Advancing Supply Chain Transparency in California's Farm to School Programs
Project Reflect, in partnership with SupplyChange LLC, conducted a comprehensive research project to provide deeper understanding of the current state of supply chain transparency in California's school food system. The work resulted in contributions to the 2025 California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program Evaluation Report, with a longer report to be released in the near future.
The project identified key levers for change across different actors in the system, including school food authorities and districts, farmers and producers, aggregators and distributors, and policymakers, and recommended implementable strategies to enhance transparency. Through numerous interviews and research, the team explored both the real and perceived barriers preventing transparency from the farm level through to students' plates.
The research process included:
Reviewing state and federal policy examples that address supply chain transparency and public access to information
Coordinating with the Farm to School Evaluation Team's planned interviews with food service directors and grantees, adding questions relevant to transparency for both self-operated programs and those working with food service management companies
Conducting stakeholder interviews with distributors, food hubs, labor representatives, and policy makers to assess barriers and identify opportunities for developing a transparent supply chain beneficial to all actors
Interviewing organizations involved in supply chain transparency to understand why transparency has remained challenging
The project developed a menu of potential policies and strategies that could contribute to supply chain transparency for school food programs and public institutions more broadly. Greater transparency will enable the state to understand producer-level impacts of procurement through the Farm to School Grant Program, allow school districts to intentionally invest in farms that align with their values, support better business practices for distributors, and empower caregivers with information about how students are nourished in schools.
Throughout the research and design process, the Project Team collaborated closely with the Evaluation Team to ensure insights from stakeholder interviews and research findings informed solutions that were meaningful, implementable, and just.