Kentucky is one of three states to get Walmart Foundation money to expand farm-to-school programs

Kentucky will use money from The Walmart Foundation to partner with the National Farm to School Network to expand efforts to get more local foods into schools.

A project called Seed Change will “jump start” programs that get local foods into schools and enhance food education for more than 1.8 million school children at 100 sites in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, the network said in a news release. Each site will get $5,000 grants, with applications to be accepted later this spring.

The state Department of Agriculture’s farm-to-school program connects schools with local farmers and food producers and helps students "learn to appreciate the importance of local foods and grow into well-informed consumers who demand local foods as adults," the release said. The program served an estimated 364,000 children in about 700 schools in 84 districts in the 2011-12 school year. For more information on the program, go to www.kyagr.com or contact Tina Garland at 502-382-7505 or tina.garland@ky.gov.

Students in poor Louisville neighborhoods learn healthful behaviors in Farm to Family Initiative

A program to fight childhood obesity and foster healthy habits in Louisville’s under-served youth has seen positive results since its launch in October 2013, says KentuckyOne Health. Results include:

• 41 percent of students now eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, up from 23 percent.
• 91 percent of students engage in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, up from 63 percent.
• 90 percent of students have eaten a vegetable they harvested or picked themselves, up from 59 percent.
• 93 percent of students know how to prepare a healthy recipe, up from 63 percent.

The Farm to Family Initiative is a collaboration between the Food Literacy Project and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, part of KentuckyOne. It aims to influence long-term health and food literacy for students at Hazelwood and Wellington elementary schools, where more than 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

The project is funded by a $200,000 grant from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program Award for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity.