The Farm to School Census (Census) is a periodic survey of all school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), conducted by the USDA Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA). The Census provides a national, statewide, and SFA specific snapshot of activity connecting local foods and local food producers with school meal programs and curricula. The 2027 Census will be the fifth conducted by USDA, following previous censuses in 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2023.
The 2027 Farm to School Census will be open for responses between May 3, 2027 and June 30, 2027. The survey questions are focused on farm to school activities in school year (SY) 2026-27.
This toolkit provides sample materials to help state agencies promote the upcoming Census and prepare SFAs to successfully complete it. Other organizations working at the national, state, or regional level can also use this toolkit to support broad participation by SFAs.
For the 2027 Census, we encourage SFAs to form teams to help answer Census questions. Many districts may already have groups, such as an existing farm to school team or local wellness policy council, that can fill this role. Farm to school programs are built by the hard work of school food services, producers, teachers, volunteers, parents, students, and more. While SFA directors hold the subject matter expertise on local sourcing, we encourage them to recognize the many different roles contributing to their district or school’s farm to school programs and engage these experts in accurately documenting the depth and breadth of their programs. This can include garden coordinators, classroom educators, and more. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work,” and we hope that this year’s Census goes quickly and smoothly with the help of the many experts who offer valuable insight into your programs.
Materials
SY 2026-2027 has begun, and the Census is right around the corner. The materials in this toolkit are designed for you to customize to best suit your audience.
- Building Your Farm to School Census Team Guide - a new resource to help SFAs identify the experts in their community who can help provide the important information needed to complete the Census swiftly and accurately.
- Farm to School Census Preparation Workbook and Tracker - highlights questions in the Census that are easier to answer with some advance preparation. These questions focus on local food spending, products purchased, number of active school gardens, and other similar data. SFAs can use this workbook to track purchases throughout the school year. We also recommend reviewing a copy of the full Census survey (.docx) to better understand how these questions fit within the broader set of questions that SFAs will need to answer.
- Sample Blogs and Social Media - short pieces that can be used for newsletters or similar digital publications. State-specific information can be added to reserved spaces within these posts to make the content more relevant to SFAs within your state. Sample short-form social media posts align with the sample blogs.
- 2027 Census Frequently Asked Questions - we will be updating the FAQs with more information as we get closer to the start of the data collection period, so please keep this page bookmarked in your browser.
If you have any questions about the materials in this package, please contact the USDA Food and Nutrition Administration Community Food Systems Division at SM.FN.FarmToSchool@usda.gov.
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