Resources
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The Lunch Box’s Resources section is the central library for all resource tools developed by The Lunch Box team and those shared by other School Food experts around the country. It is a wellspring of tools including evaluations, grant finding and writing tools, feasibility studies, case studies, Farm to School resources and more so you can consider and begin to take action to transform your school district’s food program from a highly processed to a scratch-cooking environment.
Featured Article
Salad Bars in the National School Lunch Program (Revised Memo)
This revision includes updates based on the revised nutrition standards for school meals and includes questions and answers.
Collective Roots
"We are a nonprofit organization founded and based in East Palo Alto, CA. We seek to educate and engage youth and communities in food system change through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment. Collective Roots achieves its mission through the innovative integration and implementation of two key program areas: garden-based learning and food system change."
Commodity Costs and Returns Data (USDA)
"USDA has estimated annual production costs and returns and published accounts for major field crop and livestock enterprises since 1975... The annual estimates are based on producer surveys conducted about every 4-8 years for each commodity and updated each year with estimates of annual price, acreage, and production changes."
Commodity Foods and the Nutritional Quality of the National School Lunch Program
Due to growing national concerns about the poor nutritional quality of children's diets and increasing rates of childhood obesity, the public's interest in the positive role child nutrition programs can play in helping to solve these problems has increased. This also has led to greater interest in the foods provided through the school lunch commodity program. This valuable report attempts to sort myths from facts, highlights the barriers to improvement in the nutritional profiles of commodity driven foods, and offers recommendations about future policy decisions.
Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF)
"CAFF advocates for family farmers and sustainable agriculture. Today’s Community Alliance with Family Farmers is the result of efforts by both farmers and urban activists working together for over 30 years. We strive to build a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice."
Community Food Security Coalition
"The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is a North American coalition of diverse people and organizations working from the local to international levels to build community food security. We have a diverse membership with almost 300 organizations from social and economic justice, anti-hunger, environmental, community development, sustainable agriculture, community gardening and other fields. We are dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food to all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability. "
Community Food Security Coalition: Handouts on Community Food Issues
These simple, colorful handouts are designed to inspire people to learn more and to take action, and to link them up with local organizations (this could be you!) They are beautifully designed, with original artwork on the front. Each includes brief educational information, action ideas and space to add local contact information.
Community Supported Agriculture Resources at University of Massachusetts Extension
"CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food. Supporters cover a farm's yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season's harvest... Members help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season.
This mutually supportive relationship between local farmers, growers and community members helps create an economically stable farm operation in which members are assured the highest quality produce, often at below retail prices. In return, farmers and growers are guaranteed a reliable market for a diverse selection of crops."
Comparison of Current and New Regulatory Requirements under Final Rule “Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs” Jan. 2012
Comparison of Food and Tobacco Industries
A study showing the similarities between the tobacco and food industries in the hope that the food industry will not make the same mistakes. Brownell and Warner reviewed and analyzed evidence referring to food and tobacco industry practices, messages, and strategies to influence others opinions, legislation and more.