President Barack Obama has signed into law a five-year farm bill that addresses a wide swath of programs, including school nutrition.
The law, signed this month, includes a pilot program that will allow select districts in at least five states to experiment with serving dried, canned, and frozen fruits and vegetables instead of fresh; a pilot program to test incorporating legumes into school meals; and a pilot to test greater flexibility in local produce acquisition for school meal providers.
The nearly $1 trillion law also includes $25 million in grants to “facilitate a connection between elementary schools and secondary schools and agricultural producers in the local and regional area.”
