Stakeholders’ Interest in and Challenges to Implementing Farm-to-School Programs, Douglas County, Nebraska, 2010–2011

Details

• Journal Article:
  Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
• Personal Author:
  Pinard, Courtney A. ; Smith, Teresa M. ; Carpenter, Leah R. ; Chapman, Mary ; Balluff, Mary ; Yaroch, Amy L.
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  Schools are uniquely positioned to influence the dietary habits of children, and farm-to-school programs can increase fruit and vegetable consumption among school-aged children. We assessed the feasibility of, interest in, and barriers to implementing farm-to-school activities in 7 school districts in Douglas County, Nebraska.
  
  Methods
  
  We used a preassessment and post assessment survey to obtain data from 3 stakeholder groups: school food service directors, local food producers, and food distributors. We had a full-time farm-to-school coordinator who was able to engage multiple stakeholders and oversee the development and dissemination of a toolkit. We used descriptive statistics to make comparisons.
  
  Results
  
  Seven food service directors, 5 distributors identified by the food service directors, and 57 local producers (9 completed only the preassessment survey, 16 completed only the post assessment survey, and 32 completed both) completed various components of the assessment. Interest in pursuing farm-to-school activities to incorporate more local foods in the school lunch program increased during the 2-year project; mean interest in purchasing local foods by food service directors for their districts increased from 4.4 to 4.7 (on a scale of 1 to 5).
  
  Conclusion
  
  Implementing farm-to-school programming in Douglas County, Nebraska, is feasible, although food safety and distribution is a main concern among food service directors. Additional research on feasibility, infrastructure, and education is recommended.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Administrative Personnel Agriculture Child Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena Community-Institutional Relations Community Health Planning Food Services Food Supply Humans Lunch Original Research Program Evaluation Schools

  More +
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 10.
• DOI:
  http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd10.130182
• ISSN:
  1545-1151
• Pubmed ID:
  24355103
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC3869530
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  FOA CDC-RFA-DP09-912ARRA09/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Nebraska
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  10
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ba7e32c38cb6ab8da1b401d56fa22b2d0bd85596f4751646104a182bdc72850398c583079c4da22eef331a74e51ff62c2fbe5cb6f39852c2f5721ba90440d64d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/21387/cdc_21387_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 587.40 KB ]