Downeast Maine Farm to School

During the fall and winter of 2008-2009, Healthy Acadia staff conducted a series of surveys and interviews with school and institutional food services in Hancock and Washington Counties in an effort to answer questions about readiness to purchase local foods and available infrastructure. Schools (K-12) and other institutions in the two-county region were targeted with survey and interview tools. After the surveys were returned, the staff conducted follow up interviews on site with ten schools and nine institutions that completed the survey.

Twenty-six school food service directors, most representing single schools and some representing multiple schools completed the survey (fifty percent return rate); two higher educational institutions also completed the survey. The majority of respondents were located in Hancock County and one third was in Washington County.

The survey revealed the level of readiness and needs of schools to buy local foods from farmers. The majority of respondents have purchased local food in the past (18 schools (69%) and 9 institutions (56%)). Half of survey respondents indicated that they are “very interested” (5 on a scale of 1-5) in serving locally-grown foods in their cafeterias, with an additional third ranking their interest at a level of 4. Schools are most interested in buying local produce (cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, lettuce and bell peppers ranked the highest); institutions are interested in buying a variety of local food (bell peppers, cucumbers, chicken, apples, onions/garlic, summer squash, spinach, beef, turkey, bread, and flour ranked the highest)

Schools indicated that a regular product and price list from farmers is key and they need assistance from the farm to school coordinator to access kid-friendly recipes featuring local foods and create connections with local farms.
Storage and budget are barriers to purchasing local foods; motivations for farm to school are the interest in supporting local farmers and feeding students healthy food.

In general, most of the surveyed schools and institutions would like to increase local purchases. They may not have the capacity to expand programs currently (budget and storage restraints), but if those barriers are overcome and if connections to local producers are made these programs can grow.

Healthy Acadia contracted with the Down East Business Alliance of the Washington Hancock Community Agency to interview four farmers who have participated in farm to school purchasing. The assessment revealed that farmers are motivated to sell food to schools so that children in their community have access to fresh healthy food. The farms have created on-going relationships with schools that include selling food to school kitchens, hosting farm tours, and inviting students to help harvest foods. Farmers recognize the challenges of breaking through institutional barriers to sell to schools and competing with the prices of commodities. Based on the interviews, the Down East Business Alliance recommended that farmers learn to track their costs and price their foods accordingly. If participating farmers cost their foods appropriately they will see greater financial benefits to selling to schools.

Healthy Acadia joined with the Ellsworth-area Youth Obesity Think Tank to host a series of peer learning workshops for school food service providers in Hancock County. The first workshop was held on November 13, 2008, and a subsequent workshop occurred on February 5, 2009. Children’s health was the overall theme for each workshop along with several other topics including local foods and engaging students in hands-on food projects.

School food service staff from fifteen schools attended the first workshop in November to share resources and ideas about using and getting students involved in hands-on work with fresh foods. The February workshop included strategies for conducting taste-tests of local foods and students presented on their experiences with science-based service-learning food activities. At the close of the workshop, the teachers and food service workers that participated reflected on the importance and opportunities of involving students in school food systems. These peer-learning discussions were useful and enjoyable for participating food service staff.

Many of the school food services in Washington County are purchasing local foods and integrating food into the curriculum for the first time, and as they do so they are helping each other. Examples of peer learning activities in Washington County include a farm to school workshop and garden project. The farm to school workshop in 2008 (detailed below) that Healthy Acadia hosted brought together four different schools to talk about how to start purchasing from local producers and to inspire each other’s programs. Two schools in Washington County are working together to create a shared school garden. Shead High School and Elm Street Elementary School started meeting this summer with the farm to school coordinator in Washington County to create a plan for a school garden. In the spring of 2010, these schools will break ground on a garden that will provide food for the cafeteria and inspiration for the curriculum.

Healthy Acadia’s Farm to School Project provided assistance to several schools to apply for the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable grant program in spring of 2009. This well-timed effort - it was the first time this funding was made available in Maine - led to the successful funding of programs at eleven schools in Hancock County and seven schools in Washington County (there were fifty awards statewide). Because of Healthy Acadia’s work, most of the awarded applications included plans for local foods purchasing and those schools are now connected to farmers to purchase produce for the program (including blueberries, plums and apples). To further support the initiative for more fresh foods in schools, Healthy Acadia held a school-wide apple taste-test. At the event, a farmer presented five different varieties of apples to students in grades K-12 at Mount Desert Elementary. During the apple tasting, one student was overheard commenting to a peer, “This is the best day ever!”

This spring, Healthy Acadia staff had the chance to provide technical assistance to schools as they collected information about the readiness and infrastructure capacity of schools to buy local foods described above. The interviews provided space for the farm to school coordinators to talk to food service staff about program expansion. This fall, many of the staff from schools that were interviewed will be purchasing more local food as a result of the conversations.

In 2008, Healthy Acadia also helped organize a new Washington County Farm to School Committee in collaboration with the Washington County: One Community Coalition. Several schools and farms sent representatives to the first farm to school workshop in that county (thirty people attended). Participation in the workshop has built significant momentum for initiating farm to school purchasing in this rural county. Healthy Acadia helped the committee develop funding sources for a locally-based farm to school coordinator. The coordinator has been working to connect farms and schools (she created a directory of farmers) and build the capacity of schools to buy local food. She has convened and facilitated six meetings with school principals, superintendents, food service directors and teachers. Those connections will continue to be supported and conversations with additional community members have been initiated. In addition the coordinator collaborates with several federal and local agencies including Cooperative Extension, Soil and Water Conservation District, University of Maine, Downeast Business Alliance, and Washington County Food Alliance. As a result of her work, a school garden received grant funding for garden tools and two schools will be serving a local lunch this fall for the first time. Three Washington County schools will be participating in the Maine Harvest Lunch program, a day where locally sourced foods are offered on the school menu and curriculum is provided for grades K-8.