Home-grown meals
New program trying to connect schools, food producers
Two vital players in Washington’s food system are looking for mates and, according to Jennifer Hall, local food activist – and now a matchmaker – both are made for each other.
Hall is trying to connect local farmers with school food service employees to create long-term partnerships that provide students with nutritious foods while providing local growers with business.
“I’m not here to place orders,” she said. “My role is a facilitator and educator. I’m here to put people in touch with one another and brainstorm solutions to hurdles they may face in the future.”
Creating partnerships is the goal of the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, a nonprofit based in Mt. Vernon, Wash., which received $172,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support its “Fresh Food in Schools” project, and $90,000 from the Washington Women’s Foundation. The organization hired Hall last fall to serve as its Eastern Washington coordinator for three years.
The purpose of “Fresh Food in Schools” is to get schools to spend more of their food budgets on Washington-grown produce and facilitate the building of direct farmer-school relationships (i.e. removing distributors).
Hall first must choose interested schools and districts. Because of her limited time and resources (she is only funded for a 1/4 time position), Hall is seeking schools that are independently motivated to change their feeding programs and have strong support from active PTAs, school boards, and community members.
So far, the Othello, East Valley, and Northport school districts have committed to the program, as well as Spokane’s On Track Academy.
As soon as Hall fills her roster, she will begin introducing the schools to nearby farmers. At that point, she hopes participants will take the lead in creating long-term, sustainable systems that aren’t dependent on the grant’s support.
“The goal,” she explains, “is that by the time the grant period is over, enough time and effort has been invested that these relationships continue, and with their increased confidence and ability to network, they continue to move in this direction.”
Building strong relationships and problem-solving early is crucial, Hall explains, because adopting an entirely new food system won’t be easy.
Issues that Hall knows will arise include seasonality and availability – do the farmers have what the schools need, at the right time? Another is whether the school and staff are equipped to utilize fresh produce.
“Many schools have completely dismantled or not invested in the upkeep of their kitchens, as food has become more and more processed,” she said.
Rather than chopping, dicing, peeling and pitting, school nutrition staff sometimes simply unzips and re-heats. Some schools will need to transform kitchens and re-train staff to handle fresh food deliveries.
Because schools have become reliant on “modernized food” with an unnaturally long shelf life, there is less need for cold storage.
Hall doubts many schools are equipped to keep produce over the winter, like in a root cellar. So food service employees will need to learn appropriate purchasing levels and how to fully utilize their purchases to avoid waste.
The final obstacle is making sure farmers get a fair price.
“The budget that our country has for public school food is embarrassing and it forces people into minimally satisfying nutritional requirements,” she said.
Hall anticipates that each school will face unique challenges and that the key to overcoming these is for a surrounding community to discuss topics like, “What is our asset inventory as a community, not just as a school? How can we come together to help feed kids and support farmers?”
Possible collaborations could include using excess freezer space in a nearby company, or a restaurant donating used equipment.
Some schools are already implementing the program’s ideals with the help of the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Farm-to-School program. But this program was recently cut from the state’s 2011-2013 operating budget. Hall is making sure that she and the Farm-to-School staff pool resources and contacts.
Despite cuts in the state budget, Hall remains optimistic about the trend towards local foods in schools.
“Schools and the people who work there really do care about the health of kids, and now that they can borrow on the expertise of coordinators like myself, they may be able to overcome the hurdles that were preventing them from making more progress on their own. I believe that we can make a lot of progress.”