Locally grown fruits and vegetables are usually sold within 24 hours of being harvested. Produce picked and eaten at the height of ripeness has exceptional flavor and, when handled properly, is packed with nutrients.

	FoodRoutes Network Announcements

College students: do you want delicious, nutritious local foods in your university or college cafeteria? You can start a Farm to College program to get your school's food service to purchase food from local farmers.

Because they order food in large quantities, colleges and universities have big potential for supporting local foods. By starting a Farm to College program at your university, you help make a difference for local farmers in your community and get to enjoy the benefits of safe, healthy food.

FoodRoutes Network has partnered with the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture to develop a set of resources and information for students interested in starting farm to college programs at their universities. Our current partnership resources are listed below (scroll down for contact info).

Resources for Students

You can find this Farm to College series as well as other tools for food and farming advocates in our Tools for Action section. Download, print and distribute as many as you want.

• Oxfam America?s Buy Local Food and Farm Toolkit: A Guide for Student Organizers (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader), which includes background information and specific action students can take to support local food systems
• The Community Food Security Coalition?s (CFSC) extensive page on Farm to College programs with recommended resources, conference information, and technical assistance
• How Local Farmers and School Food Service Buyers Are Building Alliances (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) from the Agricultural Marketing Service
• Our Communicator's toolkit Where Does Your Food Come From? discusses how to effectively develop a local foods campaign and what kinds of messages resonate with public audiences
• Public Citizen's Stop Food Irradiation Student Activist Kit (PDF format; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) which details how students can help keep irradiated food off their campuses

Further Assistance and Contact Info

The three groups below have joined together to form a collaboration around working with students to encourage their schools to buy food from local farmers and to support sustainable agriculture policies.

Community Food Security Coalition
The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is a national, non-profit coalition of organizations dedicated to food and agriculture issues.

Contact the Farm to College Program Manager, Kristen Markley, at 570-658-2265 or kristen@foodsecurity.org, if you have questions about starting a farm to college project. They can refer you to resources that may be helpful for getting your project started.

FoodRoutes Network
FoodRoutes Network (FRN) can provide student groups working to establish and sustain farm-to-college programs with tools, resources and messages that can be used to build awareness campaigns on their college campuses.

Contact us at 570-638-3608 or info@foodroutes.org for more information about the tools and resources.

The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture is dedicated to shaping public policy that promotes a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.

The Campaign can provide you with information that will help you hold your Congress people accountable through phone calling, letter writing, attending meetings with your Congress people, and holding rallies to get press attention to pressure your Congress person. Contact the Campaign at 845-744-8448 or kathy@sustainableagriculture.net for more information about how you can get involved with promoting sustainable agriculture policy.