FoodCorps aims to provide healthy food

By Megan Durisin | Originally Published: 01/10/11 8:55pm |Modified: 01/11/11 1:25pm | No comments

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to accurately reflect a quote by Kathryn Colasanti.

MSU agriculture specialists will work to put a positive spin on school cafeteria food if a national program is funded in June.

The C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU has been selected as one of 10 nationwide partners for FoodCorps, a new AmeriCorps school garden and Farm to School service program that plans to launch this summer.

In Michigan, the program will be based in high-need, low-income areas in Grand Rapids, northwest and southeast Michigan to develop school gardens and nutrition education, said Colleen Matts, a farm-to-institution specialist for the Mott Group.

Matts said farm-to-school projects the group has worked on across the state have been successful, but they require manpower.

“We know we need some more people power to be put to those kind of projects, especially in high-need areas where resources are low,” she said.

In total, FoodCorps plans to put 82 members to work nationwide later this summer and continue to expand from there, said Debra Eschmeyer, FoodCorps program director.

“We have more prisoners in the U.S. today than we do farmers,” she said. “There’s a real disconnect in our society between how food gets from the seed to your plate.”

FoodCorps has received planning grants from AmeriCorps and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and will submit an additional funding grant for the Corporation for National and Community Service in hopes to fully finance the program, she said. The grant decision will be made in June, she said.

Eschmeyer said FoodCorps strives to battle the current child obesity epidemic, which is most significant in low-income areas of the country.

She said school officials often believe buying food from local farmers is an expensive option.

“If you buy local food in season and in bulk, they will actually save more and kids will eat more because it’s fresh and tasty,” Eschmeyer said.

The Mott Group was one of 10 programs selected to partner with the organization out of more than 100 applications, Eschmeyer said.

“The C.S. Mott Group has really shown that they are leaders in food systems,” she said.

The FoodCorps program also might help achieve some of the goals of the Michigan Good Food Charter, including an aim to have 20 percent of food purchased by schools coming from in-state farmers, said Kathryn Colasanti, an academic specialist for the Mott Group. The charter is a vision for the state’s food systems for the next 10 years.

FoodCorps’ hope to train a new generation of farmers could help support the “buy local” concept, she said.

“If we want a system in Michigan that’s going to be based on food in Michigan, we’re going to need a lot more growers,” Colasanti said.