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Food & Health Inspiration

FARM TO SCHOOL

started crafting an early version of what would later turn into the 30% Incentive Program. NYSNA advocated for the incentive for the first time in October of 2015, and although the reimbursement rate did not increase that year, we did see $750,000 in grant money established to be awarded for assistance with farm to school efforts. So, we kept tweaking and kept asking. The following year there was so much interest in these programs that the grant money was increased to $1.5 million. Now that all of the pieces were coming together and the NYS budget was starting to reflect a greater interest in agriculture and the connection with schools, we just had to figure out what that selling point was going to be to convince them to finally increase those reimbursement rates. As it turns out, there were many other organizations advocating for NY agriculture in a variety of ways, and in 2017 these organizations came together and formed a coalition. The New York Grown Food for New York Kids is a coalition headed up by American Farmland Trust and is committed to increasing the availability of, and access to, healthy food grown in New York that is served to public schools across the state. As we geared up for NYSNA’s 2018 Legislative Action Conference, we now had nearly 70 school, food, farm, public health, economic development, environmental, and anti-hunger organizations and stakeholders throughout New York that supported the 30% program initiative. During our lobby day some of our partners, like American Farmland Trust, Farm Bureau, Hunger Solutions NY, NYS School Boards Association, and ASBO were at the table with us. Our message was clear - our kids need more locally grown food, and our farmers need our business! We pushed for the incentive program to help revitalize the economy, without being a tax credit or a handout. Guess what folks - we did it! We made history in New York State in 2018 when the Governor’s No Student Hungry Initiative included our 30% Incentive Program and was funded in the state budget with support from the legislature! Now that we had the money lined up, we next needed to get the districts on board.

Many of the coalition partners helped us encourage schools to participate and showcase the benefits of farm to school programs including: • Public health • Healthy food access • Economic impact and job creation • Student benefits: higher test scores, knowledge of agriculture, gardening, healthy eating, nutrition, etc. After the first year of the program, American Farmland Trust surveyed over 300 School Foodservice Authorities (SFAs) and published a report on their findings. Some key takeaways in their executive summary included: • While many schools saw 30% as a challenge, 49 SFAs applied to the New York State Education Department for the extra reimbursement claiming they reached 30% within just one year. This includes Buffalo Public Schools, the second largest district in the state. • 72% of schools felt optimistic that with the right support they would achieve 30% within five years. • Achieving this outcome would cause schools to spend nearly $150 million at New York farms over the next five years while increasing access to healthy, New York grown food for almost 700,000 K–12 students by 2024. • Conservatively, this would generate over $210 million in economic impact statewide while costing the state just over $94 million over the course of five years in reimbursement and support. Industry partners were also getting involved and were creating new products which would qualify for the incentive program as well. We are proud to have New York yogurt, string cheese, potato chips, french fries, grape juice, hot dogs, cider, granola, sausage – the list just keeps growing! In Year 2 we were all hit with this crazy pandemic that turned our world upside down. I’m sure everyone can attest to the fact that our districts were hit hard while everyone went into emergency feeding mode. It’s interesting to note that although

New York SNA Executive Director Jennifer Martin, MBA, CAE

New York State (NYS) is a leader in the nation with farm to school programs. We even have legislation in place to award districts financially which commit to serving the freshest foods possible to their students. The New York 30% Incentive Program is not only great for students, but this is also helping local farmers, the local economy, and even has a positive impact on the environment! So, what is this 30 % incentive? It is just that - an incentive. An incentive to encourage schools to buy foods that have been grown, raised and or processed in New York State. Basically, if 30% of the foods you purchase for reimbursable lunches come from NYS you will receive an additional 19 cents reimbursement per lunch in the following school year.

The New York School Nutrition Association (NYSNA) asked the state for an increase to the reimbursement rate for years and it was just not happening. The current NYS reimbursement rate is $0.06 per meal – and that has not changed in well over 40 years. Put it this way, the last time the reimbursement rate was increased the minimum wage was $2.65, Jimmy Carter was president, and a ticket to the original Star Wars movie was $2.23! And I do not need to remind all of you that food costs, in addition to supplies, labor, utilities, and staff benefits certainly has not remained stagnant during all of those many decades. Talk about an industry being forced to continuously do more with less, geez.

So, in 2015 we decided to get creative to find a way to get the money. What did we know?

• The state was not going to just hand out more money – there needed to be a give and take approach. • Farm to school was becoming increasingly popular (and NYS is a huge agriculture state). • Two of the members on our Public Policy and Legislation Committee were already working with local farmers within their districts to promote and support local agriculture. • NYS elected officials were heavily promoting “Buy New York”, “Support New York” type initiatives - including the Governor.

How did the 30% incentive come about?

Our committee connected the dots and met with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets and then

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This article was originally ran in June 2021 edition of Served. Article has been updated for this Back-To-School edition to include revised content.