 |
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) |
| |
-- |
Team Nutrition |
| |
|
USDA's nutrition education
initiative to promote healthy food choices and
physical activity for school age children. Team
Nutrition schools make a commitment to offer healthy
school meals, encourage student to be more
physically active, and build community support for a
healthy school environment.
Team Nutrition provides education materials for
teachers and students, and technical assistance
manuals for food service staff that can help with
incorporating Farm to School activities. The
following are several of the materials available
online:
|
| |
|
o |
Changing the Scene: Improving the School Nutrition Environment |
| |
|
|
This tool kit addresses the
entire school nutrition environment from a
commitment to nutrition and physical activity,
pleasant eating experiences, quality school meals,
other healthy food options, nutrition education and
marketing the issue to the public.
|
| |
|
o |
Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs |
| |
|
|
The Food Buying Guide for
Child Nutrition Programs is designed to help you in
two important ways: (1) It will help you or your
purchasing agent buy the right amount of food and
buy it most economically whether you use one of the
food-based or the nutrient standard menu planning
approaches; (2) For the food-based menu planning
options, it will help you determine the specific
contribution each food makes toward the meal pattern
requirements. This is necessary to ensure that meals
provide needed nourishment and meet program
requirements for reimbursement. In addition, with
yield data for more than 1,200 food items, this
guide can provide ideas for adding new foods or new
forms of familiar foods to your menus.
|
| |
|
o |
Fruits & Vegetables
Galore |
| |
|
|
Fruits & Vegetables Galore is
a tool for school foodservice professionals packed
with tips on planning, purchasing, protecting,
preparing, presenting and promoting fruits and
vegetables. Use Fruits & Vegetables Galore to help
rejuvenate your cafeteria with colorful fruits and
vegetables.
|
| |
|
o |
A Menu Planner for
Healthy School Meals |
| |
|
|
The Menu Planner for Healthy
School Meals provides recommendations from the 2005
Dietary Guidelines that can be implemented in menu
planning: serving more whole grains, fruits, and
vegetables, and lower amounts of sugar, saturated
and trans fats, and sodium in school menus.
|
| |
|
o |
The Road to SMI Success—A Guide for School Foodservice Directors |
| |
|
|
The Road to SMI Success - A
Guide for School Foodservice Directors provides
guidance to school foodservice directors,
supervisors and managers on successfully
implementing USDA's School Meals Initiative for
Healthy Children (SMI) within the scope of daily
practices. It includes information on menu planning
options, daily foodservice practices and tips to
meet nutritional requirements for school meals, Team
Nutrition, and preparing for an SMI review.
|
| |
|
o |
Chefs Move to School
|
| |
|
|
The “Chefs Move to Schools” program, run through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will pair chefs with interested schools in their communities so together they can create healthy meals that meet the schools’ dietary guidelines and budgets, while teaching young people about nutrition and making balanced and healthy choices.
|
| |
-- |
Fresh Fruits and
Vegetables Program (FFVP) |
| |
|
The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Program is a federally assisted program providing
free fresh fruits and vegetables to students in
participating elementary schools during the school
day. The goal of the FFVP is to improve children's
overall diet and create healthier eating habits to
impact their present and future health. The FFVP
will help schools create healthier school
environments by providing healthier food choices;
expanding the variety of fruits and vegetables
children experience; and increasing children's fruit
and vegetable consumption.
|
| |
-- |
Food Safety |
| |
|
Food safety and security is an important aspect of the USDA nutrition assistance programs. The Food Safety Unit coordinates food safety and security efforts within all these programs, and provides information on food safety and security related to the assistance programs administered by FNS as well as links to FNS’ food safety partners.
|
| |
|
o |
Best Practices: Handling Fresh Produce in Schools |
| |
|
|
This fact sheet describes best practices for handling all types of produce with practices specific to leafy greens, tomatoes, melons, and sprouts, as well as a number of steps that foodservice employees can take to minimize the chances for fruits and vegetables they handle to become contaminated.
|
| |
-- |
Department of Defense
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program (DoD Fresh) |
| |
|
As part of the initiative by
USDA to offer schools a wider variety of fresh
produce than would be available through normal USDA
purchases, the DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
was created. Through the DoD Fresh Fruit and
Vegetable Program, USDA has been able to offer
schools a wider variety of fresh produce than would
normally be available through USDA purchases.
|
|
|
Agricultural
Marketing Service (AMS) |
| |
-- |
Marketing Services
Division |
| |
|
The mission of
the Marketing Services Division (MSD) is to improve
the efficiency of food and agricultural product
distribution and thereby enhance the ability of
producers to retain a greater share of the consumer
food dollar. To facilitate more direct distribution
of U.S. agricultural products, MSD administers two
competitive grant programs that support agricultural
marketing activities: the Farmers Market Promotion
Program and the Federal-State Marketing Improvement
Program. The Division also contains a research and
technical assistance branch that supports small and
medium-sized farm operators, food processors and
food handlers by:
-
Developing
market intelligence and information to help
agricultural producers, processors, and
manufacturers to better meet the needs of
household and commercial buyers;
-
Identifying emerging marketing opportunities;
-
Providing
advice on how to create and improve the
operation of farmers markets and other direct
marketing facilities; and
-
Providing
design and planning assistance to market
planners and operators.
MSD maintains
a website devoted to marketing channel research and
development, which features several publications
that examine the growing importance of schools as a
market outlet for local agricultural products, and
offer tips and strategies to producers and school
foodservice personnel alike to enhance the success
of Farm to School marketing and procurement.
|
| |
-- |
How Local Farmers and
School Food Service Buyers are Building Alliances |
| |
|
On May 1,
2000, more than 180 individuals—school food service
directors, State and Federal commodity procurement
officials, Extension agents, members of farm
cooperatives, and agricultural marketing
specialists—gathered at the Georgetown College
Training and Conference Center in Georgetown, KY, to
share information and strategies aimed at boosting
the use of locally produced fresh food in school
feeding programs. This report summarizes the
educational highlights of the workshop in an effort
to help small farmers and school food service buyers
throughout the country explore how they might be
able to establish similar business relationships in
their own communities.
|
| |
-- |
Innovative Marketing
Opportunities for Small Farmers: Local Schools as
Customers |
| |
|
Small farmers
in the United States are declining in number and
experiencing economic difficulty. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing
Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service,
the West Florida Resource Conservation and
Development Council, and the Small Farmer Outreach
Training and Technical Assistance Project, Florida
A&M University have worked together on this pilot
project to create marketing opportunities for
limited-resource growers.
|
|
|
National Agricultural Library (NAL) |
| |
-- |
n
FaFarm
to School: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography
The Farm to School Bibliography
provides a collection of available resources
including books, scientific peer-reviewed journal
articles, and Grey literature/pamphlets related to
farm to school for schools and other institutions.
|
| |
-- |
Farm to School and School Gardens
Children learn a great deal from growing their own fruits and vegetables. Find out how to start a school garden of your own. This section also includes many general Farm to School resources.
|
| |
-- |
Farm to School and School Gardens
(pdf)
This publication is a collection of resources on the topic of Farm to School and School Gardening for educators. It is comprised of information available on the World Wide Web, educational materials and contact information of related organizations.
|
| |
-- |
Farm to School Bulletin Board Resources
When children understand where their food comes from, such as from a local farm or a school garden, they are more interested in trying new fruits and vegetables! Use these resources to create a colorful, motivating display.
|
| |
-- |
Chef Resources
This section is a collection of resources on the topics of school nutrition, cooking with kids, nutrition education, and more.
|
|
|
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion |
| |
-- |
MyPyramid |
| |
|
The MyPyramid food guidance
system provides many options to help Americans make
healthy food choices and to be active every day.
Resources are available for preschoolers, children,
teenagers, and adults, including handouts and
interactive tools.
|
|
|
Rural
Development |
| |
-- |
Youth Resources |
| |
|
Rural Development’s Youth
Resources page provides students, parents, and
teachers with youth-geared information and resources
related to agriculture.
|
| |
-- |
Agriculture in the
Classroom |
| |
|
Kids and teens can find
information about animals, foods, ag questions,
Science Fair projects, Ag Fun and virtual field
trips in the Agriculture in the Classroom Kid's Zone.
|
|
|
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) |
| |
-- |
Food Safety Education
Materials |
| |
|
FSIS provides numerous food
safety education materials for students, including
comic books, fact sheets, word finds, and other
materials.
|
|
|
USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) |
| |
-- |
FSA Grants |
| |
|
Visit the FSA page for information about cold storage facilities now eligible for the USDA Facility Loan Program.
|
| |
-- |
FSA Kids |
| |
|
FSA Kids
provides fun farm facts, stories about youth
farmers, word searches and mazes, and more.
|
|
|
Economic Research Service (ERS) |
| |
-- |
Food Environment
Atlas Tool |
| |
|
As part of
a larger project titled, “The Economics of Local
Foods,” ERS has developed a map of Farm to School
programs, using a registry from the National Farm to
School Network, as part of a Food Environment Atlas
web tool. The purpose of this tool is to assemble
statistics on food environment indicators to
stimulate research on the determinants of food
choices and diet quality, and to provide a spatial
overview of a community’s ability to access healthy
food and its success in doing so. |
