(E02) Farm to Fork: Overcoming Food Insecurity in One of California’s Largest School Districts

With a drive to be greener, Sacramento City USD applied for—and received—a $5M grant from the USGBC to champion change and build a program. That grant—and the steps that followed—became the seed for a social justice and sustainability movement to combat food insecurity among low-income families in a region known as the Farm to Fork capital.

With the grant in hand and the passing of a local bond, the district’s new Central Kitchen was born. The project—rooted in childhood nutrition and education—is designed to churn out eight million healthy meals annually to feed the community. With its proximity to local farms, the facility is at the forefront of fresh, seasonal cuisine from the city’s backyard, which not only improves students’ health but also boosts the local and regional economy.

This realization of a community-led effort to partner with local farmers and professional chefs to provide students with healthy, wholesome foods from scratch was proof of the difference we can make together to overcome the food insecurity crisis. So, when the district had 2.5 acres sitting vacant on one of its elementary school campuses, they built a 4,500 SF Food Literacy Center—a cooking school that would serve as the headquarters for a nonprofit organization that played a critical role in the advent of the Central Kitchen. The facility features a cooking classroom, commercial kitchen, and student gardens. As the first ZNE project in the district, the building also serves as a model for sustainable building practices.

The Central Kitchen and Food Literacy Center are more than health and nutrition education centers. With programs that have proven to be economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable, learn how these projects can be a model for systemic change in school districts around the U.S.