Vermont Food Education Every Day ( VT FEED) just received word that "Building Demand for Fruits and Vegetables in Vermont Schools" will be funded by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, through the Specialty Crop Block Grant program!
The goal of this 18-month pilot project is to explore increasing the viability of schools as a consistent market for Vermont fruits and vegetables by providing tools, training, and technical assistance to school food programs, teachers, and farmers.
Specifically we'll be focusing on USDA's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), promoting use of the program in classrooms and facilitating the process for using Vermont fruits and vegetables in the program. The FFVP allotment of funds for Vermont schools is over 1.8 million dollars. If schools used only 10% of the FFVP dollars to purchase Vermont produce each year, Vermont specialty crop producers would receive an additional $180,000 annually.
For more information, please contact Amy Gifford at [email protected] or call (802) 434-4122
