74% of School Food Programs Now Buy Local: What It Means

Three out of four. That's how many school food programs in the U.S. now take part in farm to school. In the 2022–23 school year, 74.1% of school food authorities did at least one farm to school activity, up from 65.4% in 2018–19, according to the USDA's most recent Farm to School Census.

If you run a school nutrition program in the Bay Area, that number isn't just a trend line. It's what parents, school boards and your own staff now expect to see on the lunch line. Here is what the data actually says, what changed in the rules, and the questions worth asking the produce company that fills your walk-in.

The numbers: local food is now a real share of the school food budget

The 2023 Farm to School Census collected responses from 11,803 school food authorities across all 50 states. A few findings stand out:

• $1.8 billion on local food. School food authorities doing farm to school spent almost $1.8 billion on local purchases, about 16% of their total food spending.
• Milk leads the way. Fluid milk was about half of that local spending, roughly $955 million.
• Fruits and vegetables are close behind. In the earlier 2018–19 census, fruits and vegetables topped the list of local foods schools bought, at 85% and 82% of participating districts.

California goes further than the national average

California's own results from the same census are even stronger:

• 77% of California school food authorities took part in farm to school.
• Those programs covered 7,071 schools and more than 3.7 million students.
• Among participating programs, 22% of food spending went to local foods, about $320 million in total.

For a state that grows as much fresh produce as California does, that's a big opportunity sitting right next to the cafeteria.

The rule change that makes "local" easier to buy

For years, schools could give an optional geographic preference to locally grown, unprocessed products when they bid out food. Since July 1, 2024, USDA has gone a step further: child nutrition programs can now use "local" as a specification, meaning a solicitation can require that unprocessed agricultural products be locally grown, raised or caught.

Two details matter here:

• You define "local." USDA leaves it to each school food authority to set its own geographic definition, as long as it doesn't unfairly limit competition.
• Light prep still counts. USDA guidance says products that have been chopped, cut, sliced or diced can still count as "unprocessed" for geographic preference. That's useful news if your salad bar runs on pre-cut items.

Procurement rules have real legal weight, so check the details with your state agency or USDA's procurement guide before you write a bid.

The hard part: availability, cost and delivery

Going local isn't friction-free. Nationally, the most common challenges school food authorities reported were availability of local foods (42%) and the cost of local foods (35%). California programs named the same pressures, plus delivery: higher cost (31%), limited availability (27%) and delivery challenges (23%).

Most of those problems are supply chain problems, not menu problems. Which is why the produce partner you choose matters as much as the produce itself.

Five questions to ask your produce distributor this year

1. Where was this grown? If you're going to count something as local, you need to know its origin. Ask how your distributor tracks and shares it.
2. What's coming into season? Planning a cycle menu around California's seasons keeps quality up and cost surprises down.
3. Can you deliver on our schedule, cold? School kitchens run on tight receiving windows. Refrigerated trucks and a delivery schedule that fits your sites are the difference between crisp romaine and a credit memo.
4. Do you carry pre-cut items? Sliced mushrooms, salad mixes and other pre-cut items can cut prep time for a salad bar program, and as noted above, light cutting doesn't automatically disqualify a product from geographic preference.
5. Can we get produce and dairy on the same truck? Fewer vendors means fewer deliveries to receive, fewer invoices to match and fewer phone calls.

Where Fresh & Best Produce fits

Fresh & Best Produce is a family-owned produce distributor, started in 1985 and based in San Leandro. We deliver across the Bay Area in refrigerated trucks on a flexible schedule, and we buy from California farms (you can meet some of them on our Growers page).

Along with specialty and everyday fresh produce, we carry dairy (milk, yogurt and eggs), spices, dried fruit and nuts, and bulk foodservice items, plus pre-cut items like sliced mushrooms and salad mixes from trusted local vendors. That means one order and one delivery for most of what a school kitchen goes through in a week.

If you're planning menus for the 2026–27 school year, we'd be glad to talk about what's in season and what delivery could look like for your sites. Become a customer, call us at (408) 937-9005, or browse our online catalog.