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.

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NCAT Resources

Bringing the Farm to School Through New Connections Blog

Scaling up for Regional Markets Tutorial

Scaling up your Vegetable Farm for Regional Markets

Farm to School Sales: Profiles of Ranches Making It Work

Food Hubs: A Producer Guide

Episode 358. Abundant Montana “Meet Up” Meets with Success

Other Resources

Bringing the Farm to School Project

National Farm to School Network

Central Texas Food Bank