Recently, I visited Savitsky Farm in Colchester, which started providing locally-grown fruits and vegetables to nearby schools this past school year. I expected to learn about a small initiative just getting off its feet. Instead, I heard about an incredibly successful program spurred by a petition from passionate students and already beloved by community partners.

Farm-to-school programs are so important for our kids. They teach them about healthy eating, community engagement, and social responsibility — all while supporting our local farmers. As a dad of a first grader and a preschooler, I want my sons to have the opportunity to eat local fresh fruit and vegetables while learning about the farm down the street. I’d also like my kids to start enjoying the fruits and vegetables they eat, but that’s a fight for another day.

The benefits of farm-to-school programs are so important and so obvious to me that I was surprised to learn that partnerships like those with Savitsky Farm are pretty rare in Connecticut. While over 300,000 Connecticut students benefit from some type of farm-to-school collaboration, the 91 participating school districts still spend the vast majority of their food budget on food grown out of state.

I believe that most schools would ideally love to provide more fresh, local food if not for their budget constraints. When faced with the option of either feeding 200 students with pre-packaged frozen corn packages that cost $20 or paying the same amount for 60 ears of locally grown corn, each of which need to be individually shucked, cleaned and cooked, schools hesitate to spend the extra money.

During my tour of Savitsky Farm, Norwich Director of Food Services Erin Perpetua told me that while the Norwich schools remain committed to their partnership with the farm, state or federal grants would go a long way in helping them continue the program and expand it in the future. Unfortunately, multiple Connecticut schools had applied for but never won funding through the incredibly competitive U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm to School Grant Program.

Furthermore, the farmers I spoke to told me that while they’d appreciate the opportunity to supply more local schools, they often struggle with the limited school-year schedule. Being in the Northeast, many of our local crops are harvested in the summer months. Not having year-round predictability limits the potential benefit for farmers.

After learning not only about the demand for farm-to-school programs but also about the hurdles school administrators and farmers face establishing and expanding them, I co-sponsored the Farm to School Act and continued fighting for funding on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Our bill would triple the funding for the USDA Farm to School program, making it possible for schools to provide locally grown food to nearly 3 million additional students. It also would open up the programs to preschools, afterschool programs and summer programs, providing more year-round predictability for farmers. 

It’s time for Congress to act on this important issue. There’s nothing political about it—encouraging healthy eating for our kids and supporting local farmers isn’t partisan. I’ll be working hard to see our bill signed into law and bring more of this much-needed funding back to Connecticut. So, hopefully, our kids can look forward to local apples, squash, tomatoes, lettuce, corn and fresh milk coming to their school soon.

Chris Murphy is Connecticut’s junior U.S. Senator and a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.