Local students should have local produce

Eat your fruits and vegetables. How many times have you heard that?

Yet it is harder than you might think for local schools in the state to buy the very food all of us parents say we want our kids to eat.

That’s why we support a legislative proposal to make it easier for schools to buy Washington-grown fruits and vegetables. By buying more locally grown food, our local farms can get a boost as well.

Speaking as a leading environmental voice in the state and as a local fruit and vegetable grower who cares about the health of kids and farms, we urge approval of the “Local Farms-Healthy Kids” bill, HB 2798 and SB 6483.

Many Pierce County legislators have signed on as co-sponsors of the measure. The Children’s Alliance and the Washington Farm Bureau are among its supporters.

Local Farms-Healthy Kids is an idea that marries the goals of thriving farms and healthy kids into one legislative proposal. It is one of the “Priorities for a Healthy Washington” backed by the state’s leading environmental organizations.

The law in Washington currently does more to prevent schools and other institutions from making their food purchases locally than it does to encourage the practice. Current state law favors large-scale bulk contracts, requires low-cost bidding and creates unmanageable bureaucratic red tape that can make it difficult for schools to purchase healthy produce from local farms.

We should adjust these regulations and make it easier for schools and others institutions to choose nutritious food from Washington’s farmers.

Local Farms-Healthy Kids would allow school districts the flexibility to choose to buy and serve locally grown fresh food. In addition, because cost is an issue in many schools, this proposal would fund a program to allow schools with high numbers of students on free or reduced-price lunch to make fresh fruits and vegetable snacks available to students.

Making it possible for Washington students to have access to fresh, nutritious food is good public policy.

Additionally, farmers will get support to build up the local processing, storage and delivery systems that allow them to provide their crops in a convenient and effective manner for local consumption. Creating the technical know-how and relationships between local growers and local buyers will be a big part of making this effort successful.

The positive impacts of Local Farms-Healthy Kids could be dramatic. Each day more than 1 million kids attend public school in Washington. The loss of farmland from economic pressures, development and higher costs is significant in Pierce County and across the state.

This legislation will help address both challenges.

Schools would have more options and support in buying locally grown fruits and vegetables. Kids would have more fruits and vegetables to help them grow today and have better eating habits tomorrow.

Local farms, such as Terry’s Berries in Pierce County, would have a better chance to thrive by expanding the demand for locally grown food.

A positive ripple effect can spread throughout the local economy. When food is consumed near the location where it is grown and processed, there is a reduction in wasteful packaging, refrigeration, storage and freight.

The ripples could even be felt across the nation. This new law would position Washington in the forefront of the local food movement and could serve as a model for other states seeking to enact policies to promote consumption of local food.

As strong supporters of sustainable agriculture, we are proud to be joining forces with schools, parents, businesses, and health and child advocates to push for Local Farms-Healthy Kids.

This effort can bring our state to a more healthy place where rural and urban, rich and poor, farmer and student are all connected in one Washington.