Do Farm-to-School Programs Create Local Economic Impacts?

Abstract

Farm-to-school (FTS) programs began in two schools in 1996 as a grassroots movement and now reach approximately 23.6 million students in 42% of U.S. school districts (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2016a). FTS programs are supported by policy and funding at the federal and state government levels and financial support from private foundations (National Farm to School Network, 2016b). Interest in assessing the impact of FTS programs and other local food initiatives has recently grown, not only to evaluate progress, but also to demonstrate efficacy to funders (Jablonski and Schmit, 2015; Thilmany McFadden et al., 2016).