>> In tonight's segment featuring WisContext journalists
a look at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture's Farm
to School program in Wisconsin.
>> Last year we did green beans.
I think we did some potatoes, onions, sweet onions, sweet
peppers, green peppers, cucumbers and zucchini.
The kids get something good to eat and learn to like their
vegetable.
>> That's Columbus farmer Tim Zander talking about the produce
his organic farm provides three school districts as part of the
Farm to School program.
It's a program in the news right now because the governor's
proposed budget cuts its coordinator position.
This week, WisContext rolled out four online articles about
the statewide program that started in 2009.
We met up with Scott Gordon this week at Zander's farm as spring
vegetable planting was underway.
>> So we're here in a greenhouse on a farm in Columbia County.
This farmer takes part in the Farm to School program.
You've been doing reporting on this.
Tell me about the Farm to School program in Wisconsin.
>> Well, it's kind of a disparate thing and I think
that's really the crux of the story, is that Farm to School
programs are becoming a more popular thing in Wisconsin
and in other states.
But there's no standard way to do it.
And it encompasses buying local ingredients for school lunch,
but also things like taking field trips to farms,
educational things about nutrition, having school
gardens.
For each school or school district that does it, there's
sort of a whole different, you know, series of steps they have
to go through to make it work out just based on their local
circumstances and what's available and what kind of
prices are there.
>> One of the articles that you wrote was titled
"Farm to School by the Numbers."
What are the numbers that you can tell us
about in terms of participating districts?
>> So the most recent big kind of survey that the USDA has done
about this found that about half the school districts and private
schools in Wisconsin participated in Farm to School
in some form or another.
It's reached a little over a half a million students.
You can really see it playing out across the state in
different geographic areas, rural areas, urban areas,
different, you know, areas of different political
characteristics and other different population
characteristics.
So it really is quite widespread as far as I can tell.
>> What have you heard from various districts about why they
participate?
>> Well, people are interested in the nutritional benefits
for kids.
You know, they've also found that with these programs,
kids get more interested in the school lunch programs,
which is good for the districts on a lot of levels.
You know, for one thing they can get more reimbursement for
things like free lunch programs.
They also find when the students are more engaged with
agriculture and vegetables and thinking more about nutrition,
they're actually more likely to want to eat the stuff.
>> And what have you heard from farmers who participate?
>> Well, one thing we've heard is that-- from farmers and
school districts is that it's really a logistical challenge to
make this happen because a lot of school districts are already
kind of tied into this broader food system we have in America
that's more industrialized and held together by big
distributors.
And so as Tim Zander at this farm was saying a little
earlier, there's sort of an aspect of re-inventing the
wheel, where you have to figure out a distribution system that
works on a logistical and economic level to get this
produce grown and purchased and ordered and brought into these
schools and prepared.
>> What about the context, as it were, nationwide?
Is this a program that other states do?
>> Yeah.
And actually the Midwest regionally lags behind some
other regions in terms of its participation, which I was
surprised to find.
But there was an USDA research paper that came out recently
that found that.
>> Meanwhile, though, Wisconsin I've understood was kind of at
the forefront of this Farm to school effort and now we find
ourselves in the position where the governor's proposed state
budget would actually eliminate the funding for an overall
coordinator position.
What have you been hearing from people involved in this Farm to
School program about that?
>> Well, what a lot of people have told me from school
districts and from farms and from advocacy groups like REAP
food group in Madison is they really find this coordinator
position helps to bring together all these different pieces, all
these different parties who have to understand each other in
order to make it work.
You know, a farm might not know what a school cafeteria has to
go through to get a meal prepared and a school nutrition
person might not know what a farm has to go through to get
its produce to market.
And so what people are telling me is that this person really
helps to kind of bring all these people together and put a
broader logistical perspective on all the things that need to
happen.
>> Scott, thanks very much.
>> Thanks a lot Fred.
>> Scott's reporting can be found at WisContext.org, a
partnership with Wisconsin Public Broadcasting
and UW Extension.
As for the budget cut of the coordinator, farmers involved
in the Farm to School program expressed disappointment
because they say that person shepherds its growth.
>> That person is the person who holds the big picture.
We know who we're working with.
But if we want to see the program expand beyond just a few
districts that each farmer might be working with and see it have
more impact across the state, then we need somebody in that
position who can leverage other agencies and other groups, you
know, to get this local produce out into other institutions.
>> The dollar amount eliminated in the state budget for that
position and an advisory council for the Farm to School program
is just under $133,000 over the biennium.
The governor's office says the State Department of Agriculture
will continue to disburse federal grants toward