By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The “buying local” movement seems to be catching on everywhere, especially when it comes to food.
With that in mind, specialists from the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service and a host of partners are working to get local produce to school lunch tables. In their efforts to make that happen, a free webinar is being planned for May 26 from 3-4:15 p.m. and is open to the public.

The Farm-to-School webinar is being made possible through participation from UK, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), Kentucky Action for Healthy Kids, Partnership for a Fit Kentucky and Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which is funding the event.

Janet Mullins, UK associate extension professor in nutrition and food science said the event is a good way to bring farmers and schools together to help each other.

“This is a great opportunity for Kentucky schools and farmers to act together to strengthen local food systems and help kids eat healthier school meals,” she said.

Jackie Walters, a food and nutrition specialist with UK said there is a real need present in bringing local produce to schools.
“Farm-to-school is really a hot topic right now. Many Kentucky farmers are losing their tobacco contracts and they need to diversify and find new markets and at the same time we are dealing with a child obesity crisis,” she said. “It seems like a win-win situation if we can get more local produce into schools.”

The group of partners were brought together by the Kentucky Department of Public Health with the hope of getting those local commodities to school children.

“We came up with the idea of having a farm-to-school webinar to educate interested parties in how it can be done such as we know right now and to try and highlight a few places where some gains have been made,” said Walters.

Montgomery County is one of those places that will be included in the upcoming webinar. Peggy Powell, the family and consumer sciences extension agent there has been able to introduce locally grown products into the public school system with the help of local partners.

She also works with the local health department to present several nutrition education activities in the schools including the Literacy, Eating and Activity for Preschoolers (LEAP) program which helps participating families increase their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables and local farmers increase their sales.

Walters said the work in Montgomery County is so unique, the officials from the USDA will visit the area just to see what is being done.

Another location making gains in the process is Jackson County. Jeff Henderson, the county’s agriculture and natural resources extension agent has worked with the nonprofit group Alternative Agriculture of Appalachia of Jackson County which helped to build a food processing center that will open this summer.

“We know that local schools, groceries and prisons want to use local foods, but they need to be packaged in a way that meets their needs,” Henderson said. “We hope to accomplish that with this program.”

Local producers as well as local caterers will be able to use the center to add value to their products and stimulate the use of local produce.

“One of the barriers that farmers typically run into is that food service directors (in school districts) need things to be processed in certain ways in order to meet the requirements for USDA’s guidelines for schools,” said Walters. “This (center) will help the farmers to process it the way it needs to be for schools.”

During the webinar, both Powell and Henderson will explain how a local farm-to-school initiative can increase access to locally grown, nutrient-rich foods, contribute to local economic development, how to start a program and improve children’s health and knowledge of agriculture, according to information from UK.

Walters said that the upcoming webinar is getting a lot of attention right now and that even some from the USDA have registered to be participants but she hopes food service directors and farmers will log on to get more information.

“What we are really hoping to do is raise awareness that this is possible and it is being done,” said Walters.

Tina Garland, who serves as the Farm-to-School program coordinator at KDA said that program is designed to get fresh produce into schools by buying local.

“Commissioner (Richie) Farmer is very committed to the program and wants to see it succeed for the health of the children and the sustainability of the farmer and the community,” she said.
Garland also said it is the great group of food service directors at the school districts across the state that is helping to make the program a success.

“They have been very open minded and very eager to find farmers in their communities who would be able to provide them with a quality product that they are looking for,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of farmers step up and say this is what I want to do because it is providing a quality, fresh product to children and it is helping them (farmers) grab a hold of a market they have been searching for.”

Of course webinar participants will be able to listen or watch live through the Internet, but preregistration is necessary.
Register at www2.gotomeeting.com/register/633188947