Farm to School is Growing!

Explore the Results
65.4%

of SFAs reported participating in farm to school activities in SY 2018 – 2019

42.8M

students attended SFAs that participated in farm to school activities in SY 2018 -2019

67,369

schools are featuring local foods on the menu or educating students

Woman pointing at produce

What is the Farm to School Census?

The 2019 results come from 12,634 responding school food authorities (SFAs) in all 50 states, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC. The school food authority is the entity responsible for school food service operations, and may or may not correspond to a school district.

Learn About the Census

Key National Census Results

Length of farm to school participation by school food authorities (SFAs)

Many SFAs are new to farm to school; more than half of farm to school SFAs have started their programs within the last three years.

Percent of SFAs
Less than 3 years
 
56.7%
3-5 years
 
24.7%
6-10 years
 
11.2%
10+ years
 
7.2%
Don't know
 
0.2%
What is an SFA? Is it different from a school district?
76.8%

9,458 SFAs

SFAs serving local food

Most farm to school SFAs report serving local food in their Child Nutrition Program meals. SFAs serve local food in over 60,000 schools.

59.9%

7,377 SFAs

Many SFAs provide food, nutrition, or agricultural education

SFAs report a variety of educational farm to school activities, including taste tests, field trips to farms, and farmer visits.

SFAs using local food in school year 2018-2019

SFAs report using local food in a variety of Child Nutrition Programs. Using local foods at lunch was most commonly reported.

Percent of F2S SFAs in Program Number of SFAs
Use local foods in NSLP
 
71.7%
 8,824
Use local foods in SBP
 
68.4%
 7,373
Use local foods in the FFVP
 
68.1%
 2,551
Use local foods in CACFP
 
79.2%
 2,216
Use local foods in CACFP At-Risk
 
65.7%
 1,606
Use local foods in SFSP/SSO
 
69.4%
 3,493
34.3%

12,334 Schools

Schools with edible gardens

One third of responding SFAs operate edible gardens where food is grown. Gardens are a popular way to teach students where their food comes from, to inspire youth toward careers in agriculture, and to produce food for use in Child Nutrition Program meals or snacks.

$1.26B

National spending on local foods by SFAs

Farm to school SFAs estimated that they spent about 20 cents of every food dollar to buy local food during the 2018-2019 school year.

Find Your State

See how your State is doing with farm to school.