http://www.food-corps.org/

FoodCorps responds to the needs of the current "obesity generation." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three children born in the year 2000 is on track to develop Type II diabetes. For minorities, the prediction worsens to one in two.

The program addresses this multi-faceted epidemic with a mechanism that, as philosopher Wendell Berry says, "solves for pattern." The simple tool of a schoolyard garden positively addresses six of the eight contributing factors to obesity identified by the CDC. Gardens that engage children provide better food choices, encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behavior, and lead to healthier environments at home, at school, and in the community.

Further, the CDC has singled out Farm to School as part of a community based solution to the obesity epidemic.

Vision
The vision for FoodCorps is to recruit young adults for a yearlong term of public service in school food systems. Once stationed, FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens.

The ultimate goal of the project is to increase the health and prosperity of vulnerable children, while investing in the next generation of farmers. 

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Planning Process
FoodCorps is being developed through a 16-month planning process supported by an AmeriCorps National Planning Grant, with additional funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation. Working under the auspices of Occidental College and the National Farm to School Network, a five-person planning team is engaged in the following work:
1) Building partnerships with like-minded organizations.
2) Visiting model AmeriCorps, school garden, and Farm to School programs.
3) Convening a May, 2010 summit of leaders and practitioners from related fields.
4) Developing program architecture and criteria for site and service member selection.
5) Designing training for service members, schools, and collaborating organizations.
6) Identifying funding partners to enable the programs on-the-ground activities.
7) Preparing our application to AmeriCorps to launch the FoodCorps program.
We welcome your participation in this process.

Model Programs
FoodCorps is the first national AmeriCorps program designed to address childhood obesity through school garden and Farm to School service. The program has been informed and inspired, however, by the many local and regional models that have begun doing this work already. We hope you'll contact us if you know of others we should include!

Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative:
The Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative (FFI) is one of nine national projects funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supporting healthy local food systems and creating environments for active lifestyles. Identifying schools as the centers of its rural communities and youth as the drivers of change, the Initiative came to focus on Farm to School in fall 2009. Two AmeriCorps volunteers serve as full-time Farm to School coordinators for six pilot schools in the NE Iowa region. These service members are the main contacts between schools and the FFI Farm to School team. With the team's assistance, the AmeriCorps volunteers have created a blueprint for the NE Iowa Farm to School chapter that incorporates school gardens, food service, and education. The AmeriCorps volunteers:
* Build relationships to support Iowa's local food systems by engaging high school students and elementary teachers to deliver lessons to elementary school students.
* Lay the foundation for sustainable Farm to School programs by offering teacher workshops and food service trainings; and by participating in local and state policy level discussions that will streamline access and remove barriers to local foods.
* Supply the mortar to reinforce where food comes from by organizing school gardens and farm visits providing opportunities for place-based education.

Montana Food Corps:
Overseen by a statewide coalition called Grow Montana, the Montana FoodCorps places AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers in schools and colleges across the state in order to create and develop Farm to Cafeteria programs. Each FoodCorps volunteer is placed in one site full-time for the whole year, and divides her time about half on the logistics of getting locally-grown foods from the farms onto the trays in the cafeterias, and about half on outreach and education. Montana FoodCorps successes include:

* Salish Kootenai College, a  tribal college on the Flathead Indian Reservation, went from spending 0% to 10% of its total food budget from seven reservation-area vendors.
* Montana State University, the state's land grant college, started an organic student farm.
* University of Montana - Western bought so much local beef that a county commissioner proposed building a processing plant in the region.

* In its third year, 5 FoodCorps service members collectively returned $1.2 million to Montana food producers, and educated over 2,800 students and community members about the social, economic, and environmental benefits of locally-grown food.

Wisconsin AmeriCorps Farm to School Program:

The goal of the program is to provide an innovative approach to decreasing childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating habits in students and increasing access to local foods in schools. Two half-time AmeriCorps members are provided per site: a local food procurement member and a nutrition education member. The food procurement member identifies and addresses hurdles school districts face when procuring local food including distribution, processing, pricing and building relationships with farmers. The nutrition education member develops and implements curriculum and wellness plans that teach students about healthier eating habits. Examples of activities include:

* Working with farmers to increase their marketing and distribution capacities by forming a farm to community alliance; creating a marketing strategy for farmers that sell food to the school such as bulletin boards featuring the farmer; and educating farmers on the market opportunity of selling to schools.
* Revitalizing the role of healthy food in school by implementing harvest of the month activities; starting and supporting snack programs; creating and maintaining student gardens; organizing farm tours; inviting farmers to come speak in the classroom; and teaching hand's on nutrition education in the classroom, afterschool programs, and summer school programs.
 
 World Hunger Relief:
The World Hunger Relief Farm works in partnership with several organizations in Waco, TX. The AmeriCorps service members live at the World Hunger Relief farm where they work and receive training in a variety of areas. In the mornings, the members apply those skills to either livestock or gardening. In the afternoons the AmeriCorps members take that training and apply it toward working with children in school gardens. The World Hunger Relief farm partners with 4 elementary and middle schools involved with the Communities in Schools after-school program. AmeriCorps members work with the students to plant, maintain, and harvest gardens at their schools. They integrate a number of different lessons from health and nutrition to composting and plant life.  

Contact Us
 
FoodCorps
C/O Wicked Delicate
232 3rd Street, Suite B403
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(503) 863-7270
info@food-corps.org