Farm to School Coordinator in Arkansas

The Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, with technical assistance from Upstream Public Health, conducted an HIA to examine the potential impacts of a state farm-to-school (F2S) coordinator position on the health of the state’s public school students. As of 2017, nearly 1 in 4 Arkansas kindergarteners were overweight or obese, and the same proportion was food insecure. Research shows that F2S programs help to increase access to fresh foods in schools and early childhood education settings. The HIA found some evidence that a coordinator would moderately increase school participation in F2S programs in Arkansas.

The HIA relied on existing data and input from local experts and community members to develop recommendations for state decision-makers, which included:

• Facilitating a F2S leadership team composed of key state agencies, child health and nutrition organizations, and other stakeholders to coordinate F2S activities across the state.
• Commissioning an analysis of the economic development potential of F2S programs in Arkansas.
• Developing a system for collecting local produce purchasing data to track sales growth and its impacts on the local economy.
• Providing farmers who are interested in growing specialty crops with training on season extension techniques and equipment and information about markets and food safety certification.

The Arkansas Biosciences Institute funded the HIA.