Farm Fresh to Urban Communities in the Midwest

Last year, Growing Power received a grant from the USDA to develop and expand our relationships with the Milwaukee Public Schools, concentrating on the Farm to School food movement. The idea is to encourage healthy eating habits among school age children by providing healthy food options in school cafeterias. This grant allowed Growing Power to develop a strong relationship with the MPS food vendor Sysco, a national food procurement company, creating a partnership that will benefit Growing Power beyond the Farm to School activities by enabling us to provide locally grown, sustainable food to even more people. In 2013, Growing Power served 129 MPS schools, reaching more than 40,000 students with the assistance of this grant.

In 2013, Growing Power had a bumper crop of carrots, providing more than 150,000 pounds of carrots. This crop allowed Growing Power to expand our Farm to School efforts to additional Wisconsin Public School districts and Chicago Public Schools. In January, 2014, Growing Power completed the largest farm to school procurement ever in the United States (per USDA), selling 40,000 pounds of carrots to Farm Logix, an institutional food distributor. These carrots were consumed by children in Chicago Public Schools and Wisconsin public school districts. CPS alone received 30,000 pounds and consumed them in one school day.

As we move forward in the Farm to School movement, Growing Power is seeking additional funding from the USDA to expand our efforts and work with additional school districts to provide healthy food options to our school children. Healthy eating habits are started at a young age and we believe that we can make an impact on the future of our current obesity epidemic through our Farm to School programs.