Food, schools and a psychological boost

Just as I finished reading the New York Times Magazine column by Christine Muhlke on how writing about food really consists of writing about communities, I got a call from JoAnne Berkenkamp.

Berkenkamp directs local foods programs for the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and we were talking about farm-to-school programs that encourage the use of local fruits, vegetables and other produce in school nutrition programs.

It's a fledgling movement that seems to be gaining traction, Berkenkamp said. Two years ago an IATP survey found fewer than 30 districts in Minnesota with a program. Last year there were 69. The next survey is expected to find more than 100, she said.

The dollars aren't huge -- the average district with a program spends around $5,000 a year only. But Berkenkamp gave three reasons for growth: 1) school people want to help the local economy, 2) they're finding local food a good way to educate students, and 3) schools that get together with local food producers are seeing "a psychological boost in terms of communities getting involved."

That last reason was exactly the point Muhlke was making in her piece Sunday, I think. She set out two years ago to write about farmers and food artisans and realized she wound up writing about the varied and complicated networks of people involved in a movement -- from community gardens to schools to food-buying clubs.

People connect with each other via food. Whether you call it building a community or getting a psychological boost, there is more and more of it going on.

It's a topic we intend to explore more fully in coming weeks on Ground Level, so stay tuned.

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