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Farm-to-school programs connect local agricultural producers directly with school cafeterias, aiming to replace processed, long-shelf-life ingredients with fresher regional produce. Beyond nutritional benefits, supporters argue these programs strengthen local economies by creating a stable, predictable buyer for small farms, which often struggle to compete with large-scale distributors on price alone. Implementation, however, is uneven: schools in regions with a short growing season face gaps in local supply during winter months, forcing them to either revert to processed alternatives seasonally or invest in preservation infrastructure such as canning and cold storage. Some districts have addressed this by pairing with regional food hubs that aggregate produce from multiple small farms, smoothing out supply inconsistencies that a single farm could not manage alone. Evaluations suggest the programs succeed most reliably where such aggregation infrastructure already exists.