“I think everybody can see that, even in its first year it’s having a positive impact on the state. It’s going to be real exciting three to four years down the road where the Farm-to-School Program is going. I viewed this initially through the lens of my home school system, Tri County Schools. A lot of the rural senators, our whole school system is under one roof. The same cafeteria that cooks for the seniors, for the kindergarten and then we have a preschool there. It only makes sense that in a lot of these consolidated school districts, that everybody is eligible for this program. You can see that there is going to be a much larger impact as we include childhood centers in other parts.”

Brandt says the program overall, beyond the nutrition benefits, can positively impact the state.

“It only makes sense that the largest food restaurant in the state….our school cafeterias…we should be trying to source as much food from inside the state as we can. The numbers, when we did the original bill, were 90-percent of the food dollars in the state of Nebraska by the schools, were going out of the state….so, if we can increase that any amount at all, it will have a huge impact on the State of Nebraska.”