2023 Farm to School Census

The term “farm to school” refers to efforts to serve local foods and provide education on food and agriculture to children in schools, child care settings, and summer meal sites. The 2023 Farm to School Census collected information on farm to school participation by school food authorities (SFAs) in school year (SY) 2022–23. Every SFA participating in the National School Lunch Program in the 50 states, Washington, DC, and five territories received an online survey asking about the farm to school activities they participated in, details of their participation, and their perspectives on farm to school. Past Farm to School Census surveys were conducted in 2013, 2015, and 2019.

Key Findings

• Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of SFAs did at least one farm to school relevant activity in SY 2022-23, an increase of 9 percentage points over SY 2018–19.
• Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of SFAs said they served local foods to students in SY 2022-23.
• SFAs participating in farm to school spent almost $1.8 billion on local purchases, representing about 16 percent of their total food spending. Fluid milk purchases made up about half of local spending at $955 million.
• A variety of positive outcomes were reported by SFAs that participated in farm to school, including an increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables in school meals (61 percent of participating SFAs), access to better quality foods (57 percent), and an increased positive perception of the school food program among educators (49 percent).
• Some SFAs said they had challenges with farm to school, most notably availability of local foods (42 percent of participating SFAs) and cost of local foods (35 percent).
• SFA engagement in farm to school grew in spite of challenges from COVID-19.

Attachments

• 2023 Farm to School Census Public Dataset - Microsoft excel file that includes all individual responses from school food authority respondents.
• 2023 Farm to School Census Public Dataset Codebook - may be used to interpret the findings in the dataset.
• 2023 Farm to School National and State Data Workbook [coming November 2024] - reference document with weighted summaries of national and state level responses.