The origin of the nation’s Farm-to-School Program was 10 years ago when then First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole were touring a school cafeteria in Mrs. In the rear of the cafeteria, Mrs. Dole noticed several cases of fresh strawberries with a California grower’s label on the box. She asked if North Carolina grew strawberries, to which one of the workers replied, “Yes, ma’am, we grow quite a few strawberries in North Carolina!”
Mrs. Clinton and Senator Dole suggested it made good sense for school cafeterias to buy local whenever possible. As a result, legislation was passed providing $50,000 to each state to encourage public schools to buy produce from local farmers. Today, that amount has grown to $2 million per state. Another note about Farm to School, at the time of the program’s inception, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that they were unable to provide transportation to bring produce from the farms to the schools. Department of Defense was tapped to fill the need. That is why this program is funded through the Defense Department. Here in Alabama, each public school student is provided farm fresh produce as it becomes available, including tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes and satsuma oranges. One challenge we have in this state is that our growing season does not match up very well with the school calendar. To solve that problem, this is the first year when Alabama schools will be provided with flash frozen produce grown on Alabama farms. This process preserves fresh produce just minutes after it has been picked and washed. Tests conducted by Auburn University scientists verify that flash freezing retains the flavor and nutrition of fresh produce as if it were eaten right out of the garden.
