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Growing farm to school through local policy change
- 1. Growing Farm to School through Local Policy Change- Josie Lathrop, Health First Wisconsin
- 2. Advocating Local Policy Change Be prepared to deal with: -the organizational structures in place -individual personalities and relationships -the realities of school operations
- 3. Advocating Local Policy Change Steps to lay the groundwork 1. Recognize the problem and make a commitment to action 2. Assess local school community’s situation 3. Become familiar with the political dynamics in your school community 4. Develop a strategy to get the policy adopted or revised
- 4. Advocating Local Policy Change After you’ve laid the groundwork… …Build awareness and support for the policy change.
- 5. Farm to School in the Wellness Policy
- 6. Other Policy Changes that Support Farm to School Programs Cooperative Purchasing Purchasing Food Services
- 7. Questions? Comments? Josie Lathrop- jlathrop@healthfirstwi.org
Editor's Notes
- This is the why- why is it important for this policy to be changed? What purpose does it serve? 2. It is important to evaluate the current school environment and see what is going on now, what is going well and what needs improvement. -compile and review local data that may affect decisionmaking -check whether there are district policies or procedures already in place that address the issues and if so would it be possible to modify them to reflect the new policy concerns-it is often much easier to revise existing policies than to establish new policies--Review the “foundation” policies in place in the district for making policy change- there is usually a policy or process in place for adopting and revising school policies- find out what that policy is and be prepared to abide by it3. Find out how various players in the district influence policy- anticipate who is likely to support or oppose proposals-be prepared for reactions to your policy proposals4. Ask yourself how to best approach policy change in your community. Seek advice on the best ways to approach school board members and the board as a whole. Decide who should introduce issues to key players and who should make policy recommendations.-Decide how many policy changes to pursue at once- depending on your current situation, incremental steps may be more appropriate than to present the “dream” policies all at once. – it’s very important to be realistic when approaching policy change, not idealistic.
- -don’t assume everyone will see the same value and importance in the policy changes, particularly if the changes affect policies and practices “close to their hearts”- support and collaboration needs to be demonstrated during the policy process. – the quality and usefulness of policies depend on who proposes them and who supports them. 0 school board members are more likely to support the policy change if public and school support is generated for it.
- So as you start thinking about how to incorporate farm to school into your school wellness policies, I want to point out some resources. The toolkit for School Nutrition Directors also has a tool on incorporating f2s programs into school wellness policies. http://www.cias.wisc.edu/foodservtools/8-Build-sustainability/model-wellness-policy-language.pdfSchool wellness policies must address 5 areas required by law: 1. Goals for nutrition education, physical activity and other school-based activities that promote student wellness.2. Nutrition guidelines that, for all foods available on each school campus under the jurisdiction of the local educational agency during the school day, are consistent with federal law, and promote student health and reduce childhood obesity.3. The local educational agency must permit parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, school administrators and the general public to participate in the development, implementation and periodic review and update of the school wellness policy.4. A Local education agency must inform and update the public (including parents, students and others in the community) about the content and implementation of the local school wellness policy.5. Local educational agency must periodically measure and make available to the public an assessment of the implementation of the local school wellness policy.The tool provides recommendations for incorporating f2s programming into the wellness policies in those areas. And this slide shows an example of that breakdown.The tool also provides a guide for organizing in your school district, and I’m going to quickly review those steps.1. Find out what progress the district has made in developing, implementing or evaluating a school food or wellness policy and whether farm to school programs have been included.2. Play an active role in the conversations around school wellness policies. It’s most likely the case that your district has a policy- so being an active part of the implementation is a great role for you to play.3. Draft farm to school language that fits the needs and interests of your school district. Draw on the model language included in the tool for examples. Present an updated version to your school board for adoption.4. Develop an evaluation plan that measures the included components of farm to school programs so you can ensure that the policyis being implemented the way it was intended.
- Cooperative purchasing- while your district’s cooperative purchasing agreement may not mention f2s, the policies that generally support and encourage cooperative purchasing may act to support the purchase of local goods b/c the increased buying power of a cooperative is likely to result in lower prices-purchasing- districts’ purchasing policies can be supportive of local purchasing- a district’s policy can specifically mention a preference for the purchase of goods for local suppliers- could be qualified by “where reasonable,” “where competitive” or as a tie-breaker between similar or identical bidsFood services- this policy can make a reference to the procurement of local goods or ban minimally nutritious foods at mealtimes (which could make participation in a f2s program easier)