Baton Rouge awarded Farm to School planning grant

Last week, the USDA announced awards that support current efforts to connect school cafeterias with local farmers and ranchers through its Farm to School program. Baton Rouge’s Fresh Beginnings program was among the grantees.

Fresh Beginnings operates out of Mayor Kip Holden’s Healthy City Initiative and will coordinate a Farm to School planning grant at four yet-to-be-announced public schools.

Farm to School grants “help schools respond to the growing demand for locally sourced foods and increase market opportunities for producers and food businesses, including food processors, manufacturers, and distributors,” according to the USDA. Grants nationwide will support agriculture and nutrition education efforts such as school gardens, field trips to local farms and cooking classes. Out of more than 70 selected projects around the country, more than 13,000 schools and 2.8 million students will benefit, nearly 45% of them from rural communities.

Fresh Beginnings operates five different programs that fight childhood obesity at low-income schools. The program also recently announced that nearly 70 Baton Rouge teachers completed wellness training this month that will help them incorporate constructive strategies in schools for curbing childhood obesity.

The six-hour training program provides teachers with engaging ways to meet the state guidelines for health and wellness (150 minutes a week of guided physical activity) in public schools, which many schools still find difficult to implement. The program is funded with a grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation’s Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana program.

For more information about both projects, contact Fresh Beginnings Grant Coordinator Lyndsi Lambert at 205-4124, or visit healthybr.com. — Maggie Heyn Richardson