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Farm to School Central Coast celebrates ‘National Farm to School Month’ 

farming

Program connects local farmers to school districts to increase student access to fresh, local produce, support the local agricultural economy

– The Farm to School Central Coast program will celebrate National Farm to School Month during October. The program is focused on the procurement of local produce for school meals and student education and has connected fourteen local farms to seven school districts from Santa Maria to San Miguel since November 2020.

In an effort to educate students about where their food is grown and raised, the Farm to School Central Coast program will organize several Meet the Farmer events during October at Templeton Unified School District, San Miguel Joint Union School District, and San Luis Coastal Unified School District.

The activities invite farmers who are selling produce to the districts to come meet the students, tell them about farming, and encourage them to try new produce – like raspberries, finger limes, and jujubes. When asked what students thought after tasting jujubes for the first time last school year, one student at Cappy Culver Elementary replied “If I had to give it a score, I’d give it a 9 out of 10.”

The Farm to School program expanded in November 2020 after Slow Money SLO received funding through a partnership with SLO Food Bank, which was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Specialty Crop Block Grant to expand demand for specialty crop fruits and vegetables while improving the health of underserved Central Coast communities through SLO Food Bank nutrition education and expansion of specialty crop offerings at area school districts.

With the support of this grant funding, students have learned more about and tasted locally grown raspberries, strawberries, mandarins, cherry tomatoes, kiwi, and more in their school cafeterias and/or at Meet the Farmer activities.

As part of its mission, Slow Money SLO supports small and medium-sized local farms through promotion and advertising, and through connecting farms to institutional buyers. Farmers who want to sell produce in larger volumes to local buyers often find making these initial connections challenging, but with the support and infrastructure developed by this program, they have discovered that schools are a good fit.

“I started delivery to San Miguel school, Paso Robles and San Luis Coastal. We really appreciate Farm to School Central Coast, it has helped our business tremendously,” said Jacinto Bautista, Manager at Bautista Family Farm.

This October students at Meet the Farmer activities can look forward to taste-testing rare apple varieties, finger limes, and more.

 

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The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.