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Christina Muniz is a native Texan whose passion for sustainable food led her to the听

And that led to a听听at the in Durham where Muniz spent the summer crafting a document that will help make it easier for local farmers to get their food into New Hampshire public schools by becoming approved vendors of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Working with the, whose aim is to connect听Granite State farms with schools, Muniz produced听a clear, concise how-to brochure that cuts through the reams of red tape wrapped around the vendor application process.

The USDA spends about $2 billion a year on food for feeding programs, including the National School Lunch Program. Being an approved vendor would put some of that money in farmers鈥� pockets and fresh local food in school cafeterias.听

Working through the USDA鈥檚 Agricultural Marketing Service, farmers would have a guaranteed buyer: The AMS is a USDA subsidy that buys food (100 percent domestic) at market value and sells it to schools at a lesser rate.听

Currently there aren鈥檛 any New Hampshire food producers approved to sell to AMS. That doesn鈥檛 mean local farmers aren鈥檛 selling to schools; they are but the schools aren鈥檛 getting any help with the cost and farmers aren鈥檛 guaranteed they鈥檒l keep buying from them.

The problem, Muniz says, is the AMS鈥� multiple-step application process and the pages and pages of content that must be combed through to understand those many steps.

鈥淚t can be very daunting,鈥� Muniz says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a long process 鈥� not difficult but long. It鈥檚 pretty time consuming; it鈥檚 taken me weeks to sort through it.鈥�

In an effort to simplify the procedure, Muniz spent the summer paring down the information on the USDA website into a 12-page document. New Hampshire Farm to School will help get the pamphlet to farmers. 听

鈥淚 wanted to create a user-friendly guide on how to connect with the USDA that says, 鈥楾his is what you need do鈥� so the farmer will think, 鈥極h, I can do that,鈥欌�� Muniz says.

That鈥檚 something of a personal philosophy 鈥� 鈥淚 can do that鈥� 鈥� for Muniz, who began her college career as an aerospace engineer. When it didn鈥檛 prove exciting enough, she switched to anthropology graduating with a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Texas A&M. She then spent two life-changing years as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Heifer International鈥檚 Overlook Farm in Massachusetts.

鈥淭hat taught me there was a whole other world out there,鈥� says Muniz, whose focus at UNH Law is on food and agriculture.

She followed the Heifer experience with an internship at the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., where she started expressing her passion in terms of how things should be, not how they were, leading people to say she should become a lawyer.

鈥淚t started to make sense to me,鈥� Muniz says. 鈥淭he logic of it.鈥�

She recalls an incident as an undergraduate taking those aerospace classes. A professor told the students that during the Apollo 13 crisis, someone at the Kennedy Space Center听dumped a box on the table and said the contents were the tools they had to fix the problem.

鈥淟aw is basically like that box the NASA engineers had to work with,鈥� the long-time San Antonio resident says. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 the box, here are the tools, figure it out. I like that kind of challenge.鈥�

Of the food brochure challenge, Muniz says, 鈥淚t took longer than I thought and was more cumbersome but it was worth it.

鈥淕etting farmers to sign on will take time. It won鈥檛 happen this year but maybe next. Local businesses and farms aren鈥檛 going to supply all the New Hampshire schools but they could supply more. And anything more is going to benefit everyone.鈥�

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