College students: do you want delicious, nutritious local foods in your university or college cafeteria? You can start a Farm to College program to get your school’s food service to purchase food from local farmers.
Because they order food in large quantities, colleges and universities have big potential for supporting local foods. By starting a Farm to College program at your university, you help make a difference for local farmers in your community and get to enjoy the benefits of safe, healthy food.
FoodRoutes Network has partnered with the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture to develop a set of resources and information for students interested in starting farm to college programs at their universities. Our current partnership resources are listed below (scroll down for contact info).
Resources for Students
Promotional Series
Check out our Farm to College Resources, including our new promotional sheets for students interested in starting Farm to College programs at their educational institution. Use them as campaign fliers to get other students, faculty and food service personnel working for your cause.
You can find this Farm to College series as well as other tools for food and farming advocates in our Tools for Action section. Download, print and distribute as many as you want.
Other Resources
Some good initial references for those interested in farm-to-college programs include:
- Oxfam America?s Buy Local Food and Farm Toolkit: A Guide for Student Organizers (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader), which includes background information and specific action students can take to support local food systems
- The Community Food Security Coalition?s (CFSC) extensive page on Farm to College programs with recommended resources, conference information, and technical assistance
- How Local Farmers and School Food Service Buyers Are Building Alliances (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) from the Agricultural Marketing Service
- Our Communicator’s toolkit Where Does Your Food Come From? discusses how to effectively develop a local foods campaign and what kinds of messages resonate with public audiences
- Public Citizen’s Stop Food Irradiation Student Activist Kit (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) which details how students can help keep irradiated food off their campuses
Further Assistance and Contact Info
The three groups below have joined together to form a collaboration around working with students to encourage their schools to buy food from local farmers and to support sustainable agriculture policies.
Community Food Security Coalition
The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is a national, non-profit coalition of organizations dedicated to food and agriculture issues.
Contact the Farm to College Program Manager, Kristen Markley, at 570-658-2265 or FoodRoutes Network
FoodRoutes Network (FRN) can provide student groups working to establish and sustain farm-to-college programs with tools, resources and messages that can be used to build awareness campaigns on their college campuses.
Contact us at 570-638-3608 or The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture is dedicated to shaping public policy that promotes a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.
The Campaign can provide you with information that will help you hold your Congress people accountable through phone calling, letter writing, attending meetings with your Congress people, and holding rallies to get press attention to pressure your Congress person. Contact the Campaign at 845-744-8448 or
Sign On and Show Your Support for Local Food Sign up for free now ? enter for a chance to win a free Buy Local Gift Basket. When you purchase local food, you’ll get a wealth of benefits. You’ll get exceptional taste and freshness, strengthen your local economy, support family farms, safeguard your family’s health, and protect the environment. Now you can show your support for local food and farms by signing on to FoodRoutes’ “Buy Local” Challenge. Just enter your information on the challenge form and click “submit.” Everyone who signs up in 2007 will also be entered in our drawing for a free gift box from our favorite hometown local food retailer and CSA farm: Tait Farm Foods as well as the newest CD from FoodRoutes partner, Grammy award winning singer-songwriter, Adrienne Young “Room to Grow”. When you sign up, you get a personal e-mail from FoodRoutes own “Farmer Sally” a sustainable vegetable farmer who lives near the FoodRoutes Home Office and supplies us with wonderful fresh produce in season. Farmer Sally loves to chat with all our friends and help you with any questions you might have about local foods. Remember, every little bit helps: A recent study in Maine shows that shifting just 1% of consumer expenditures to direct purchasing of local food products would increase farmers’ income by 5%. Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) estimates that by encouraging Maine residents to spend just $10/week on local food, $100,000,000 will be invested back into farmers’ pockets and the Maine economy each growing season. Think how many local communities would benefit if everyone in the U.S. spent just $10 a week on local food.
Local Food in the Winter? Do you live in the Northern states? Think you can’t find local food in the winter? …Think again! Many farmers continue to sell animal products like dairy, eggs, and meat throughout the winter months. Some vegetables even grow throughout much of the winter and, depending on your location, you may have a very bountiful winter harvest! Just search our map to see when different products are available.
Need More Information? Click on the links below to learn more about buying local and the Buy Local Challenge: * Drawing will be held on December 10, 2007. ENTRY DATE EXTENDED: All entries must be received by December 9, 2007. Prize package will include a gift box from our favorite hometown local food retailer and CSA farm: Tait Farm Foods as well as a CD’s from FoodRoutes partner, Grammy award winning singer-songwriter, Adrienne Young. Only one entry per person please! To enter you may also write to: FoodRoutes Buy Local Challenge Drawing, P.O. Box 55 – Apple Lane, Arnot, PA 16911.
Buy Local Challenge
Looking for a CSA farm? The Robyn van En Center has updated listings of tons of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects around the country. Click here to visit.
I’ve sort of skipped the whole putting bacon in everything trend that’s been happening for, oh, the past several years or so. But after eating one of those Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bars a couple months back, I finally realized that it was time to join in on the fun.