In support of local businesses, healthy eating, and teaching children that food does not have to come from mega corporations, Oregon leads the nation in farm to school funding, with funding increasing to 4.5 million in the latest legislative session, expanding the program from 19 school districts to the entire state.
Rick Sherman, a Farm to School specialist with the Oregon Department of
Education told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), “The locally
grown and processed food can tend to be more expensive. And rather than
encouraging folks to buy stuff from who knows where, we really wanted to
encourage people to buy Oregon.”
Beyond supporting the local economy and helping schools gain access to
healthy food, 20 percent of the grant will also go toward funding
garden-based education. Oregon already hosts no fewer than 650 school gardens, including ones from the successful School Garden Project in the city where we live.
Yes, it is true that factory farming and large mega-company food processing plants can be less expensive, but empowering people to be as self-reliant as possible to become less dependent on passing our resources up the hierarchy brings a better quality of life.
http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-farm-to-school-funding/
