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Minneapolis – The popularity of farm-to-school programs that put locally grown food on cafeteria trays has exploded in recent years – so much so that the federal agency in charge of school lunches is giving them a new stamp of approval.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the programs have become so popular so fast that her agency doesn’t have solid figures on how many schools are serving their students vegetables, fruits and meat grown by local farmers.

“We know it’s just snowballing,” Merrigan said in an interview with The Associated Press before her appearance Tuesday at the School Nutrition Association convention in Nashville, Tenn.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture used the convention to release a new report on what works in farm-to-school programs, what doesn’t and what the agency can do to help them work better. The report was put together by a USDA team that traveled to 15 school districts across the country and comes as officials, including first lady Michelle Obama, are promoting the importance of healthier food for kids.

“First, it is about bringing fresh locally grown food into school cafeterias,” Merrigan said. “So there’s the yummy factor, the good nutrition factor. … Number two, we believe it provides good market opportunities for local producers, particular those midsize farmers that are struggling to make a go of it. This is a real opportunity for them to increase the bottom line in their farming operations. So it’s about rural economic development.”

Third, she said, farm-to-school programs help connect people with where their food comes from, how it’s produced and by whom.

“We know that children are very disconnected from agriculture … literally thinking food comes from a grocery store,” Merrigan said. But many schools use farm-to-school programs to work agriculture into the curriculum, she said, transforming the lunchroom into a classroom.