November, 2007
Farmers’ Markets Today:
The Business Journal of Direct to Customer Marketers
Connecting with Kids
Farmers markets can help children make meaningful connections between the land, the food they eat, their health and their future well-being.
by Peggy Sissel-Phelan, Ed.D.
The childhood obesity crisis in the U.S. has had a profound effect on public policy at the local, state, and federal level as lawmakers have developed a growing awareness of the influence that food marketing has on children. Advocates such as Action for Healthy Kids, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and others have done excellent work in pointing out the need for change in various systems that shape children’s food choices and eating behaviors: advertising, packaging, portion size, access to vending machines, and food options in school cafeterias.
One result is the requirement that as of June, 2006, each school district participating in the federal school lunch program must have in place a comprehensive Local Wellness Policy that sets goals for nutrition education, physical activity, campus food provision, and other school-based activities designed to promote student wellness. Districts also are to involve members of the community in the policy’s planning, development, and evaluation.
Thus, many community school systems are now merging cost-consciousness with calorie-counting. Others are adding nutrition education components and parent involvement programs. Real systemic change is occurring, however, in those school systems that count calories and make those calories count by incorporating community-based approaches that benefit the surrounding neighborhood, town, and region, not simply members of their own school community.
School systems and other institutions make calories count when they buy locally grown food and support sustainable local agriculture, when they teach kids about food systems and food production through the creation of school and community gardens, and when they encourage patronage of farmers markets in their communities and give kids opportunities to meet and talk to the folks who are their link to the land: the farmers.
By this measure, calories count when they help build strong bodies and local economies. This synergy can yield other benefits as well by helping children make meaningful connections between the land, the food they eat, and their health and well-being. Facilitation of these connections is essential if we are to override, even in a small way, the processed and packaged messages that the mega-marketers have directed at them since birth. Moreover, such connections are vital if we want our kids to become smart consumers, great cooks, active citizens, good stewards of our natural resources, and healthy, physically fit adults.
The growing number and popularity of farmers markets across the country, combined with new policy and program mandates regarding children’s nutrition and wellness, present a unique opportunity to build new partnerships, programs and, ultimately, new customer bases for the markets.
Your questions, comments and suggestions are welcome, as is information about existing innovative programs or partnerships involving agricultural activities and children.
~Peggy Sissel-Phelan, founding publisher of Brain Child Press, has more than 25 years experience in developing and evaluating community programs. She has been a professor, researcher, community educator, advocate author and consultant. Her books include the children’s picture book “A Visit to the Farmers’ Market,” and the curriculum guide entitled “All About Farmers’ Markets: A Teaching Guide for Classrooms, Camps, and Community Programs.” More information is available by e-mail ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or through her online site ( ).