The Origin: Investing in Local Farms to Improve Children’s Health

In 2010, Seattle launched the Farm to Table Program as a pilot effort to address local food access and farm viability simultaneously. The program emerged from Seattle's 2008 Local Food Action Initiative, which laid the foundation for city-led food policy.[1]

From the start, the Farm to Table Program was a collaborative effort involving city agencies, nonprofit organizations, and local businesses. Over time, it evolved and gave rise to the Farm to Preschool Program—a more focused initiative that currently reaches over 1,600 children across 45 public preschools.[2] These sites were strategically selected in partnership with the Department of Education and Early Learning to prioritize low-income families and communities of color. [3]

How the Program Works

The Farm to Preschool Program connects early learning centers directly with Washington state farms through a multi-pronged approach that extends beyond the classroom.

1. Procurement and Distribution

Participating schools and centers place orders for fresh, locally grown foods through an online marketplace operated by Farmstand Local Foods. Once delivered, this food is incorporated into daily meals. The program goes further by providing produce bags for families each week to take home, ensuring healthy food access doesn't stop at the school door.

2. Educational Programming

Educational programming is woven into the initiative to create meaningful, lifelong connections to food:

• Students visit local farms.
• Families and teachers engage in gardening activities.
• Cooking demonstrations and pop-up farm stands are hosted at various locations.

These enrichment efforts are supported by nonprofit partners Solid Ground and Tilth Alliance, fostering early connections between children and the sources of their food while promoting lifelong healthy eating habits.

3. Advancing Equity for Farmers

The Farm to Preschool Program aims to build an equitable food system "by supporting farmers with resources to improve production, facilitate supply chain development, and create opportunities for growers of color to build a more resilient food system."[4]

The program currently works with farms across Washington state, leading to more than $330,000 in sales to local food and farm businesses in 2024 alone.[5] The program specifically prioritizes sourcing from BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, and women farmers, supporting historically underrepresented producers and building a more inclusive agricultural economy. In 2023, nearly 50% of the program's purchases were from BIPOC-led farms, which represent only 4% of farms across Washington state.[6],[7]

An Innovative Approach to Funding

At its launch, the program was funded by the City of Seattle, Seattle-King County Public Health, and federal grants. The program secured long-term stability by tying its budget to an innovative public health tax.

In 2017, Seattle introduced the Sweetened Beverage Tax Ordinance #125324, which requires sugar-sweetened beverage distributers to pay 1.75 cents per ounce of sugary drinks distributed in the City of Seattle.[8] The ordinance committed a portion of the revenue to "expand access to healthy and affordable food, closing the food security gap, and promoting healthy food choices, through programs" including the Farm to Preschool program.[9]

Now, Farm to Preschool is fully funded through this tax, with annual budget allocations shaped by the City Council and recommendations from the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board. The approach is both innovative and impactful: it uses the proceeds from a public health tax to fund another public health solution—expanding access to nutritious, local food.

Why Local Governments Should Adopt This Approach

Seattle's Farm to Preschool Program demonstrates that investing in local food systems isn't just good for farms; it's good for families and the community's future. By linking early childhood nutrition with farm viability and racial equity, the program offers a replicable strategy for cities across the country. At a time when small farms face mounting economic pressure and many families struggle with food insecurity, Seattle shows that local government can be a catalyst for systemic change.

This initiative is about reshaping our food system to serve the health of our children, the vitality of our farms, and the resilience of our communities. Any city with early care centers and regional agriculture can adapt this model.

Key Legal Instrument: Statutory Text

Language in the 2008 Local Food Action Initiative Resolution #31019 prompting the creation of the Farm to Table Program

The Human Services Department (HSD) is requested to work with the food support system and distributor partners to identify opportunities to increase fresh and locally and regionally produced foods in the food support system. HSD is encouraged to utilize the City's Health Initiative to further the goals outlined in Section 1.

Language in the Sweetened Beverage Tax Ordinance detailing funding structure for Farm to Preschool program

2017 Ordinance 125324: Section 3. Services funded by the proceeds of the beverage tax are intended to expand access to healthy and affordable food, close the food security gap, promote healthy nutrition choices, reduce disparities in social, developmental, and education readiness and learning for children, assist high school graduates enter college, and expand services for the birth-to-five population and their families.

1. For the first five years that the tax is collected, 20 percent of the net proceeds shall be used to fund one-time expenditures to administer the tax, in support of education, and for training programs. Eligible expenditures include, in order of priority:
2. One-time costs necessary to enable the administration of the tax;
3. Up to $5,000,000 in total as a contribution to an endowment for the Seattle Colleges 13th Year Promise Scholarship program;
4. Up to $1,500,000 in total as funding for job retraining and placement programs for workers adversely impacted by the tax; and
5. Funding for capital projects to construct or enhance classroom facilities for use by the Seattle Preschool Program.

Beginning in the sixth year of collections, the 20 percent set aside under this subsection A shall cease and all net proceeds from the tax collected shall be for programs defined in subsection B of this section.

1. The remainder of net proceeds from the beverage tax shall be used to support, in order of priority:
2. Expanding access to healthy and affordable food, closing the food security gap, and promoting health food choices through programs including, but not limited to:
   Community-based investments to expand food access, such as food banks and meal programs;
   b. Fresh Bucks and Fresh Bucks to Go;
   c. Implementation of the Seattle Food Action Plan;
   d. Public health and nutrition programs targeted to assist persons experiencing diabetes and obesity;
   e. Public awareness campaigns to highlight the impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on health outcomes and increase education about healthy food and beverages; and
   f. Capital investments to promote healthy choices, such as water bottle filling stations in schools and community centers.
3. Evidence-based programs that improve the social, emotional, educational, physical health, and mental health for children, especially those services that seek to reduce the disparities in outcomes for children and families based on race, gender, or other socioeconomic factors and to prepare children for a strong and fair start in kindergarten.
4. Administration of assessing and collecting the tax.
5. Ensuring resources for the Office of Sustainability and the Environment and the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.
6. The cost of program evaluations conducted by the Office of the City Auditor under subsection 5.B of this ordinance, including costs borne by other City departments in facilitating such evaluations.

In the annual City budget or by separate ordinance, the City's legislative authority shall from year to year determine the services and funding allocations that will most effectively achieve the goals and outcomes in accordance with chapter 35.32A RCW.

Section 4. Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.

There is hereby established a Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board that shall advise and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council. The Board shall make recommendations on how and to what extent the Mayor and City Council should establish and/or fund programs and activities consistent with the intent of this ordinance that benefit Seattle's populations who experience the greatest education and health inequities. The Board shall make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on elements of an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Tax, including impacts on sweetened beverage sales and consumption, public attitudes towards sweetened beverage consumption, and job and economic indicators and of the process of implementing the tax. The Office of Sustainability and the Environment shall provide administrative support for the Board.

References

[1] Seattle City Council Resolution 31019: Local Food Action Plan (2008). https://clerk.seattle.gov/search/resolutions/31019.

[2] Seattle Farm to Preschool, "Seattle Farm to Preschool Community Report: Q1-Q4 2024"

[3] "Participating Preschools", About, Seattle Farm to Preschool, accessed March 28, 2025, https://farmtopreschoolseattle.org/participating-preschools

[4] "2023 Seattle Farm to Preschool Program Coordination and Food Procurement Request For Qualifications (RFQ)," January 30, 2023. https://www.seattle.gov/documents/departments/humanservices/funding/2023%20farm%20to%20preschool%20rfq/2023-f2p-coordination-rfq_guidelines_and_application.pdf.

[5] Seattle Farm to Preschool, "Seattle Farm to Preschool Community Report: Q1-Q4 2024"

[6] Suzumura, Leika, "Farm to Preschool Evaluation Report 2023", January 2024. https://www.google.com/search?q=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60fb018a06fad90e8044bc7c/t/65b2b92dc15263333169135c/1706211633819/N4L-F2P-2023-Evaluation-Report-Final.pdf

[7] Suzumura, Leika, "Farm to Preschool Evaluation Report 2023", January 2024. https://www.google.com/search?q=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60fb018a06fad90e8044bc7c/t/65b2b92dc15263333169135c/1706211633819/N4L-F2P-2023-Evaluation-Report-Final.pdf

[8] Tim Burgess. Ordinance 125324: Sweetened Beverage Tax, Pub. L. No. 118965, § Chapter 5.53, Seattle Municipal Code (2017). https://clerk.seattle.gov/search/ordinances/125324.

[9] Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board. "Sweetened Beverage Tax Annual Report 2023." Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board, 2023. https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SweetenedBeverageTaxCommAdvisoryBoard/FactSheets/Annual%20Reports/2023_SBT_Annual_Report_Final.pdf.