Tomato tasting (photo by Jack Kloppenburg)

Sara Tedeschi looked forward to her kids' first day of public school almost as much as they did. While Dylan and Julia Rose had attended a rural Waldorf school, Shorewood Hills Elementary in Madison, Wisconsin proved a whole new world. Tedeschi decided to devote some of her time to volunteering in the school, hoping to smooth her kids' transition. Once a week, she helped supervise the students' lunch period, an experience that left more than just a bad taste in her mouth.

In Tedeschi's view, everything about lunch was wrong: the meal's strange appearance in its vacuum-sealed envelope, its lack of freshness and nutritional value, the velocity with which kids raced through the meal so they could play outside, and the resulting daily mountain of waste, much of it edible. Tedeschi walked away from each day overwhelmed, thinking about ways to improve the meal.

A "Hidden Curriculum"
"I thought about the daily message that lunch sends, what kids learn from doing this day in, day out," she explains. Tedeschi, an organic farmer and nutritionist, thinks seriously about food and our relationship to it. In her view, in a society where anorexia exists alongside epidemic obesity, school children rushing through a prepackaged meal take in a "hidden curriculum" about food and eating along with the lunch itself. Tedeschi believed that eating habits honed in the lunchroom could contribute to health problems as students grew older, and would stick with kids much longer than any health or nutrition lessons delivered in the classroom.

Among the negative lessons Tedeschi sees in the lunchroom curriculum is a view of food as a factory-processed product. It's hard to connect a potato nugget with a potato. And goodness knows where a corndog started. It's all pretty far from the farm, the fields, the soil, sun and water. The students also seemed unaware of the costs of wasted food. She worried that after years of lunchroom eating, the children would become noncritical consumers of food, unable to make wise dietary decisions in the face of sophisticated advertising.

Finding Partners

In 2002, Tedeschi raised her concerns with the REAP (Research, Education, Action and Policy) food group, a collection of farmers, restaurateurs, nutritionists, professors, students and other concerned citizens. REAP, already engaged in a project to bring healthy meals to college cafeterias, recognized the importance of school lunch and began by researching the issues.

Tedeschi and others looked at existing programs, many in California--a state rich with innovative and progressive policies and lots of agriculture. Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley stood out. The one-acre garden Waters helped establish evolved into a centerpiece for science education at MLK Middle School, where kids discover the wonders of food by growing, harvesting and preparing it themselves.

Through another program in Santa Monica, California, all 15 of the district's schools offer a daily salad bar with all produce grown locally.

For another down-to-earth way to bring kids and organic produce together, read "Growing Gardeners"

Tedeschi worked with REAP to form Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch, and is now the project coordinator. The program, which is also supported by the University of Wisconsin Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, started with three long-term goals: providing healthy produce to kids through the school lunch, creating a reliable, profitable market for local growers, and educating the greater public about their mission.

First Steps
In the fall of 2002, Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch began working with three pilot elementary schools, chosen for their diverse populations as well as the supportiveness of teachers and principals. Elementary schools seemed a natural choice, since the students would not be as set in their food habits as middle and high school students.

As their first objective, program organizers wanted to connect local growers of fresh, high quality produce with the schools. They drafted a group of farmers who have participated in classroom tomato tastings, given "Farmer-in-the-school" presentations to the children, and hosted field trips to their farms so students could witness the source of their food.

Tedeschi believes children learn food literacy best through reflective experiences that engage all their senses. Classroom tomato and apple tastings helped kids see, feel, and taste differences between fresh, local produce and produce that has been trucked cross-country. After these sensory experiences, students take part in age-appropriate discussions of what Tedeschi terms the "food shed," the paths that our produce travels between farms and our mouths.

The tomato tastings were a big hit, as kids got their first taste of varieties such as the green zebra heirloom tomato. Skeptical teachers and administrators, faced with enthusiastic young fans of this classic green striped tomato, had to concede that the kids could learn to eat "outside the box".

Food for Thought
WHL connected with parents through regular newsletters, Parent-Teacher Organization meetings, and school social gatherings. Madison has a sizable Hmong and Hispanic population. Potlucks offered great opportunities to meet with parents from these and other groups, while showcasing organic produce and building support for the initiative.

Farmer Judy Hageman helps kids transplant tomatoes to take home (photo by Jack Kloppenburg)

The group also works to raise awareness at civic events such as Madison's annual Food-for-Thought Festival, and at several farmers' markets. Politically engaged Madisonians had already pressured the Madison School Board to end its contract with Coca-Cola a few years ago. Now they are lining up to support healthy foods in school lunches. The local press have also covered the efforts of Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch.

Building awareness and support has proved easier than actually getting healthy foods into the schools. Tedeschi and her team continue to search for ways to make quality meals affordable while assuring that farmers earn enough to make their labors worthwhile. While they've hosted special one-day meals, they have yet to establish regular meals or special menu items as part of the lunch.

Barriers to Success
Frank Kelly, the Madison district's food services director, is supportive of WHL's mission, but must work within the confines of budgets and institutional barriers. Organically-grown produce simply costs more, and Kelly says it is hard to introduce organic food to the school menu without raising the price of the $1.70 school lunch.

At this point, WHL is trying to find ways to make locally-grown produce affordable. "We might need to go with conventional produce instead of organic," mourns Tedeschi, who recognizes that all the farmers working with the program to date grow organically. Despite all the time and energy they've invested, they might be left in the dust as others reap the benefits.

Currently, Tedeschi is working with local farmers to establish a "centralized agricultural food facility," a state-of-the art kitchen that will process local produce into ready-to-use food items. Buying processed foods would allow the district to minimize labor costs. If farmers can provide ready-to-go items, Frank Kelly's job becomes easier and lunches can move beyond the three staple vegetables: baby carrots, broccoli florets and shredded Iceberg lettuce.

Meanwhile, Tedeschi and others are looking for new ways to incorporate local produce into school meals. Wisconsin's shorter growing season has led to some innovative strategies. While fresh produce cannot be grown year-round, other state specialties like cranberries, maple syrup, honey and dairy products could add zest to school meals.

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch has helped developed new meal items that have been tested in the schools. Veggie wraps pleased students and expanded the offerings for school lunches. Other delicacies such as squash bisque soup and egg rolls have proven popular at Harvest Celebration meals.

While WHL has secured the bulk of its funding from USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, more money for farm-to-school initiatives may soon be available. Sarah Borron of the Community Food Security Coalition notes that the US House of Representatives added language from the "Farm to Cafeteria Projects Act," HR 2626, to its Child Nutrition Bill. The corresponding bill in the Senate, S. 1755, still requires co-sponsors. If passed, S. 1755 would provide $10 million annually in $100,000 lumps for school districts or nonprofit organizations establishing farm-to-school projects.

Tedeschi admits that current reality differs greatly from the original vision. "Important changes take time," she reminds herself daily. Though the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch initiative still has a long row to hoe, Tedeschi remains optimistic. "We've had to take smaller steps than we envisioned," she observes. But by forming alliances with farmers, school district officials and kitchen staff, principals, teachers, and families, the project has secured a strong foundation of educated supporters.

Douglas J. Buege is a freelance writer based in Madison, WI.

Recources

• Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch
  
• USDA's SARE grants
  
• Community Food Security Coalition's Farm-to-School Programs
  
• The Edible Schoolyard