The idea of schools buying food from local sources or even growing food through student-led educational programs for school lunches isn’t new. However, the idea is getting a boost from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and other cooperating agencies. It’s a focus of Indiana Grown for 2019. Indiana Grown is an ISDA program.

Heather Tallman, membership development program manager for Indiana Grown within ISDA, explains how the farm-to-school effort started and underscores its goals. Here is Indiana Prairie Farmer’s exclusive interview with Tallman:

What is the purpose of the farm-to-school effort? Indiana Grown wants to expand local food access in all school corporations across Indiana. The first step is to educate both potential growers who might want to sell to schools or other institutions, and people within the schools and institutions in charge of buying food. Then the challenge is helping both sides make connections.

How did this effort get started? Indiana Grown and three other partnering agencies received a USDA grant to initiate this program. Other partners include the Indiana State Department of Health, Purdue University Extension and the Indiana Department of Education. The grant began in mid-to-late 2018 and runs for two years.

What are you doing to reach this goal? Our first project is developing the Indiana Grown for Schools resource guide. We’ve conducted a survey of growers who would be interested in selling locally grown produce to schools or other institutions. It was a volunteer survey, and you didn’t have to be a member of Indiana Grown. We encouraged anyone who thought they might be interested in growing food for schools to complete it. We will use that information to develop a resource guide which we can distribute to institutional food buyers in schools, hospitals and other institutions throughout the state.

The survey is officially closed. However, you can learn about it and learn more about Indiana Grown on our website, indianagrown.org.

What does someone have to do if they want to sell food to schools? Consider having your business become certified through USDA’s Good Agricultural Practices program. It relates to knowing and following proper procedures in growing, handling and cleaning produce which you’re selling. You can learn more about becoming GAP-certified at ams.usda.gov/services/auditing/gap-ghp.

Growers who sell more than $25,000 per year in produce are required to abide by standards of the Food Safety Modernization Act, commonly referred to as FSMA. Becoming compliant with FSMA guidelines can become an involved process. Purdue Extension has several people trained to help people understand what they need to do and work through meeting FSMA requirements.

What other activities are underway to help promote Indiana Grown for Schools? Purdue Extension held a training session in late January geared to schools and institutions interested in buying from local producers. The focus was on education about pricing of products and understanding the interaction between buyers and sellers. The training was possible through a separate grant Purdue received.

What can people expect from this effort going forward? We hope to have the resource directory of growers completed so schools interested in sourcing local food can use it before the 2019-20 school year begins. We will continue to promote the concept and work with Indiana growers interested in the program.