Page 260 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

Hospitals, K–12 schools and entire school districts, corpo-
rate employers, and colleges and universities are having an
even greater impact in terms of improving food systems. These
farm-to-institution relationships provide benefits in several
areas: bolstering local economies; serving as a launchpad for
food literacy through educational programs, on-site farmers’
markets, and field trips for students, employees, and patients;
and supporting rural farm communities by giving farm-
ers larger and more reliable incomes. This financial stability
can help farmers build savings to invest in better equipment
and new technologies. Those tools, in turn, can improve crop
yields, land and water use, and their ability to manage risk
and resources, all of which can mean better products and bet-
ter soil health, not to mention more competitive positioning
against major agribusiness producers. Farm-to-institution
relationships can also give you, the diner, more meaningful
and tasty food experiences.

HERE’S A ROUNDUP OF RESOURCES THAT CAN HELP YOU IDENTIFY
LEGIT LOCAL SOURCING EFFORTS:
The Good Food Purchasing Program is an exemplary frame-
work for evaluating an institution’s commitment to all the
tenets of being a conscious eater. Supporting local econo-
mies is, naturally, among their core values. You can search
for whether your local school district has adopted the pro-
gram. Los Angeles Unified School District was the first,
and San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, Boulder Valley
School District, and Chicago Public Schools have all come
on board.

Though not an auditor or third-party verifier, the National
Farm to School Network is a resource for understanding
what it might mean to choose a school—and therefore a

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