I’m 19 years old I graduated public high school in 2022 and I eat the lunch that school provided by the school and the food quality is horrible and sometimes not even properly cooked that for public school idk about private school , yes their is the option to bring lunch from home to school to avoid the school cooked but for some people and families that not an option, it could be that school meal are the only two meals they eat in a day and the food that they currently serve is horrible and what I am proposing is that it be required for school to buy food from local farmers within the county and state the school is and it supports local farmers, it creates more involvement between school and their community and it also farmers to sell more of their good locally and the money exchange is going to stay within the county and state helping boost the economy and yes in parts of the us you would still have to buy fruit’s and vegetables and meats from other places because it’s not local or able to be grown locally, but some of that fruits and vegetables could be grown in green house which would allow school to be able to restart agricultural type programs showing students how to build planter boxes for the green house and how to build and maintain gardens and use green house and possibly even hydroponics systems, the program would allow students to learn how to grow their own vegetables and fruits and have the school actually prepare and cook meals instead of serving the crap food they currently are some how allowed to sell to students and as I have tried by best to explain it would allow money to stay in the local economy and support local farmers which needs all help they can , drastically improve school food for the better and bring food quality up to the standards of a lot of countries around the world and this actually be better for the environment because it’s cutting down on the emissions from the trains and airplanes and on the road semi truck , that is currently transporting the food across the country from shining sea to shining sea , and it would require school that didn’t all ready have agricultural program to set up and develop a agricultural program that would benefit any of the students that took the program and signed sincerely a man from Appalachia
Unfortunately I don’t think this could really work. At least not ‘as required by law.’ The abundance and variety of locally available food would be prohibitive for many regions, despite your suggestions surrounding hydroponics, etc
However, I think the rationale behind the idea is excellent. Children are the most vulnerable population in the US when it comes to nutrition, and also having local sources of fresh produce could only help, for all the reasons you outlined.
So if an outright federal law requiring local sources of produce isn’t feasible, perhaps instead a subsidy? Funding based on the percentage of locally-sourced foods, as well as grant programs aimed at encouraging local growers and producers to address this. If something simply cannot be feasibly produced in the region, then incentivize sourcing it from 100% US growers.
Also encourage programs in each school district to begin growing, harvesting and processing foods for the school itself, which would also serve as education for the students. Over time, infrastructure would be built around each district that would eventually (hopefully) be able to provide schools with much of their nutritional needs.
Some of that is location depend as well because in the south and Appalachia and the vast majority of the Midwest and east coast there enough farm within those states to support vast majority and would help new farms start up and I do thing there should be a subsidy side of the law as well but it should be only used if it not there’s not enough food is available from across the state said school would be in but some places like say Alaska and to a degree Hawaii their not going to be enough local grown food and that where the subsidies would play in but theirs plenty of farms across each state and even though could support the State school system but some places it couldn’t like big cities in California and Washington State and Oregon and New York State and those are other places where subsidies would be good as well but their still alot of farm on eastern side of the country
There are a lot of fruit’s and vegetables that can be grown in green house and theirs alot of vegetables that the school buy that could be stored for 3 or 4 months in freezer and it can be stored or it could even be canned and tomato , Strawberry , Citrus , Muskmelon , Avocado , Grape , Pineapple , Chili pepper , Figs , Pomegranate , Bananas , Blueberries , Cucumbers , Guava , Kiwi , Nectarines , peaches , pears , Capsicum , Spinach , basil , beets , mustard , String Bean , Spinach , Baby Spinach , Swiss Chard , Garlic , Broccoli , Pumpkin , Carrots , onions , Asparagus ,
Eggplants , Turnips , Okra , lettuce’s type , cherries, , Cantaloupe , graps , pickles , meat for say a cow for example if every meal was 1/2 pound that would equal out to 860 ish meals , a full grown hog can feed a 100+ people , alot of state also have fish farms I can’t remember the technical name but they could serve fresh water fish to , one whole chicken can feed four people which for how big a chicken is is very good for how small it is , as bison keep getting reintroduced across the us as well as farms being set up for bison and one single bison can serve 400 people which is another option in some states , their are farms that raise duck and quail which would be used for meat to , a 25 lbs turkey can feed at lest 20 people and goose can feed up to 10 people depending on size and duck can feed 6 people and quail can feed 2 people per bird , whole goat can feed up to 64 people , lamb you can enough meat out of it for about 60 ish people , pheasant can feed to 2 people as well , chicken can lay around 100 to 100 to 300 eggs a year that a lot of eggs that could , domesticated ducks lay close to 150+ for 3 breeds and 300 eggs a year for 2 breeds I think and that can be used for eggs to and quail lay 250 to 300 depending on age , Pheasant lay about 10 to 75 a year depending on the breed , goose is another option they lay around 40 eggs a year for 2 breeds and Chinese goose lay around 100 eggs a year , turkey can lay 100 eggs , dairy can make 24 thousands pounds of milk per year , bee hives can produce up to 200 pounds per year , there’s still alot of food that can be grown and butchered and yes some things you would not likey think of but it’s still a good and healthy source of protein and I mentioned in the my description of the proposed law that their would be exceptions for foods stuff that is able to be sourced within the state the school that it would be able to still be imported to said state
ANOTHER reason why the DEPT of ED must be DEMOLISHED so that political vendors don’t control the horrific food now offered. THAT has to end. ALSO, all school lunches ,etc, should be up to and provided by PARENTS who create a way to have local farms and grocery stores. provide NUTRITIOUS food, milk, etc. THAT would eliminate all the HORRIBLE FAT and processed food our children are offered such as chips and Velveeta cheese and French fries?? ALL food offered must include fruit and vegetables and protein and dairy. Private schools are able to do this with ease as parents are responsible for providing the food and planning the menu, but public STATE/PARENT run schools (demolish the DEPT of ED) could plan a creative way to do the same.