The week of May 26, 2008, we got beets with tops, head lettuce, potatoes, radishes, spring onions, herb and white mushrooms.

One of my favorite resources is Local Harvest. Each year, they help us gather the data for the CSA article that we prepare for the Washington Post food section, which may be how you first learned of Sandy Spring CSA. They are a wonderful support to local growers of produce, meats, dairy and other local edible and non-edible items. They also have a regular newsletter.

In the May issue, they led me to this most interesting group, “Northwest Earth Institute (NEI), an organization that publishes discussion courses: six week’s worth of conversation starters including readings, questions, quotations, and ideas for taking action. Their most recent course book is called Menu for the Future, and it’s all about food. The materials are thoughtfully selected and presented, and the perspective is wide: the cultural, social and ecological aspects of food choices are all explored, with an emphasis on personal choices.”

If you care about healthy food and eating and are a “book group” type, this might be a fun alternative to explore and help raise consciousness about the challenges before us, related to our food.

In case you are a take-action kind of person and have school kids, you may be interested in Farm To School. It is a relatively new movement to bring healthy local food into school cafeterias, which isn’t as easy as you might think. Turns out in MD, for example, there are no programs in place yet, according to this website. There are some in other states.

However, a new law was passed to help encourage this idea get started in MD schools. The Jane Lawton Farm-to-School Program or State Bill 158 was passed last winter and “will promote the sale of nutritious locally grown farm goods to our schools; solicit farmers to participate and keep a database of those participating along with their farm products and harvest schedules; connect school systems and farmers; and establish “Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week” to arrange for educational interaction between students and farmers, including field trips and in-school presentations, and other promotional events.”

To learn how your child’s school might participate, you could contact the lead agency for the Mid-Atlantic. Tegan Hagy, The Food Trust, Philadelphia, PA (215)575-0444