Self-organization for Farm to School: Building a Resilient Local Food System in South Dakota

Commodities

Practices

South Dakota produces on average $31 billion in agricultural commodities annually, yet many communities face persistent food insecurity and limited access to fresh, healthy food. This mismatch reveals a significant gap in local food system development that local food procurement could help address. Local food procurement through Farm to School offers a potential avenue to build resilient local food systems, yet participation and outcomes vary across school districts. These uneven outcomes reveal that local food systems are shaped by how communities self-organize around resources and shared goals.

Self-organization is defined as the process in which individuals organize their communities or networks to build trust, take collective action, and make shared decisions for a common goal. This project explores how self-organization affects local food procurement through Farm to School, focusing on trust building, collaboration, and problem solving. Using a mixed methods case study approach, we will analyze both quantifiable trends and qualitative insights. Five school districts with differing self-organizational structures will serve as case studies. Three additional focus groups will be held with stakeholders in the dairy, meat, and fruit and vegetable sectors. These qualitative findings will inform a statewide survey of all 180 South Dakota School Food Authorities to measure self-organization within school meal programs. A latent variable analysis will generate a self-organization score for each school district, which will be used in a multivariable linear regression to assess how self-organization influences local food procurement. This model will control other factors using a Sustainability and Resilience Index from SARE Project LS16-276.

Results will help South Dakota farmers, processors, and school districts build stronger local procurement systems. Farmers and processors will gain tools for developing productive relationships with schools, while school food authorities will be better equipped to foster stable partnerships with local producers. Through focus groups and outreach materials, this project will increase awareness of Farm to School networks and provide stakeholders with the knowledge to take coordinated action and strengthen community-based food systems. These outcomes support economic viability, reduce environmental impacts from food transportation and waste, and strengthen social ties and relationships, laying the foundation for more resilient, and sustainable food systems.

This project will support South Dakota producers, processors, and school food service staff by helping them engage in local food procurement through self-organization strategies.

Learning Outcomes:

At least 80% of participating producers and processors (target: 450) will demonstrate increased knowledge of collaborative procurement strategies by correctly identifying or describing key practices in post-event evaluation surveys.

At least 80% of participating school food service staff (target: 200) will demonstrate understanding of how self-organization contributes to resilient procurement relationships, as measured through pre- and post-event evaluation questions.

Action Outcomes:

At least 70% of participating producers and processors (target: 500) will indicate plans to initiate contact with a school district for local food procurement, as measured through post-event evaluation surveys

At least 70% of participating school food service staff (target: 200) will report plans to initiate or strengthen collaborative relationships with local producers, as measured through post-event evaluation survey

At least 500 stakeholders will access the self-organization best practices guide through downloads (target: 300) and distribution at Farm to School Network events (target: 200).

System-level Outcomes:

By 2027, at least 65% of South Dakota school districts will report engaging in local food procurement through Farm to School programs, as documented in the USDA Farm to School Census and supplemental surveys conducted by the South Dakota Farm to School Network.

By 2027, self-organization practices developed through this project will begin to be adopted in other wholesale and institutional markets in South Dakota, with adoption trends monitored through analysis of state-level tax and sales data