(LEX 18) — As kids spend their day learning in the classroom, providing them proper nutrition is a top priority for school leaders.
That’s why David Neville, a farmer out of Shelby County, has been pushing an initiative to connect schools across the Commonwealth with local farmers.
Farm to school fresh food grown right in our back yard.
"This program we call the Model 12 Grow Fresh Kentucky program,” Neville said.
“It's all about helping food service directors in our K-12 schools understand that they can buy local foods and how to pay for it and that sort of thing.”
The number 12 comes from the number of school districts Neville wants to have on board to launch the program.
It all revolves around building a network between school leaders, particularly food service directors, and the farmers working in or near their county limit.
From Neville’s perspective as a farmer, economic challenges we’ve seen over the last few years are making it more challenging for schools to get ahold of the best food options from larger companies.
"Their big vendors are saying we can't really get you any fresh produce because of supply chain issues, labor issues, shipping, etc. so it will cost you three times as much,” Neville said.
“Schools in the past have held local farmers at arms length but now they're looking around saying 'where can I get my produce.'"
One of the big advocates for Model 12 has been Scott Anderson, who brings more than 30 years of experience in education to the table.
That includes a seven year stint as the food services director for Madison County Schools where he championed the farm to school concept.
"I led the state for six years in farm to school. We were buying whole cows and my students were getting steaks and local vegetables. A lot of things that students wouldn't normally get,” Anderson said.
“They're going to come in, they're going to see the food and they're going to know where it's grown. There's no reason that we have to go to California and Florida we can get those here."
Model 12 is still, as it’s name suggested, a model trying to launch.
However, Neville is confident that can happen soon as communication continues and relationships are made stronger between education and agriculture.
“This is really a win-win if you think about it. Community driven action puts more money into the community and gets healthier foods into the school systems,” Neville said.
Neville hopes to have at least five or six schools districts fully committed in the coming months on the road to eventually getting all 176 districts in the state full integrated in the farm to school model.
