Facilitating School Food Sales through Flexibility and Relationship Building

In this episode of ATTRA’s Voices from the Field, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Tammy Howard speaks with participants from her USDA‑funded project, Bringing the Farm to School. The project is designed to help agricultural producers build the skills and capacity needed to sell their products directly to schools. Alongside this training, NCAT and the National Farm to School Network have also hosted facilitated networking events to connect producers with school food buyers.Tammy talks with her NCAT colleague and Growtopia Farms owner Cody Brown, as well as Matt Hanson from the Central Texas Food Hub, a social enterprise of the Central Texas Food Bank. Both Matt and Cody attended one of these networking events in Central Texas. Their conversation highlights their personal experiences and offers practical advice for developing strong producer-buyer relationships that support successful school food sales.Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.NCAT Resources Bringing the Farm to School Through New Connections BlogScaling up for Regional Markets TutorialScaling up your Vegetable Farm for Regional MarketsFarm to School Sales: Profiles of Ranches Making It WorkFood Hubs: A Producer GuideEpisode 358. Abundant Montana “Meet Up” Meets with SuccessOther ResourcesBringing the Farm to School ProjectNational Farm to School NetworkCentral Texas Food BankGrowtopia Farms