About farm to college

Farm-to-college programs connect colleges and universities with producers in their area to provide local farm products for meals and special events on campus. These programs may be small and unofficial, mainly involving special dinners or other events, or they may be large and well-established, with many local products incorporated into cafeteria meals every day.

The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) has a National Farm to College Program, which works to help farmers, food service personnel, students, faculty and others to establish and maintain farm-to-college programs.

Beginning in Fall 2004, CFSC has been working to create a comprehensive list of active farm-to-college programs in the United States and Canada.

If you would like to add information about your college's farm-to-college program, please see instructions on the survey page.

Graphs and charts

To date, individuals from more than 100 schools have completed our survey. Below are links to a number of graphs and charts of key farm-to-college program characteristics, based on survey responses.

• Main initiators of farm-to-college programs
• Roles played by students in farm-to-college programs
• Primary Party Responsible for farm-to-college program
• Geographical sources of local farm products
• Distribution Infrastructure Used
• Where Local Products are Used
• Cost compared to non-local products, and how to manage the higher price (if local products cost more)
• Use of External Funding or Resources
• Use of promotional or educational tools with farm-to-college programs
• Other campus environmental initiatives
• Policy issues with farm-to-college programs
• Benefits of farm-to-college programs
• Barriers/challenges for farm-to-college programs
• Best Strategies for Starting a Farm to College Program
• Percentage of farm to college projects that are self-operated vs contract-managed food service operations

Characteristics of farm-to-college programs (based on survey data)