Tom Vilsack, the US Secretary of Agriculture, will be in Philadelphia to announce the recipients of the USDA’s Farm to School grant program. Many children in low-income urban areas receive the bulk of their calories at school. For this reason, we are committed to making sure this food is fresh and healthy. Across the country, an increasing number of schools and districts have begun to source more foods locally and to provide complementary educational activities to students that emphasize food, farming, and nutrition. This provides more opportunities than ever for family farmers to nourish the children who live in their regions.
In Philadelphia, Common Market partners with Lintons Managed Services and 30 charter schools to provide local fruits and vegetables to 40,000+ children. Common Market works with 75+ family farms in Pennsylvania, NJ, DE and MD- including Weaver’s Orchard in Morgantown, PA.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be in attendance, along with Mayor Michael Nutter, Representatives from Wissahickon Charter School, Weaver’s Orchard, Appeeling Fruit (a local business that prepares sliced apples for school lunches), Lintons Managed Services (the contract food service company that run the cafeterias at 30+ charter schools)