New York's agriculture commissioner, Richard Ball, recently announced a $100,000 grant for the Broome-Tioga Farm-to-School program, which works to connect schools with farmers and get more locally grown food in school lunches.
Ball said “planting the seeds” in agriculture education early helps encourage curiosity in the industry, while also fostering healthy communities.
“Getting access to some of the best food in the world right in our own backyard, we should be striving to ensure that our farmers are New York's best and first customer across the board,” Ball said. “And that includes our schools.”
The program is mutually beneficial for farmers. Alison Russell of Russell Farms said before farm-to-school, her farm was just a seasonal business.
“We are now able to employ full time, year-round employees and it's huge and so impactful for our business,” Russell said. “And then on the student side, we are now providing students each week with fresh apples. This time of day, it's so important to know what you're eating in school and what's going into your bodies.”
Elected officials gathered at C. R. Weeks Elementary School in Windsor last week to announce the funding, where students were grabbing a lunch that included kale salad from the school’s garden and an apple crisp parfait made of New York apples, oats and yogurt.
Ball said they want to get students curious about the food industry. He said only one percent of the population actually grows the food we eat, but nearly 40 percent of jobs are tied to the food industry.
“[Agricultural] education to our youngest New Yorkers, those are going to be the next generation of leaders here in New York,” Ball said. “And it's important that they know where their food comes from.”
Ball said the Farm-to-School program strengthens the state supply chain for food, provides a boost to local farmers and ensures they’re feeding young people and underserved communities.
The program, run by Broome-Tioga BOCES, the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County and the Rural Health Network of South Central New York, was one of a handful of projects awarded state grant money around the state. One-point-five million dollars was awarded to school districts and organizations for farm-to-school programs in the latest round of awards, including the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES.