The School District of Lee County will apply for a Farm to School grant, which, if awarded, will provide $100,000 for program costs for the Healthy Living Collaboration Project.

The project was formed to support the use of school gardens. In 2020, when schools closed, the produce from school gardens went towards the family feeding centers set up at schools around the district. Since then, school gardens have increased production of its produce for its cafeterias.

According to the district, “one primary objective of Lee County School District is to have as much Florida grown produce offered in our cafeterias as possible. This is not only to support environmental sustainability, and provide nutrition education as part of our smarter lunchroom movement; it also serves as a cost control measure, especially with global supply chain disruptions occurring as a result of the pandemic.”

Adult & Career Education Director Rita Davis told the Lee County School Board, which approved moving forward on the grant, it is a really exciting opportunity.

“It’s a cross departmental grant application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A key component in this is we are using two grants that CTE has already acquired. We put that into the application to show how we are working with food and nutrition services and also the curriculum department to really bring what schools are already doing, growing farm to table . . .lettuce, etc. for their cafeteria. How we can combine all of these diverse opportunities under one umbrella,” she said.

The  goal is to improve nutrition, education and overall well-being for students, teachers and ultimately, the county’s food system. In addition, “our overarching goal is to leverage our collective expertise to improve access to local foods in eligible schools through comprehensive farm to school programming that includes local procurement and agricultural education efforts.”

Grants & Program Development Director Teri Cannady said the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service grant is a competitive one, meaning there is a match requirement.

“It can serve all schools because of the training. We had three high schools that have a program and we are using those three high schools to mentor three other high schools, again because of the matching requirement. It’s competitive, so we are hopeful to receive it,” Cannady said.

The high schools that will be mentored by existing agriculture programs include Dunbar High School, LAMP (Lee Adolescent Mothers Program) and Lehigh Senior High School. The high schools that have already received a grant include Island Coast High School, South Fort Myers High School, Riverdale High School and East Lee County High School.

Davis said with nationwide  supply-and-demand issues ongoing, the schools are doing an excellent job growing produce in the classrooms and outdoor classrooms.

“You’ve heard about the Suncoast Credit Union . . . they gave a tremendous donation, $35,000 to support outdoor classrooms, so this will be that matching component of it,” Davis said. “We also had a member in CTE, Mary Graham, who applied for a classroom grant from the Foundation and so that is expanding. We are combining it all together. One of the end games is to get that produce onto the lunch plates for our students.”