Local schools will soon be able to buy more locally grown meat and produce for their lunch programs, thanks to a measure that finished its legislative journey this week and now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it.

And we can only wonder why it took this long to launch a program that has so much going for it -- both for our farmers and students. It's aptly named the "Local Farms-Healthy Kids Act."

Basically, it smoothes bureaucratic tangles to allow school and farms to participate in a state-sponsored program to get local meat and produce to the schools -- whether or not the commodities are the cheapest available.

Schools would not have to go through a competitive bidding process when they make large purchases of food that was grown and processed in Washington state.

The farm-to-school program would be administered by the state Department of Agriculture. The office of state Superintendent of Public Instruction would handle a grant program to facilitate consumption of Washington-grown products.

The benefit to Central Washington -- one of the most diverse agriculture areas in the world -- is obvious in matters of both health and economy.

* Our farmers and growers produce just about anything that would be important components of any healthy diet at school -- fruit, vegetables, meat, you name it.

* Testimony during committee hearings on the bill revealed that schools in the state spend more than $300 million per year on food. It's just plain common sense that we try to keep those dollars in the state.

It will take awhile to get the details ironed out and the program up and running, but once it is, the potential for good is enormous. Lawmakers approved spending $1.5 million to implement the program, but this is one expenditure that had multiple returns on investment.

The Associated Press noted earlier in a story we carried that the measure has had overwhelming support from not only majority Democrats and environmentalists, but from Republicans and farmers as well.

"It's motherhood and apple pie, supporting local farmers at the same time getting fresh fruits and vegetables, Washington-produced, on the table," said Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum.

All nine of the Central Washington legislators in the 13th, 14th and 15th districts supported the bill which, once signed by the governor, takes effect 90 days after Thursday's scheduled adjournment of the legislative session.

Lawmakers get a lot of flak, some of it justified, during their sessions. But we'd like to point out that this is one they got right.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee.