thrilling!

April 21, 2010 in ideas + models, resources

another school garden army:  Food Corps

In the Washington Post:

Will work for food? Try Food Corps
The problems with school food are well-established. There’s not enough money, not enough manpower and often not enough know-how to produce fresher, more healthful food. Now, a group of good-food advocates has a plan: Establish a national Food Corps to help to do the heavy lifting.The team, led by the National Farm to School Network, has raised $215,000 in grants from the Kellogg Foundation and AmeriCorps to get its program off the ground. If successful, the Food Corps will take on volunteers starting in 2011 for one-year placements at schools across the country. The service members will help school food service directors source local food for cafeterias as well as develop healthful-eating curricula that might include school gardens, visits to farms and farmers markets for parents and students.

“One of the biggest issues with bringing fresh food in is that school food directors don’t have time to do it. We’ll put the manpower behind it,” said Debra Eschmeyer, marketing director for the National Farm to School Network and a member of the five-person Food Corps planning team. “We want this to be the Habitat for Humanity for school meals.”

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