As school gardens grow across the country, school officials, food service directors, parents, and community members have raised questions about whether school garden produce may be served to students in their school lunch programs.

The good news is that nothing in federal law prohibits feeding students the produce they have grown (in fact, federal policy encourages schools to cultivate gardens and consume the produce) - and it is unlikely that state law would prohibit serving school produce. Provided that a school uses safe practices when establishing its garden and the school-grown produce is treated with the same care as produce from other sources, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Model Food Code" (which 49 of 50 states base their food retail codes upon) would not prohibit a school cafeteria from serving school garden produce. (Before serving school garden produce to students, a school should review state law to ensure it does not deviate from the Model Food Code in some way that would impact a school garden program.)

NPLAN's memo "Serving School Garden Produce in the Cafeteria" discusses federal laws and policies, the model version of the Food Code utilized by most states, and local policies that may bear on such programs.