Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles is proclaiming October as Farm to School Month in Kentucky.
Quarles says in a release eating healthy local foods helps Kentucky kids to their best, and at the same time, when schools buy local, farmers and food businesses increase their sales, and that boosts the local economy. During Farm to School Month, he notes we should celebrate our past success and commit to putting more foods on the plates of the state’s school children in the future.
The Farm to School program in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture helps connect Kentucky school systems with local farmers and small businesses. In 2013-2014, schools in the commonwealth spent nearly $8.9 million on local food products. According to the 2015 Farm to School Census compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 700 schools in 77 school districts in Kentucky had programs in place to buy local foods for their school cafeterias.
The program runs the annual Farm to School Junior Chef competition, in which high school culinary teams compete for scholarships and the coveted Junior Chef Trophy while learning cooking skills and gaining an appreciation for local foods. Officials say Harlan County is the 2018 champion and will compete against champions from seven other states in the second annual Southeastern Junior Chef Tournament in May 2019 at Sullivan University in Louisville.
