[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6735-S6736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING THE FARM TO SCHOOL PROGRAM AT HARWOOD UNION HIGH SCHOOL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment today to 
recognize the incredible impact of Farm to School programs in Vermont 
and across the country and the great work of Vermont students, their 
schools, and their broader communities to improve access to healthy 
food options.
  Since 2000, Vermont Food Education Every Day--FEED--has facilitated 
collaboration between schools and farms in Vermont, helping cafeterias 
to source meals locally and working with schools to institute 
curricular and cocurricular programming to educate students on local 
food systems. In 2010, I was proud to author the national Farm to 
School Program in the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. Since then, Vermont 
FEED and its Farm to School programs have become a national benchmark, 
with Farm to School programs now operating in all 50 States and the 
District of Columbia.
  A few weeks ago, I had the chance to speak with students from Harwood 
Union High School about their Farm to School program. For the past 15 
years, Harwood has sourced its food locally and worked with Vermont 
FEED to develop opportunities for students, teachers, and staff to 
connect with local farmers beyond the cafeteria. For 5 years, Harwood's 
student-led Farm to School Club has coordinated educational 
programming, farm visits, and recipe competitions to help students and 
staff to experience local agriculture and the Vermont food system. Even 
through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harwood Farm to School Club adapted 
its programming by shifting to virtual tours of local farms and at-home 
recipe contests.
  As a truly Vermont-grown initiative, I have always been proud of the 
impressive adoption of Farm to School programs in communities 
nationwide. In April, I reintroduced the Farm to School Act, a 
bipartisan piece of legislation that would increase mandatory funding 
for the Farm to School Grant Program, ensuring that more schools, 
students, and farmers can take advantage of the program. And every year 
in the annual appropriations process, I have worked to increase 
discretionary funding for this popular program.
  The Farm to School Club at Harwood serves as a testament to the 
importance of community engagement and the educational, economic, and 
nutritional benefits of Farm to School programs. The club was recently 
featured in an article published by Seven Days, and I ask unanimous 
consent that the article, ``Vermont Leads National Farm-to-School 
Movement, and Harwood Union High School Demonstrates How'' be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From Seven Days, Sept. 7, 2021]

Vermont Leads National Farm-to-School Movement, and Harwood Union High 
                        School Demonstrates How

                          (By Melissa Pasanen)

       On August 19 at Shelburne Farms, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) 
     and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack 
     heard from 10 Vermonters involved with the state's farm-to-
     school program.
       The group included school food service directors, nonprofit 
     and government leaders in agriculture and child nutrition, a 
     vegetable farmer, and Jeswin Antony, a 16-year-old Harwood 
     Union High School student.
       When it was Antony's turn to speak, he introduced himself 
     as a leader of Harwood's farm-to-school club. The teen 
     explained that he was 3 when his family moved from India to 
     Waterbury. ``My first experiences with American cuisine were 
     in the lunchroom at school,'' he said.
       The chicken was Vermont-raised, and the vegetables were 
     grown in the school garden, Antony recounted. ``From a young 
     age, I was taught and I saw that this food is grown locally, 
     and it tastes better and is more nutritious,'' he said.

[[Page S6736]]

       The Shelburne gathering followed Leahy's early August 
     announcement that he had secured committee approval to 
     include $5 million in the federal budget to establish a 
     National Farm-to-School Institute at Shelburne Farms.
       The proposed national institute will expand the reach of 
     the existing Vermont-based Northeast Farm to School Institute 
     currently run by Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day), a 
     nonprofit partnership managed by Shelburne Farms and the 
     Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.
       Founded in 2000, Vermont FEED has been instrumental in 
     fostering connections between Vermont schools and farms--from 
     the cafeteria to the classroom--in support of improved 
     childhood nutrition, local agriculture and lifelong wellness.
       The organization's influence spread beyond the state's 
     borders until it was codified when Vermont FEED established 
     the Northeast Farm to School Institute in 2010. The institute 
     has helped share best practices via training and coaching in 
     more than 100 schools and districts in New England and New 
     York.
       States from Massachusetts to Nebraska have also worked with 
     the Northeast Farm to School Institute to build their own 
     successful statewide programs.
       Shortly after the Mississippi Farm to School Network was 
     established in 2015, co-director Sunny Baker visited Vermont 
     for a workshop.
       ``We knew right away Vermont was the model,'' Baker said 
     over the phone. ``It's not one-size-fits-all. It's about 
     putting power back into the communities while providing 
     formal support to help them connect the three Cs,'' she said, 
     referring to cafeteria, classroom and community. ``It's less 
     top-down, more roots-up.''
       Anna Mullen, spokesperson for the National Farm to School 
     Network, described Vermont as a national leader in creating 
     and propagating effective farm-to-school models and in 
     leveraging critical legislative support. In a phone 
     interview, she noted that the state was the first to create a 
     farm-to-school grant program in 2006 and that Leahy has long 
     been ``a huge champion'' of the movement at the federal 
     level.
       The pending federal line item would fund expansion of ``a 
     really impactful . . . coaching and support model that brings 
     together teams to fit the needs of their school and achieve 
     the vision of their own community,'' Mullen said. The 
     proposal to take it national ``is a testament to a model 
     that's really helping and working.
       At Shelburne Farms in August, Antony continued to share why 
     he was drawn to farm-to-school. In middle school, he said, he 
     took a sustainability course that taught him about the food 
     system. Joining the farm-to-school club deepened his 
     understanding of the ``inner workings'' of how schools source 
     and prepare food, Antony explained.
       During the pandemic, he and his co leaders worked hard to 
     keep fellow members connected to the club and to one another 
     through virtual farm tours and Harvest of the Month recipe 
     contests, Antony said. They created recipes with beets, sweet 
     potatoes and dairy at home, for example, and then took 
     virtual tours of farms that produced those foods.
       ``Keeping the students engaged, telling them where their 
     food comes from, making them informed about what they eat 
     really creates a better environment and healthier kids,'' 
     Antony concluded.
       ``I wish I'd had you testify before the committees,'' Leahy 
     said, drawing an appreciative chuckle from the group.
       A couple weeks after meeting the senator and agriculture 
     secretary, Antony met with Seven Days in the Harwood 
     cafeteria along with three other teens in the farm-to-school 
     club. Joining the four were Paul Morris, co-director of food 
     and nutrition services for the Harwood Unified Union School 
     District; Paul Kramer, a teacher and club faculty adviser; 
     and Jen Dreimiller, a school counselor who is also on 
     Harwood's farm-to-school team. That team is composed of 
     teachers, staff, students and community members working to 
     deepen the high school's farm-to-school efforts.
       Like Antony, Miranda Rayfield of Fayston and Macie Whalen 
     of Northfield are 16 and just started 11th grade. The trio 
     leads the club. The students look forward to getting back 
     into the cafeteria kitchen with ``chef Paul,'' as they call 
     Morris, to design, prepare and serve Harvest of the Month 
     taste tests. While they enjoyed the monthly recipe contests 
     that Antony had described to Leahy and Vilsack, sharing the 
     results of their efforts remotely wasn't the same.
       ``We provided the food, and [members of the school 
     community] got to make something out of it and share it via a 
     slideshow we'd show at an online school assembly,'' Whalen 
     explained. Photographs of beet recipes included a 
     mouthwatering array of several different beet-chocolate 
     cakes; beet-tahini pasta; a beet and potato roesti; and a 
     version of halwa, the traditional Indian sweet, made with 
     beets.
       ``Some people think vegetable are `gross and disgusting,' 
     '' Whalen said. ``But then when they cook with them and see 
     or taste what others have made, they might change their 
     mind.''
       ``When you share it with the whole school, it gets more 
     attention,'' Antony added.
       During the pandemic, the students drew other benefits from 
     their shared cooking experience. ``You were at home, locked 
     down. It gave us a great way to connect,'' Whalen said. 
     ``Like, Jeswin's sweet potato and black bean curry--it looked 
     so good! [We were asking each other,] `Did he send the 
     recipe?' It was really cool to be connected through food.''
       Haley MacDonald, 13, of Moretown, joined the club last year 
     when she was in seventh grade. With the kale she received 
     through the club, she made two kinds of kale chips at home: 
     one salted and the other sweetened with a little maple syrup.
       ``It was my first time making them myself,'' MacDonald said 
     proudly in the cafeteria. Her family, including her 9-year-
     old twin brothers, inhaled them. ``They were gone in a 
     minute.''
       ``It also helped me realize there are lots of local 
     farms,'' MacDonald said. ``Like, `Oh, I got kale from there.' 
     It's really cool to be able to cook with what they grow and 
     support them.''
       During a virtual farm visit to Butterworks Farm in 
     Westfield, Whalen described excitedly, ``They showed us their 
     cows and their butter compared to store-bought butter. You 
     could literally see the difference in color.''
       ``And texture,'' Rayfield said. ``You could almost feel the 
     love.''
       ``I've gotten a whole community out of it,'' Whalen 
     continued. In addition to the teachers and chef Paul at 
     school, she said, that includes the farmers. ``It's a 
     community beyond Harwood Union High School.''
       The 5-year-old club is just one aspect of the district's 
     well-established farm-to-school program.
       Morris, the food and nutrition services codirector, has 
     been sourcing from local farms all 15 years he has worked at 
     Harwood. But, while the cafeteria was lauded initially for 
     its fresh, locally sourced menu, Morris said there was 
     untapped opportunity. ``It was not super connected to 
     teachers and staff. It was us trying to push it out,'' he 
     said.
       Enter the Northeast Farm to School Institute. Six years 
     ago, a team of Harwood school and community members started 
     meeting regularly with a coach from Vermont FEED to build on 
     efforts in the school kitchen. That was what ``kind of got 
     the ball rolling,'' Morris said.
       ``The program really started to gain momentum when students 
     had experience outside the cafeteria,'' he said. ``They 
     didn't want to talk about it; they wanted to do things.''
       This fall, Harwood students will return to a neighboring 
     nonprofit farm, Living Tree Alliance in Moretown. There, they 
     have moved mulch, planted hazelnuts, made sauerkraut and 
     learned how the farmers rotate their small flock of sheep to 
     graze different paddocks. The farm has sold Harwood cabbage 
     and potatoes for use in its cafeteria.
       One Harwood civics and social studies teacher used grant 
     money to build a hoop house behind the school in which 
     students grow salad greens. These, too, become cafeteria 
     fare.
       The farm-to-school team came up with a local food challenge 
     offered to all homerooms: Students tasted something locally 
     grown and learned about the concept of food miles and the 
     benefits of buying closer to home. Farm-to-school club 
     members even collaborated with students in a graphic design 
     course to develop a logo emblazoned with a shovel and fork 
     and the words ``community, cafeteria, classroom.''
       Kramer, the club's faculty adviser, said he was pleased 
     when students asked how they could build advocacy skills and 
     help others access local food. Last year, a group of club 
     members partnered with a local gleaning organization to pick 
     apples at a Randolph orchard to donate to area food shelves. 
     Antony and a student who has now graduated worked with 
     Vermont FEED to testify in front of the state legislature.
       ``We are very grateful to eat this healthy, local food, but 
     not everyone gets to,'' Antony said in the cafeteria.
       ``The students are seeing the larger picture,'' Kramer 
     said. ``Farm-to-school is a great, tangible lens for kids to 
     understand things like equity and social justice. They are 
     understanding how things are connected and using that 
     understanding to find leverage points to solve problems.''
       Being involved in farm-to-school, Antony said, has opened 
     his eyes to the complexity of the food system and to his own 
     ability to make a difference.
       ``It's all intertwined: nutrition, the education system, 
     the legislative system, even waste,'' he said. ``There's 
     massive change we can do in all those spheres. I want to take 
     some action.''

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