School garden-based education programs have become an increasingly popular tool to improve children's nutrition, yet evaluations have found mixed results. This study analyzes three years of student surveys collected before and after one year of participation in the American Heart Association's Teaching Gardens program. Analysis was guided by the Social Cognitive Theory, and measured changes in determinants of healthy eating behavior: preferences for fruits and vegetables, gardening skills, food systems learning, and perceptions of self-efficacy and social norms regarding fruit and vegetable consumption. A total of 755 pre-test and 976 post-test responses were included in the analysis, as well as 173 pre-test and 146 post-test responses from two control schools that did not participate in any gardening activities. Frequencies and crosstabulations were used to analyze pre- and post-test data. Paired t-tests were also used to analyze differences between pre- and post-test when data were collected for the same student before and after Teaching Gardens participation. Paired t-test results indicated improvement in Preferences, Food Systems Learning, and Social Norms for both control and experimental groups and in Gardening Skills for the experimental group, although none of the changes over time were significant. At posttest, significant differences by gender were found in responses across all five indices, with girls answering generally more positively to questions than boys. Crosstab results also indicated significant differences by school minority concentration and socioeconomic status (SES) across all five indices at post-test, as well as a general correlation between minority concentration and SES. However, the effects of these environmental factors were mixed. The second article of this thesis investigates the effects of another environmental factor - the level of integration of the school garden program into the wider school environment - on students' reported knowledge of Gardening Skills. Eight schools and 142 matched pairs of students that participated in the Teaching Gardens program were analyzed. Adult responses from each of the schools were used to create an index of the program's Level of Integration, which was then compared with the students' reported changes in Gardening Skills using bivariate analysis and Paired Samples t-tests. Repeated Measures General Linear Model tests were then conducted to compare the model including the Level of Integration against the more traditional model of school garden evaluation, which focuses on school's minority concentration and SES. Results indicate that students at schools with well-integrated school garden programs gain greater Gardening Skills as a result of one year of participation in the program and confirms previous findings that students from lower SES areas experience greater gains in Gardening Skills than students from higher SES areas.

The global food system plays a significant role in the sustainability challenge. One way to approach such a complex problem is to provide a science-based, functional definition of success, and then to find leverage points in the system that can force change. Because they are accessed by all children, we see food education and responsibly sourced school food as such leverage points. Farm-to-School is a US concept which encourages schools to provide classroom food education, a garden, and locally produced food in the school restaurant. We explored how the Farm-to-School concept might move the Swedish public-school system, in a strategic way, towards sustainability, using the municipality of Karlskrona as an example. We interviewed stakeholders in Karlskrona to understand the current system, and what the benefits of Farm-to-School and the obstacles to implementation might be. We also interviewed stakeholders in the US, to gain knowledge about their experience of Farm-toSchool. We found that in Karlskrona there are some initiatives but restrictive regulations hindered innovation and local procurement, insufficient leadership meant there was no unified vision to work towards, collaboration was absent and not encouraged, and there was a shortage of resources. We therefore do not advise implementing Farm-to-School at present.

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The dissertation consists of three studies that seek to identify school caterer and women farmer constraints that have hindered the buy-local policy mandate of the Ghana School Lunch program, and to explore gendered agricultural technology adoption and contract participation strategies that could facilitate the policy mandate. The first study documents the constraints that have minimized caterer purchases of school food items from local farmers. The study presents an overview of the Ghana School Lunch Program and the buy-local policy mandate issued to school caterers. Survey data and descriptive analysis are employed to document and discuss the constraints that prevent school caters from purchasing from local farmers as well as the constraints faced by smallholder women farmers in supplying to school caters. The study subsequently discusses school caterers’ compensating variation of a hypothetical policy that requires them to firstly provide recommended portions of vegetables and protein, and secondly include fruits in the lunch of the schoolchildren. The second study analyses the factors underlying the probability that women smallholder farmers - compared to male farmers - adopt less a) improved seeds, b) fertilizer, c) herbicides and d) pesticides. The study further examines the sensitivity of gender differences in technology adoption to crop choice, particularly maize and legume, as well as the possible heterogeneity of technology adoption differences within rural and peri-urban communities. The adoption of these improved technologies is modeled using multivariate probit regressions. A gender gap is observed among legume farmers for improved seed and pesticide adoption. Moreover, the findings indicate that female maize farmers who have input into all cash crop production decisions are more likely to adopt improved seeds and pesticides. Among legume farmers, the results indicate that female farmers who are educated and have access to credit are more likely to adopt fertilizer, while female legume farmers who have a say in what the use of income generated from cash crop farming are more likely to adopt pesticides. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa should consider strategies to target and increase educational, financial and productive assets of female farmers in order to close the gender technology gap and increase multiple technology adoption. The third study examines the use of farm-to-school contracts as a means to provide access to credit for women farmers in rural and peri-urban areas and facilitate the buy-local policy mandate. In particular, the study examines the factors influencing male and female smallholder farmers’ minimum willingness to accept (WTA) farm-to-school-lunch contracts for maize and cowpea beans. The minimum WTA simultaneously measures the decision to participate as well as the minimum price at which the smallholder farmer accepts the contract. Using sex-disaggregated data from a field experiment, a Tobit model is applied to explain the underlying factors influencing male and female smallholder farmer’s minimum WTA for a set of hypothetical maize and cowpea beans contracts. The results for the pooled sample indicate that the delivery at harvest option increases farmers’ minimum willingness to accept both the maize and beans contracts. The study further examines heterogeneity in the minimum WTA among smallholder farmers. The results in the female specification indicate that, the advance pay option lowers the minimum WTA for maize contracts. Additionally, women farmers who own non-farm business, compared to a male with a non-farm business, have a lower minimum WTA for the maize and beans contracts. The results suggest that if the government considers contractual arrangements between school caterers and local farmers to facilitate the buy-local policy mandate, an advance pay option to women farmers may yield lower premiums for contracted food items.

Farm-to-school (FTS) programs are supported at federal, state, and local levels as a cross-sectoral intervention to curb rising levels of obesity, strengthen local food systems, and improve school climate and academic outcomes. Comprehensive FTS programming, according to the “3-C” approach embraced by leaders in the FTS movement, includes interventions in three domains: the cafeteria, classroom, and community. FTS programming in these domains may include procurement of local food; school gardens; and education related to food, agriculture, and nutrition. Existing research supports the comprehensive FTS approach, illustrating that multi-component programs with strategies that are integrated across these environments improve outcomes for students. FTS programs have potential impacts in the sectors of public health, economic development, education, and environmental sustainability, and they involve a diverse range of stakeholders including students, teachers, school leadership, food service staff, local farmers, and state and national policymakers. However, literature on FTS programs is largely in the areas of health behavior and nutrition outcomes for students, and further investigations of other aspects may lead to improved programming. The three distinct papers in this dissertation represent an unsequenced descriptive case study, in which each article explores one of the three FTS domains. The case study methodology allowed for in-depth mixed-methods data collection about a bounded system using multiple sources of information. The case for this research was a school district in northern California with a comprehensive FTS program supported by partnership with a local non-profit partner. The first study examines the classroom through teacher involvement in FTS programming using qualitative methods. Social cognitive theory is used as a framework to understand factors that impact classroom teacher involvement and propose strategies to support teacher involvement in FTS. The second study examines the cafeteria through research of a new school lunch program connected to the district FTS programming. Through mixed-methods data collection and analysis, the second article examines the factors that supported a school district in overcoming the barriers to instituting healthier meal options as well as a broad range of student outcomes. The third study examines the community through a qualitative exploration of the relationships between schools, families, and community partners at the case study site. Specifically, it examines FTS programming as an avenue for community partner involvement and family engagement in schools. This research may support teachers, administrators, and non-profit partners in improving comprehensive FTS programming. These studies fill gaps in the research around the three domains of FTS, particularly the classroom and community, and they may contribute to further studies that seek to explore and compare the different aspects of FTS that lead to outcomes for students and schools. Each chapter may also be a resource for researchers in the fields of food, agriculture, and nutrition education; curriculum innovation; school food; and community-school partnerships.

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No description available.

Farm to school programs are becoming a popular intervention to address childhood obesity. The hope is to prevent later chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can result from eating high-fat/high-calorie diets that are low in consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. This study explores the impacts of one such program, Farm to Keiki, on students, their families, and teachers at two Native Hawaiian preschools on the island of Kauaʽi, Hawaiʽi. This program combined lessons about plants and nutrition with gardening at school and tastetesting in the classroom. Rooted in critical medical anthropology, this study utilized a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand these impacts, as well as the historical and cultural contexts that have contributed to dietary changes among Native Hawaiians. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, families and teachers described how the program encouraged the children to try new foods and eat more produce, and how the children demonstrated new knowledge about plants and healthy eating. Participants also spoke of ways in which their own knowledge and eating habits changed, and families reported carrying over many of the program's activities at home by gardening and preparing meals together. Additionally, participants offered valuable feedback on ways the program could be improved. This study, which appears to be the first of its kind to involve a Native Hawaiian farm-toschool program, demonstrates that an anthropological approach can provide critical depth and understanding of how programs like Farm to Keiki affect students and the people close to them.