School Food FOCUS
Transforming Food Options for Children in Urban Schools
FOCUS is a national initiative that helps large school districts with 40,000 or more students serve more healthful, more sustainably produced and regionally sourced food so that children may perform better in school and be healthier in life. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and launched in late 2008, FOCUS works with food service and other stakeholder groups to collect, analyze, and use food system data and peer-tested research to spur change in procurement methods. FOCUS supports a network of people who are engaging over 20 large school districts in systems change and also facilitates the sharing of best practices and lessons learned.
School Food FOCUS has four active program areas:
School Food Learning Lab…where school districts and support groups will analyze food supply and demand, change food purchasing practices and document the process, results and lessons learned.
St. Paul Public Schools and Denver Public Schools are the first two pilot districts in this effort, working to harness their buying power to have healthier, more local, more sustainable foods for their school children.
Contact: Dorothy Brayley:
DBrayley (@) SchoolFoodFOCUS.org
FOCUS Knowledge…where food service directors can go to find out how other districts are “getting it done.”
FOCUSKnowledge develops engaging structures—including an online social network (Knowledge Café)—to facilitate peer-to-peer communication and provide one-on-one support to school district stakeholders.
Contact: Meredith Modzelewski:
MModzelewski (@) schoolfoodfocus.org
Policy Development and Advocacy…an active workgroup that informs and educates legislators, works in coalition to shape legislation, influences the content and wording of regulations, monitors implementation and mobilizes allies to further the public policy agenda of School Food FOCUS.
SDavidson (@) SchoolFoodFOCUS.org
TForster (@) SchoolFoodFOCUS.org
Education and Outreach…dedicated strategic communications to connect with various audiences so they can better understand the operating realities of school meals, the current state of reform efforts undertaken by large school districts, and the nexus of school-food-health-agriculture-environment and economic issues.
Contact: Kathy Lawrence:
KLawrence (@) SchoolFoodFOCUS.org