New Approaches to the Health Promoting School: Participation in Sustainable Food Systems

The purpose of this review is to synthesize research on 3 strategies that public schools use to procure food from within sustainable food systems—school food gardens, farm-to-school programs, and school procurement policies—and discuss the potential roles for dietitians. Peer-reviewed and “grey” literature provides a wealth of successful models for how schools participate in sustainable food systems, why they do it, what benefits they reap and what barriers they encounter. While available published literature provides reason to believe that these strategies may contribute to sustainable community design, food system localization, and child health and nutrition, it has also been suggested that they may encourage transfer of government responsibilities to the community.