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December 5, 2013

The Farm to School program (organized by VCH, approved by the Vancouver School Board and funded by VanCity’s Enviro Fund) aims to promote healthy eating and foster a connection between the land and the food we eat

VCH and the Vancouver School Board embrace healthy, local food

farm-to-school-064-(3)The Vancouver School Board (VSB) is committed to being the most sustainable school district in North America. Students need healthy food to support their learning and development. Farm to School Greater Vancouver is working with the VSB to develop and deliver goals to increase the amount of healthy, local and sustainable food to support both learning and sustainability.

There are over 56,000 students in the Vancouver School District. Every purchaser and practitioner knows it’s a tricky business trying to feed kids healthy, affordable and sustainable meals and snacks, day in and day out. Farm to School Greater Vancouver is using the Learning Lab Program, based on a successful model implemented by School Food Focus in the US, to help the VSB adapt their procurement system.

The program works alongside existing local food activities currently occurring at the school level (e.g. school gardens, Farm to School, cafeteria training programs) by helping staff to buy more local, sustainable food from their major distributors and suppliers. The Learning Lab hopes to create positive, long term changes in systemic purchasing. Real change happens from the top down and the bottom up!

Learning labs will be held throughout the 2013/2014 school year. A planning meeting was held in November with a variety of VSB staff involved in purchasing food to develop a framework for moving forward. The first Learning Lab is planned for spring 2014.

The program is funded by a grant from VanCity.

For more information contact: Kathy Romses, Public Health Dietitian, Public Health - Child & Youth