MARKETING SERVICES
Virginia’s Farm-to-School Program is a statewide program designed to use fresh Virginia Grown products in school cafeterias. This program supports local farms and offers fresh, more nutritious foods for school meals.
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Alexandria City Public Schools Number of Schools: 17 (1 high, 1 9th grade center, 2 middles, 13 elem) Appomattox County Public Schools Number of Schools: 4 Arlington County Schools The school system has a produce bid and each school orders for itself, off the system-wide bid. Some of the secondary schools are ordering produce off Prince William Co. bid. School system has 31 delivery sites. The school system is interested in discussing availability of local produce even if grower could supply one or a few locations. Augusta County Schools The school system participates in the Blue Ridge Food Coop for purchasing. There are 21 schools & 1 alternative education site in the Augusta County system. A distributor services the system, based on a contract, and delivers once per week to each school. Fresh produce is purchased on a weekly basis from two local produce suppliers and the school system has ability to make outside purchases on an as-needed basis. Growers supplying product to the schools should have HACCP or other safety protocols in place. Bath County Public Schools Central purchasing is conducted for three sites (three schools). Each school has dry storage and refrigerated / freezer storage. Purchases are conducted weekly. The school system is not in a coop and does not take bids. School system attendance is around 735. There is a daily salad bar in one of the schools. Suppliers are paid once per month, after the first Tuesday of each month. Botetourt County Public Schools The school system conducts centralized purchasing, billing, and centralized menus with some managers’ choice menus. There are eleven schools in system. The system works with a distributor, including for produce items, and does make a few purchases outside of distributor. The school system is willing to discuss local purchases with individual growers. The school system has no central warehouse but does have courier van to shuttle some product in between schools, as needed. Enrollment in system is about 5,000. Fairfax County Public Schools Number of Schools: 232 Franklin County Public Schools Floyd County Schools Number of Schools: 15 Goochland County Public Schools Number of Schools: 7 Hanover County Public Schools The school system uses a distributor(s) but does not have a specific produce bid. The system conducts some open market purchasing of produce. Each site places its own produce orders, based on need. Delivery is to each site (school) with 23 sites in the system. Harrisonburg City Public Schools Number of Schools: 8 Henry County Schools We currently receive produce deliveries 1-2 times per week, depending on the size of the school, and 4 schools will be participating for at least part of the year in the DoD program. Fresh fruits are served nearly every day and fresh vegetables (salads) every day in all schools. |
Holy Cross Academy Total Student Population: 450 The House of Restoration There is a central delivery site. The schools receives bulk of food from USDA with some outside purchasing of produce items, as need ed. The school provides breakfast and lunch to between 275-450 pupils per day, based on the time of year. The school does have a summer program. The Schools is particularly interested in fruit items. Norfolk Public Schools Number of Schools: 54 Orange County Public Schools Number of Schools: 9 Page County Public Schools Number of Schools: 9 Pittsylvania County Public Schools Central purchasing is conducted for 18 schools with deliveries made to each to each site. Each school has dry storage and refrigerated / freezer storage. The school system is purchasing fresh produce through a distributor and can put interested growers in contact with their current distributor. The system participates in DoD program for two schools. Prince William County Public School District Number of Schools: 88 Richmond County Public Schools Servicing Area: Richmond County Roanoke County Public Schools Number of Schools: 28 Rockbridge County Public Schools Number of Schools: 8 St. Catherine's School Total Student Population: 890 St. Catherine’s and Meriwether Godsey, our culinary partner, aim to provide nutritious foods that will fuel them through all of this, and, at the same time, offer a dining experience worth looking forward to. As children mature, and eat meals away from home, they are faced with making their own food choices. These choices are influenced by peers, mood, what’s available. By providing fresh foods as opposed to processed and convenience foods we hope to promote healthy habits while still catering to adolescent food preferences. Our menus, ingredients, cooking methods, nutrition programs all incorporate our theme of BALANCE, which strives to give all of our guests, but particularly our girls, the skills to develop mindful, healthful habits for themselves and the planet. Virginia Beach City Public Schools The school system has a total attendance of 70,000 students. The system uses a main distributor but is permitted to make purchases outside of their main distributor. General food, snacks and beverages are bid through RFP (Request for Proposal). Other products are regular bids. Deliveries would be made to individual school sites once per week. Each school location has dry, refrigerated, and freezer storage. The school system also participates in USDA and DOD produce programs. Williamsburg-James City County Schools The school system has 14 schools with a total student enrollment of approximately 11,000 students. The system uses a main distributor, but has no specific bid for produce. Produce is purchased from whichever distributor receives the frozen and staples bid. Items not on the original bid may be purchased from other sources. The system has no central warehouse and deliveries would be made to individual school locations. Deliveries are made one time per week. Each school location has dry and refrigerated/freezer storage. The system participates in the National School Breakfast, Lunch, and After School Snack Programs with summer school breakfast programs at a limited number of school locations. Westmoreland County Public Schools As a part of our Wellness Policy and to support local growers and businesses we purchase locally grown produce in season whenever the cost of the produce is close to or the same as prices from our vendor for school meals and for catering. We have also partnered with the Northern Neck Vegetable Growers on a grant. We would be very interested in working with the Farm to School Program. |
NEW!! Farm to School Virginia Produce Availability Chart – Provides the time periods when fruits, vegetables and other farm products are available in Virginia throughout the school calendar year.
Farm to School Program On-line Forms
Show your interest in supporting the Farm to School efforts in Virginia by signing up your school, farm or distribution company. Submit the free online form and your contact information will be added to our Farm to School website under the appropriate category. The listing works as a match making site to identify farms, schools and distributors who have expressed interest in participating in the Farm to School program. Working together to make Virginia Farm to School grow and succeed.
Farm Form
School Form
Distributor Form
Produce Poster – How can anything that tastes so good, be so good for you? Fresh, local Virginia grown fruits and vegetables are saturated fat free and cholesterol free. In fact, many are totally fat free, as well as sodium free and provide antioxidants to help reduce problems.
Virginia Grown Coloring Book (pdf)
Virginia Grown Logo — Low-Res Full Color
Virginia Grown Logo — High-Res Full Color
Teaching our kids about Virginia agriculture, nutrition and food safety, while feeding them Virginia grown products, is easy.
Eat Smart-Farm Fresh! – A Guide to Buying and Serving Locally-Grown Produce in School Meals.
Small Farms/School Meals Initiative – A step-by-step guide on how to bring small farms and local schools together.
The Lunch Box
The Lunch Box is a web-based portal that enables all schools and school districts to make a healthy difference for all children in America by providing relevant information and the pragmatic tools necessary to make good food available for all kids.
School Gardens
Best Practices for Using Produce from School Garden
National Farm to School Network
The portal for farm to school information in the U.S, with features including an e-newsletter, and access to information about new programs, upcoming events, news and funding opportunities.