Sen. Welch pushes for Farm to School Act to boost local food access

SHELBURNE, Vt. — Vermont leads the U.S. in providing local food in schools.

In fact, 89% of Vermont schools purchase some local food, according to Vermont FEED, a collaborative farm to school project. U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced the Farm to School Act in the Senate last year, which would support schools accessing local food and builds on former Vermont U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s influential Farm to School Grant Program.

Vermont also runs a Local Foods Incentive Grant program, which incentivizes schools to meet local purchasing targets in their school meal programs. They can receive up to 25 cents per meal if 25% of their food is sourced locally, which decreases as the portion of locally sourced food decreases. Vermont made school breakfast and lunch free for every student starting in the 2022-2023 school year.

Still, about 10% to 12% of food in Vermont school meals comes from “brown box commodities,” or bulk foods made elsewhere in the U.S. that are delivered to places like schools and food banks.

Welch, speaking at the School Nutrition Association of Vermont’s annual conference at Shelburne Farms last week, voiced his commitment to strengthening the connection between Vermont’s local food ecosystem and healthy meals for students.

Welch acknowledged it has historically been a challenge to create national policies that guarantee nutritious school meals.

“The idea that we have to make an argument that it’s important to feed kids, I mean, what kind of country is that?” he asked. He also fielded a question from an audience member, who pointed to a “cash in lieu” program in effect in Kansas and asked Welch to look into adopting the program in Vermont. This program provides schools with funds instead of physical commodities, which schools can use to purchase more local foods.

“We’ll look right into it,” he said. “But it’s very consistent with our commitment to the Farm to School Program, which is about supporting farmers as well as kids.”

Last November, Welch, along with other senators, reintroduced the Farm to School Act, which would get more local foods into schools nationwide. It would do that by increasing funding to the Farm to School Program.

Welch also praised SNA-VT, a leadership group for child nutrition professionals, for supporting a local food ecosystem in the state. He said he’s been in schools during lunchtime and appreciated the value of students gathering for a meal and learning how to get along with each other.

“The heart of agriculture, the heart of nutrition, is about community,” he said. “We need that sense of togetherness.”

Welch is on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, which is working on a new version of the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill, an omnibus bill that passes about every five years, includes nutrition programs like SNAP, a food benefits program for low-income families and individuals, and school nutrition, as well as commodity and crop insurance programs for farmers. Welch is working on a new Farm Bill, which is currently stalled in the Senate.

“We in Washington have to approach things the way you do,” he said, addressing the school nutrition professionals at the conference. “It’s like you don’t ask, ‘Who (did) the parents vote for?’ You ask, ‘What does your son, what does your daughter need for a good meal?’ And that’s something that brings us together.”

Rosie Krueger, state director of child nutrition programs, also spoke at the conference, giving an update on the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which were published in December and prioritize protein and dairy at every meal and limit added sugars. Although these guidelines are meant for every American, Krueger explained that they have specific impacts for school nutrition.

The federal government plans to release a rule later this fall to guide these standards, and Krueger urged those in the room to respond during the public comment period after its release.

“We have an opportunity during a comment period to tell federal decision makers how we think we could do it better,” she said.

Krueger expects the new rule will include increased protein requirements and limits on added sugar, which could tighten budgets for school meals. She suggested that schools start planning how to use beans as a source of protein if the requirements go into effect.

She said it’s been nearly 15 years since nutrition standards changed, and it had a big impact on school nutrition the last time around. Krueger said schools are serving better, healthier foods as a result of those changes, but the initial implementation could have been improved.

This story was first published by VtDigger and is republished with permission as part of the Vermont Journalism Trust’s Community News Sharing Project.