A Wide Vision Which Begins in Our Own Home Towns
Solveig Hanson and Michael Nash, GROWN Locally growers at Sunflower Fields have been asked to be members of a Midwest “Farm to School” initiative which has been formed to plot strategies to bring locally produced farm products into our public and private school cafeterias. The group of folks who will be working on this project over the next few years- folks from the Dakotas to Oklahoma – will be addressing legislative issues as well as methods by which schools can readily find information about accessing local products.
The project is important in the fact that, if nothing else, will draw attention to the need for nutrition, healthy, fresh, foods for our children while at school. Legislators in Iowa have passed a Farm to School bill which will address these issues. But…
There is a great need for public support and that does not start with a wide angle view and broad brush strokes. It is much more about the actions taken at the local levels. Solveig and Michael have agreed to join the team only if the results are targeted at and for local communities and not just state legislative bodies and researchers at large universities. This is ultimately a local issue and needs to be addressed in our communities. But our communities can benefit from appropriate action taken by this project and the hope is that information will be developed and passed on to where it is needed most.
What ideas might you have relative to a local and regional supply of foods to community school district cafeterias? Does it seem to make sense to utilize our local resources to bring good tasting, healthy, nutrition food to the table for our children? We would like to hear your ideas an thoughts on this subject—both as information that we can use here in northeast Iowa and for the Midwest project.