Branson partners with Chartwells School Dining Services to provide our students with a premium dining program. Our partnership includes a buy local program that supports a variety of environmental and socio-economic issues including:

• The preservation of the American family farm, agricultural landscape, open space and wildlife habitat. A series of academic studies indicate that American farms, owned and operated by family members as a primary income, are disappearing at a fast rate and that a majority of these farms will be gone by 2020. These farms also help keep the countryside open and undeveloped.

• The economic viability and food security of communities. Economic experts advise that the health of our communities is dependent on maintaining a viable local food supply. Small and medium size farms, typically family owned, contribute to local government budgets and to the ability to create wealth regionally. Also, there are some concerns that as a country we are losing the ability to feed ourselves as we become more dependent on foods from other countries.

• The protection of a biodiverse food system. Today’s industrial system focuses on varieties of produce for their ability to harvest well, to pack well, to ship well. They have long shelf life in the stores. Typically this means just a handful of rigorous hybrid varieties with very little genetic diversity. This is limiting our food supply to much fewer varieties and some are concerned that this increases our exposure to common plagues.

• The encouragement of sustainable farming methods. Small and medium scale farmers and ranchers are better able to act as conscientious stewards of their land. They tend to pay more attention to sensitive ecological zones on their farms and are more likely to use fewer chemicals.

• The reduction of our carbon footprint. Local foods travel an average of 45 miles before arriving at the dinner table, compared to the average of 1500 miles.