Yesterday the Office of the Governor recognized October as Nebraska’s Farm to School Month. I’d like to thank the NE Department of Education (NDE) for making this happen and I wish Nebraska continued success in the Crunch Off competition.

The following are excerpts of remarks delivered by Sarah Smith, NDE Farm to School Specialist:

Farm to School Month fosters an opportunity for partners and stakeholders to celebrate the connection between students and local food, to share our farm to school stories, and to show gratitude to our school nutrition and farmer heroes providing essential services while we continue to grapple with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We acknowledge the energy and dedication that is empowering farm to school activity in our state with the 2021 passage of Senator Tom Brandt’s LB 396, the Nebraska Farm to School Act. This Act has helped set the stage for stakeholders to strategically work together in pursuit of a more equitable, robust, and comprehensive farm to school program statewide. We celebrate this forward movement as it crafts a triple win: a win for our students and schools, a win for our agricultural sector, and a win for our communities. 

October will also bring us into the annual Mountain Plains Crunch Off where schools and early childhood institutions will bite into local and crunchable produce. In 2021, Nebraska won the Crunch Off competition against eight Mountain Plains states, having the most Crunch registrants per capita.  More than 58,000 participants (3% of Nebraska’s population) crunched on apples, carrots, peppers, and even roasted pumpkin seeds! 

There is potential to have lifelong impact on our communities when leveraging farm to school as a pathway to advance food education, access, and security. Nebraska celebrates our agricultural heritage and cultural diversity with farm to school month during October’s Farm to School Month.