Farm to School Independence Area Chapter
School Garden at East Elementary 1 st Grade Class Planted zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and one field corn. (also, maybe, onions) Students made zucchini bread and mashed potatoes in the classroom using the vegetables from the garden!
Garden Tomatoes! Enough tomatoes were ready so we could offer them to each student at East Elementary in the school lunch last August!
Zucchini from the Garden Micki Sand-Cohen shows off one of many zucchini she harvested from her 1 st grade garden. Using school garden produce, Micki made zucchini bread with her class, as well as mashed potatoes.
May 2009 7 th Grade Field Trip to Three Local Farms This photo was taken at Applecart Orchard in Vinton. Allen Israel is talking to the students about his orchard practices. In 08-09 school year, we served apples from this orchard at over 10 meals to every student at every school and this year they were on the menu at least 6 times. Students also visited Hansen s Dairy in Hudson and Priebe Family Organic Farm that supplied the district with fresh green beans on at least 2 occasions last fall. We will be taking the 7 th graders to the same three farms this May.
F2S in the Classroom Recently, we ve had a local dairy farmer and cheese maker visit one of our 1 st grade classrooms to show how Fresh Mozzarella is made. Mark Armstrong from Acoustic Farms in Springville will also be supplying us with fresh Mozzarella Curds on April 23 rd in the school lunches!
Over 40 Volunteers came to our school 3 times and cleaned more than 3000 ears of corn! Local Sweet Corn!
More Sweet corn We cleaned, blanched and froze 1200 ears of sweet corn (right on the cob), to be served on the school s menu in January. We cleaned corn for the school s lunches twice last fall to be served fresh. It was a big hit!
Volunteers! In June, 2009, volunteers cleaned 200 lbs. Of fresh Bagge strawberries to be frozen and served with yogurt and graham cracker crumbs in August.
More Volunteers! Volunteers sliced 140 lbs. Of fresh zucchini to be frozen, and shredded over 30 lbs. To be frozen and used in zucchini bread. It s April and we recently served the last of these locally purchased items!
We couldn t have done it without them Volunteers also helped clean and snap enough fresh green beans to be served on at least 3 menu days last fall. We also froze some of the beans and have served them several times this past winter. When some of my kitchens needed help prepping the baby red potatoes, we had a volunteer come in to help cut them into wedges.
Local Vegetables!
Signage
Apples from Applecart Orchard
11 Local Growers Supplied us with These Local Foods: Apples Carrots Strawberries Green Beans Red and Green Cabbage (coleslaw) Leafy green lettuce Fresh Spinach Fresh Rosemary and Thyme Watermelon Baby Red Potatoes Broccoli Sweet corn Cherry Tomatoes (HS Salad Bar) Zucchini Yellow Squash Tomatoes Cucumbers Green and Red Peppers Yukon Gold Potatoes Protein Items: Buffalo Hot Dogs Mozzarella Curds
Let s Talk Money! We serve about 1100 lunches a day. This school year so far, we ve spent $6543.42 on local products. From August-November, about 7% of our food costs were from locally purchased items. I took a look at how much we would have spent on the same or comparable food items had we purchased them from Martin Brothers. We spent approximately $1,056.49 more than we normally would have spent. To put this in perspective for our district, it boils down to $.03 per meal served.
What Else Have We Done? Lots of Exposure! We ve been out there, tooting our own horn through newspaper and magazine articles, local newsletter articles, TV, radio and on the internet. Why? We have met most of our local producers because they have seen us on TV or read about us in an article! Help each other out by getting together and talking about your programs. Speak out! We keep our eyes open for what is going on in the government regarding F2S funding and other F2S programs. Call, write, or e-mail your representatives and let them know you want them to support F2S efforts. Look for grants. We recently received a local grant from the Farm Bureau for $200.00 that will go towards our 7 th grade F2S field trip.
What else. We ve altered our menu layout to accommodate a whole column dedicated to Farm to School information. We put signage up on every lunch line where local foods are served We are trying to employ a Farm to School Education Coordinator, someone intended to spend brief moments with each classroom in the school district, specifically to talk to students about F2S. This person would also work with students in the school garden. Attend conferences and workshops. More and more will get done and be learned the more we all talk about F2S and how exactly to make it work. Take pictures! Try to get your teachers and Administrators involved. Start a F2S e-mail list. Write F2S articles for school newsletter. Include F2S in my Board Report each month.
Our Future Permanent, Full-time, F2S Coordinator. Monthly Farmer s Market held at one of our schools, featuring our F2S Growers. This would be a place where parents can come and purchase the food that their kids have been eating in the school lunch line. Partner with local grocery store to feature our local growers and let the community know that the school and that store are supporting local growers. Multiple local foods dinners, done either as fund raisers, or just to share information with others who support local food efforts. Two gardens, one for teaching and one for the school s lunch program. Ideally, there would be someone in charge of both, who would coordinate volunteers and a garden club to maintain the plants and the grounds. More field trips. More visits to the classroom from our growers. The possibilities are endless!
Barriers Time constraints with prepping fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. Solution: volunteers train your staff well! equipment purchases add hours to your staffing see if growers are able to lightly process some items for you (see your state consultant to tell you what lightly processed means.)
Barriers Cost Keep a running spreadsheet of your expenditures and see if cost is really a significant issue. Solution: grants raise lunch prices grow your own find growers that are willing to work with you a little on price purchase seconds purchase in season when prices are lower, freeze what you can t use.
Barriers Bid process is too complicated Solution: Talk to your state consultant Make a spec sheet for every fruit and vegetable you plan to purchase Make a standardized bid sheet for your growers to use and return to you Hold a bid meeting once in the spring to talk to growers about what you expect regarding delivery, cleanliness, quality, etc. Bid means checking multiple growers prices for smaller school districts, this is an informal process, not a full fledged formal bid.
Barriers I don t have time to do all of this. Solution: Start Small! Seek possible grant money or Americorps to help fund a position Find supporters/volunteers to help Prioritize as needed it s ok to pick up F2S after you ve gotten through your other priorities Ask yourself, how dedicated am I going to be to this?