More than one-third of adolescents are overweight or obese in Kentucky. Access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables is important to maintain a healthy weight and reduce disease risk; however, in Kentucky adolescents, 44.6% reported consuming fruit less than once daily and 42.7% reported consuming vegetables less than once daily. Research has shown that farm to school (F2S) activities lead to improvements in student health behaviors, including: an increase in the consumption of and preference for fruits and vegetables, and improved knowledge and attitudes to nutrition. F2S activities have been shown to have strong benefits relative to economic development, public health, education, environment, and equity and community engagement and include 3 core elements – procurement of local food by schools, agriculture, food, health, and nutrition education, and school gardens. The University of Kentucky (UK), the Kentucky Horticulture Council (KHC), Feeding KY, Community Farm Alliance (CFA), and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) partnered to develop a Kentucky F2S Network and awarded 40 schools mini-grants to implement taste testing activities and awarded 5 schools mini-grants to establish school gardens and implement nutrition and food education in the classroom. More than 35 applications for the school garden mini-grants were submitted and 5 schools received $5,000 to install school gardens and conduct related nutrition and cooking education. UK student interns assisted schools and conducted garden/nutrition lessons, reaching over 2,000 students. Garden grantees grew and harvested 35 fruits and vegetables. During the final project reporting period, grantees engaged over 2,000 people in gardens for a total of 3,000 hours collectively spent in the garden with 1,300 of those hours coming from parent and community member involvement. Interns presented 3 school garden educator workshops and developed resources about best practices for school gardens. Over 100 applications were received for $1,000 taste test mini-grants and 40 grants were awarded directly to KY schools to conduct taste test activities of locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The taste testing grantees: purchased $24,369 in produce from 90 Kentucky farms; served 70 different types of fruits and vegetables; and served locally-grown produce to 11,000 students in 55 different schools. The presentation will focus on strategies used to recruit and screen program participants by assessing needs, setting realistic expectations, and increasing production knowledge and skills, with the goal of influencing student food choices and increasing use of locally-grown produce in classroom education and school feeding programs.
