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To promote fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among the Nation's schoolchildren, the Nutrition Programs Title of the 2002 Farm Act provided $6 million for USDA to award to schools through a Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program (FVPP) for the 2002-03 school year. The intent of the pilot was to determine the feasibility of such a program and its success as determined by the students' interest in participating:
- The FVPP provided fresh and dried fruits and fresh vegetables free to children in 107 elementary and secondary schools—100 schools in 4 States (25 each in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio) and 7 schools in the Zuni Indian Tribal Organization (ITO) in New Mexico.
- Pilot funds were allocated to each school on a per student basis, amounting to $94 per student.
ERS evaluated the pilot based on analyses of administrative school records, December reports, February reports, site visits to schools, focus groups, interviews, and a conference of pilot program managers, other pilot staff, and policy stakeholders. (see Evaluation of the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program: Report to Congress).
Most participating schools considered the pilot program to be very successful and felt strongly that the pilot should continue. The pilot included only schools that volunteered and applied to participate, and thus, they may not be representative of nonpilot schools. Pilot sites were, however, chosen to represent a mix of large and small; rural, suburban, and urban; and elementary, middle, and high schools. The participating schools also included students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and family income levels, based on the proportion of students certified as eligible for free and reduced-price lunches.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 made the Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program permanent. The Act also provided for expanding the program, now known as the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), to three States (Washington, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania) and two Indian reservations (one or more tribes belonging to the Intertribal Council of Arizona and the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota). The FY 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Act (Sec. 779) further expanded the program by adding funding for six new States—Utah, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut, and Idaho.
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