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Article published Oct 4, 2007
Making use of local produce

In the past few years, Vermont-grown tomatoes,
zucchini, and basil have started showing up in the
school cafeteria meals of Vermont children. This is no
coincidence. This new development required a great
deal of coordination between public schools, nonprofit
organizations, area farmers and school food service
staff.

As a result of intensive work, farmers developed new
markets for their products right in their own
backyard, money previously used to purchase (and
transport) food from out of state was now staying in
Vermont’s rural communities, and best of all, children
began eating more healthy produce.

It’s happening in several Vermont communities. In the
greater Montpelier area, organizations are working
together to address immediate food needs by developing
an alternative distribution system that delivers fresh
food from 12 local farms to 45 meal sites, including
senior meal programs, early childhood education
programs, mental health meal programs and emergency
food sites. In Brattleboro, young adults are learning
life skills and job skills through agriculture by
working together to grow produce to sell at the local
farmers markets, to local institutions, and to donate
to local shelters and soup kitchens.

Stories like these have been repeated hundreds of
times across the United States. In each case they have
required a committed citizenry, knowledgeable
nonprofit organizations, and, first and foremost,
funding. A major source of funding for projects like
these is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Programs.

First authorized by Congress in the 1996 farm bill,
Community Food Projects have provided grants to
cities, towns, and rural counties to do something very
simple and uniquely American: develop their own
solutions to local food, nutrition and agriculture
problems.

But in its rush to pass a farm bill that preserved
billions of dollars in crop subsidies for a relatively
small number of large farmers, the House of
Representatives did not provide mandatory funding for
Community Food Projects, one of USDA’s highest
performing programs, which receives only $5 million
annually. Should this kind of neglect continue in the
U.S. Senate, which is now writing their version of the
farm bill, it would mean the end of a program that is
based on an up-by-the-bootstraps approach to community
problem-solving.

The House’s action flies in the face of current health
data and national trends. As a nation that is
currently eating itself to death — more than 60
percent of us are overweight or obese — it makes no
sense to take money away from one of the few federal
programs that is promoting healthy eating. And as a
nation that is rediscovering both the wonders and
value of eating locally, it makes no sense to ignore a
program that has found new and exciting ways to
connect local farmers to low-income communities for
the benefit of both.

If the House version of the farm bill stands, projects
like the Lower East Side Girls Club of New York, which
has taught healthy eating to thousands of lower income
city girls, will disappear. Lack of funding will also
mean the end to projects like that on the Tohono
O’odham Tribe’s reservation in Arizona, where local
innovation has seeded the revival of traditional
Native American crops that are necessary to stemming
the diabetes epidemic now running rampant through
Indian Country. And in all likelihood, it will
terminate funding for projects like the Community
Garden Outreach Program in Green Bay, Wis., which has
enabled Southeast Asian refugees to grow, market and
process their own food.

In these days of multi-billion-dollar federal programs
administered by cumbersome bureaucracies from the top
down, it is unusual to find programs that only spend a
few million dollars and encourage local people to find
their own answers. Large-scale, institutional
responses like food stamps are necessary to keep
millions of Americans from going hungry, but
small-scale programs like Community Food Projects are
necessary to nurture community-based problem-solving
that may one day end hunger.

I encourage readers to contact our two U.S. Senators,
in particular Senator Leahy who has been the historic
champion of these issues, and let them know how
important Community Food Projects are to Vermont. Ask
our congressman to not let this important program go
unfunded. This affects all of us.

Dana Hudson works for Vermont FEED (Food Education
Every Day, www.vtfeed.org) and has recently started as
the Northeast regional leader for the National Farm to
School Network, a position she shares with the Lincoln
County Economic Development Office in Wiscasset, Maine.