Farm-to-School Program a Success

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VANCOUVER — Salad bars in B.C. schools are winning praise, while boosting student health and the local-food economy, reports The Globe and Mail.

Pioneered by FoodShare and inspired by the Toronto-based school salad bar model, the Farm-to-School program was launched four years ago and matches participating institutions with farmers or small networks of growers who are paid fair market value to supply produce to schools.

Primary funding — from the B.C. Premier’s office — for salad bar and kitchen construction, greenhouses and gardening tools was provided for 16 schools. Since then more than 50 schools across the province have implemented the program, which costs students between $3 and $5 a day.

“This has taken on a life of its own, and we’re not dependent on the government for subsidies to make it happen,” Joanne Bays, a nutritionist who oversees the program, told The Globe. “We’ve got communities engaged in doing it.”

For more on the farm-to-school program, visit The Globe and Mail.

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