools Kentucky Proud institutions, meaning they serve local products in their school lunches.

This map shows that nearly 50 counties had some type of farm-to-school program in place in 2010; more have started.

"It's a growing movement," said Tina Garland, coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Farm-to-School Program. "Producers are being added every day. We've got orchards that can turn off their freezers in the fall because the schools buy all of their apples."

John Cain, state co-chair of Kentucky Action for Healthy Kids, attributed the trend to several factors, including efforts to find viable markets for former tobacco farmers, a concern about food security and the obesity epidemic. "We're having to revisit where does our food come from and what does the source of our food have to do with our obesity problem," he said.

This year, 10 school districts will receive $5,000 grants from the Kentucky Department of Public Health's Obesity Prevention Program so they can establish farm-to-school programs. Last year, Jackson, Lee and Owsley counties established their own programs using the grants. Owsley Food Service Coordinator Charolette Thompson served locally-grown watermelons and cantaloupes in her cafeterias. "The students noticed the difference in taste and the better quality in the produce," she said. "They love it."

In Jackson County, in addition to developing ties with farmers, students grew tomatoes, left,  and canned salsa, which will be used in the school cafeteria. They also made jam, which they sold under the label "Jammin' Generals." "Not only did they learn how to grow their own food, they learned how to market it and how to preserve it," said Elaine Russell, nutrition coordinator for the Obesity Prevention Program. (Cumberland Valley District Health Department photo)

This trend is likely to continue, especially since it now has federal support. On April 26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established a rule that will let schools give preference to local, unprocessed farm products when they buy for the National School Lunch Program and other USDA programs.

While farm to school is gaining traction, it is not a new concept. Julie Tuttle, food nutrition coordinator at Montgomery County Schools, is one of a handful of food-service directors who have been serving locally-grown produce for several years. "We started using apples in 2006," she said. "Now we're up to four producers." (Kentucky Department of Agriculture photo: Students Macy Tabor and Makayla Donathan at Montgomery County High School)

The latest is Marksbury Farms, where Tuttle is buying beef, chicken and pork. Last week, in honor of the Kentucky Derby, Montgomery County High was one of the first Kentucky schools in decades to serve local meat. The students had the option of either burgoo or hot browns, left. "I had one student who came up to me and said, 'I just wanted you to know this is the best school lunch I've had since I've been here,'" Tuttle said. "That's what it's all about, getting those comments from students." (Kentucky Department of Agriculture photo)

Julia Bauscher, director of school and community nutrition services for Jefferson County Public Schools, teamed with Sullivan University to develop recipes, and was able to buy local squash, peppers and zucchini that she and her team processed and froze for year-round use. This year, she is buying local foods from about 12 providers, three of whom have contracts to grow for the schools.

In addition to raising awareness, she's found farm to school improves the reputation of the school cafeteria in general. "This gives everyone something to feel good about and opens everyone's eyes a little more about the program," she said. "And how we really do have to work hard to make this happen."

Farm-to-school programs have been slow to start in many places because they face logistical, legal and other challenges. Many school districts want their suppliers to carry a $1 million liability insurance policy, which they may not be able to afford, and be certified through the Good Agriculture Practices Program, education they may not be able to get.

Farm to school's biggest drawback is that it takes more work. Unlike food delivered to schools by huge providers, locally-raised produce may need to be washed and processed, which takes more staff or volunteers.

"The market has evolved a very convenient system," said Mark Swanson, an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health. He said school food-service directors "have one or two providers they can call and they can get what they need. Farm to school gets a lot more complicated. ... It takes a really motivated person to tackle that on their own."

Swanson said that hurdle can be lowered by social connections in rural communities. He spoke of one farmer who was selling her tomatoes to a Wendy's restaurant. Though she'd had a bad harvest, the restaurant manager was willing to use the product, in part because they went to church together. "He knew that his business arrangement would be cushioned by social ties," Swanson said.

In Owsley County, ties between the school and farmers have become so strong farmers will now host a farmers market on the grounds of the high school there. "It's the social connection with farm to school that gives it the most potential," Swanson said.

Federal procurement guidelines keep schools from paying much of a premium for local products, but "Farmers are pretty uniformly willing to accept a lower price for their produce because of the volume and they can sell it all at once," rather that waiting for single buyers at a farmers' market, Swanson said. "It's a good trade," he said. "It's a whole lot easier."

That was the case for Jeremy Hinton, owner of Hinton's Orchard and Farm Market, and the schools in LaRue County and nearby Elizabethtown, which buy 1,000 of his apples a week.

"It was a cost savings to them over what they were paying at the time," Hinton said. "Even when wholesale apples are available for less, they continue to buy our apples because of the quality and supporting locally grown. . . . Probably the biggest compliment we've gotten is talking to some cafeteria managers who said they're seeing more apple cores in the trash bin instead of apples with one or two bites out of them."

While farm to school is gaining ground in Kentucky, it is more established in the upper Midwest, the Northeast and California. Kelly Crossley, food-service director at Independence School District in Iowa, started her program in 2008. Though she is interested in supporting farmers and shrinking the district's carbon footprint, Crossley's main goal is the same as most food-service directors in the program: healthier eating.

"If you can get kids to eat more fruit and vegetables, hopefully those items will replace something more fattening they would have eaten otherwise," she said. To reinforce the effort, students meet the farmers in the classroom and travel to the farms, and Crossley posts in the cafeteria signs noting where the local foods were grown. Crossley said her staff only casually monitors what students take in the lunch line, not what actually gets eaten, but "The cooks have told me ... that they can tell which kids have been exposed because they're taking more."

Swanson is doing research in Lee County to see if farm-to-school actually improves children's nutrition. He will establish a program and photograph trays of food coming off the lunch line and being returned once the students have eaten. "There's a general assumption that farm-to-school programs work and no one has really studied the effects on nutrition," he said. "The reason I don't sell it on the nutritional benefits is we really don't know."

While the empirical evidence may be short, the anecdotal evidence is strong. Crossley said she witnessed an unforgettable success late last fall in Iowa.

"Brussels sprouts were the only thing left in the garden," she said. "The kids went out and actually harvested them off the trunks. We sautéed them, put a little bit of parmesan cheese on them and we passed them out to the kids. I'm telling you, they ate it up ... That day, we heard stuff like, 'I like Brussels sprouts and I didn't even know it.'"

Bauscher looks forward to the day that happens all over Kentucky. "As more districts become more involved in this," she said, "we ought to be able to create something that's really worthwhile, not only for the students, but for the farmers."