Whitney McKinzie, Maria Bampasidou, Crystal Besse and Celeste Finney

Each school day in the United States, approximately 29.6 million children eat lunch at school. The food necessary to prepare these meals on a daily basis makes K-12 sales a unique opportunity for farmers and ranchers to service their local institutions. This venture into local food systems is part of a nationwide farm to school movement.

Farm to school involves three pillars: education, school gardening and local procurement. Students benefit from farm to school activities by gaining familiarity with local production, increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and improving their understanding of local agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts an annual voluntary Farm to School Census among school food authorities who operate federal meal programs such as the National School Lunch Program. In Louisiana, the 2018-19 census documented farm to school activities in 1,447 schools, reaching approximately 747,000 students. Eighty-five, or 55.6% of Louisiana school food authorities responded, and, of those, about 69.4% of the participating schools served local products in their cafeterias.

There is no dispute that purchasing local items and using local vendors can keep money in the regional economy. Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program teamed up with the LSU Department of Agricultural Economics to find the answer to the question, “What is the potential impact of dollars that are kept in the Louisiana economy through local purchasing practices?” Former Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness graduate student Whitney McKinzie utilized IMPLAN software to develop an input-output analysis framework to measure Louisiana school districts’ economic impact from purchasing local foods. Six Louisiana district-level child nutrition programs’ requests for proposals and bid tabulations were analyzed for the 2019-20 school year, representing typical purchasing practices prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Child nutrition directors were asked about their interest in purchasing local food while exploring the substitution effect of several local cultivars and Louisiana items that could be added to their menu cycle. For example, if a school district has oranges on its menu and decides to purchase a local variety of citrus instead, what is the potential economic impact of this line-item switch? The local items used in this study as potential menu alternatives included strawberries, rice, sweet potatoes, smoked sausage, oranges, Cajun seasoning, cabbage and lettuce.

The school districts interviewed were from different metropolitan areas in Louisiana; each district served 30,000 to 45,000 students per day and spent approximately $4 to $6 million on its annual primary food expenditure budget. Details from the child nutrition director interviews were analyzed for potential substitution effects for local items in established quantities of food already being purchased for their respective districts’ menus. This information was instrumental in understanding the procurement process and local procurement practices within each school district. The interviews revealed challenges faced by public school districts in procurement of food items, including dietary or nutritional value, budget constraints, kitchen equipment and processing challenges, food safety compliance and year-round availability of products.

McKinzie also analyzed USDA Farm to School Census data to identify major barriers that would potentially prevent schools in Louisiana from participating in farm to school activities. Data from the 2013, 2015 and 2019 USDA Farm to School censuses were used for the purpose of her study and mirrored the information provided in the child nutrition director interviews. Through careful analysis and calculation of self-reported census data, McKinzie found significant differences in farm to school participation in schools that reported staffing issues and school district issues. Staffing issues at the school level, including a lack of staff and time to prepare local foods, were correlated with a 40% decrease in farm to school activities. School district issues, such as difficulty in coordinating local purchasing with regular procurement, were tied to a 48% decrease in farm to school participation.

Although there are barriers to purchasing local items as identified by child nutrition directors, the effort to shift line-item purchases within a geographical preference can have a positive effect on the Louisiana economy. The analysis indicated that for every dollar spent on local food purchases, an additional 26 cents to 48 cents of output can be generated in economic benefits. This theoretical monetary gain would then be spread across different Louisiana industries that would include agriculture as well as transportation and other ancillary fields. McKinzie’s analysis was definitive, showing that there was a positive economic impact of substituting available local items on Louisiana school menus. This study also reveals that the economic impact of institutionalized local purchases is worthwhile and further analyses could prove advantageous for Louisiana’s bottom line.

Whitney McKinzie was a graduate assistant in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and graduated in August 2022. Maria Bampasidou is an assistant professor in the department. Crystal Besse is the Seeds for Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program director, and Celeste Finney is the manager of school nutrition and procurement for the program.

(This article appears in the spring 2023 edition of Louisiana Agriculture.)

Despite barriers to purchasing local, farm to school participation saw a significant increase since the Louisiana Farm to School Program was established in 2016. Graphic by Whitney McKinzie