School-Supported Agriculture for Downeast Maine

School-Supported Agriculture for Downeast Maine

Summary

Over the past year, we have served more than 50 schools and 70 farms. We estimate over 3,000 Washington County and over 4,000 Hancock County students have been reached, either by eating fresh local foods in their school cafeterias, participating in a new school garden, or receiving food systems lessons from our coordinators. We publish over 70 farms in our Downeast Directory of Producers, which is distributed to school cooks bi-annually. We have also worked closely with over 20 farms to connect them directly to school markets.

Our participating partners have included the University of Maine Cooperative Extension agencies in Hancock and Washington Counties, the Maine Farm to School Network, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, College of the Atlantic, Woodlawn Museum, FoodCorps and Washington County: One Community Coalition.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Objective 1: Prepare farms and schools with information.
(Project leader will prepare a guide for farmers with purchasing, delivery and payment requirements for school food service.)

We have prepared a draft of the Downeast Farm to School Guide for Farmers, with best practices based on our local experience as well that of other groups statewide and nationally. This will be printed and distributed ahead of the spring 2012 growing season. We had expected to publish this guide earlier however it was put on hold when the Maine Farm to School Workgroup, on which our Hancock County Coordinator serves, began planning a statewide guide with similar goals. We have recently realized that because of changes to the statewide guide, it will not serve our local needs and we are now near completion of our own local guide, expected out by March 1st.

(A print version of the farmer directory will be updated and distributed to sixty schools. Project leader will also prepare recipes and seasonal menus that spotlight and maximize local vegetable use in school lunches.)
In 2010 we published a revised second edition of the Farm to School Directory of Food Producers; providing 80 schools and 10 institutions with direct access to more than 70 local producers in Hancock and Washington counties. A third edition of the directory has been prepared and reformatted with the help of two College of the Atlantic students. This version will be printed and distributed in time for the spring 2012 SSA agreement season. Recipes and menus are regularly shared with school cooks.

Objective 2: Solidify strong partnerships between schools and farms.

(The project leader and Washington County Farm to School Coordinator will convene meetings between farmers and school cooks to introduce and solidify SSA agreements. Ten schools will agree to enter into SSA agreements with farms in the first stage. Over the course of the agreement, the project leader and coordinator will provide technical assistance to participating schools and farms.)
Twenty three schools entered into School Supported Agriculture (SSA) agreements in 2010 to purchase product from 14 farms, enabling school cooks to contract and pre-order in spring for six weeks of fall produce deliveries, reducing barriers and increasing revenue for local farms. In 2011, fourteen schools entered into formal agreements. Part of the reason for the drop in SSAs was good news: several schools indicated that because of the strong relationships we helped them build in 2010 with their farmer, they no longer required organizational assistance to contact the farmer and set up expectations for fall purchasing. This is exactly the leadership we hope to instill in the cooks in our region. Unfortunately some of the 2010 SSA schools decided not to participate. This was in large part due to working with farmers who were unable to properly fulfill expectations in 2010.

In Washington County, only two farmers delivered produce to schools during the fall of 2010 for a total sales revenue to farmers of $500. This year, four farmers delivered produce to four schools resulting in over $1000 in local sales. These four farms, with their schools, are stable in their desire to continue selling to schools and/or to increase the volume of and length of time for sales. One of the farms is still selling cabbage in January and the other indicated that they could still be selling greens and other crops to their school since the addition of a greenhouse to their operation for winter production.

Given the very small number of large-scale vegetable operations in Washington County, this is a positive trend. Several new farms that were not previously involved have already come forward expressing an interest in selling to schools in the fall of 2012. One of these farms had so much produce this fall that they were selling their surplus to Hannaford supermarkets before they contacted farm to school staff, who then contacted multiple schools to purchase their surplus root crops.

This year, we anticipate involving this and 2 other new farms in SSA agreements with three new schools bringing the total number of Washington County SSA agreements up to seven. While initially having high expectations of farmer involvement, we are now developing stable relationships that will be sustained over the long-term.

Similarly in Hancock County, our coordinator has recruited two new farmers who appear ready and able to form positive purchasing relationships with schools. One is located near a school district comprising four schools that does not currently have a local farm that can reliably supply produce to the cafeterias. That farmer and Food Service Director have already met and are eager to begin an SSA relationship this spring.

We have found that some schools and farms face significant infrastructure barriers to implementing truly robust Farm to School programs. In the case of schools, many lack cold and/or dry storage that would allow them to purchase local farm products in bulk thus reducing their costs. Additional storage would also help schools to capture produce from their own gardens when they are in bloom as well as from local farms at the height of the season when prices are lowest. Many farms in our region lack season extension equipment such as dedicated hoop houses and cold frames, which would allow them to produce more food in late spring, fall and into the winter months when school is in session. We would like to develop a seed grant program to help fund this type of equipment. Having funds dedicated to directly supporting school kitchens and farms in their efforts to participate in our program likely will result in more committed Farm to School purchasing relationships.

(After an evaluation of the pilot project, the project leader will write a best practices guide for farmers and school cooks. Then she will hold a farmer workshop to generate more support for the program and expand the number of schools and farms participating in SSA agreements. In the second stage of SSA agreements, the goal is for twenty schools to enter into contracts with local farmers.)
Washington County FTS coordinator attends monthly county Food Alliance meetings to stay connected with conventional and organic farmers and most are aware of the opportunities that exist to develop wholesale school markets. Specific FTS presentations to the farming community have been limited due to busy farmer schedules but the coordinator’s presence at the regular meetings fulfills the objective to generate more support for the SSA program. One on one farmer outreach, recruitment, and education continue to be important and ongoing priorities in both counties.

Washington County FoodCorps member is currently working with the Washington County Food Alliance to co-convene a late spring 2012 Farmland Preservation Presentation with representatives from regional land trusts, Maine Farmland Trust and others to discuss farmland availability to new aspiring farmers.

As mentioned above, the guide for farmers will be printed and distributed to farmers in the coming weeks.

Objective 3: Build community awareness and disseminate program progress.

(Prepare and distribute outreach materials for school staff to provide parents (i.e., a flier about the SSA program and the farmer selling to the school); create a media advocacy campaign that will reach across the two-county region (i.e., regional and area press releases and two radio interviews with participating farmers))

Farmers were given a one-page SSA introduction in the spring and then FTS staff sent email reminders and contacted farmers at the start of the fall delivery schedule. Colorful posters were distributed to all participating schools which included a farmer photo, information about their farm and what produce items would be delivered to the school.

We shared best practices with community planners and organizers at three 2010 statewide conferences: the Maine Planning Association, the Healthy Maine Partnerships, and MOFGA’s Farmer to Farmer conference.

We facilitated media outreach resulting in numerous articles in weekly papers, Healthy Acadia’s e-newsletter, and a Farm to School radio broadcast on WERU Community Radio; raising awareness among parents, school officials and the community at large.

(Write a guide to using SSA contract agreements and distribute it through the Northeast and the National Farm to School network and Maine Local Foods Coalition.)
We have not written a formal guide but we have presented our SSA model practices and lessons learned at regional events to publicize the model to the wider community. Additionally, we have provided collaborative leadership to launch the Maine Farm to School Network. Our Hancock County Coordinator serves as the Downeast District Representative to the Network, collecting contact information of those involved in Farm to School from each school to facilitate information sharing and collaboratively organizing a statewide Farm to School Conference in May.

Though the Maine Farm to School Workgroup, our Hancock County Coordinator collaboratively hosted a Maine Farm to School Intern with two other organizers, providing support to the intern to design, conduct, and analyze a survey of local foods procurement across all schools in Maine.

Both the Network and the Workgroup provide effective platforms for our coordinators to share experiences, tools, and best practices with other farm to school leaders in Maine.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Winter 2011:
– Convened a Washington County Food Service Professional Development workshop with over 25 attendees.

Spring 2011:
– Facilitated 14 SSA agreements between schools and farms.
– Taught School Garden 101 in Washington County, and 201 in Hancock County in partnership with UMaine Cooperative Extension.

Summer 2011:
– Launched Maine Farm to School Network
– Secured FoodCorps position for Washington County* (see below for more information)

Fall 2011:
– Provided technical support to farmers and school cooks to ensure successful fulfillment of SSA agreements.
– Appeared on WERU Talk of the Towns radio show featuring the Downeast Food Heritage Collaborative (DEFHC), which we founded with College of the Atlantic and The Woodlawn Museum
– Organized “Apple Week” festivities with DEFHC including public events and hands-on cider pressing and education in 16 schools

*FoodCorps Summary: In 2011 University of Maine Cooperative Extension led the application process and successfully brought six FoodCorps members to Maine, one of only ten states. FoodCorps is a brand new national AmeriCorps initiative with a mission to empower a new generation of leaders to connect children to healthy food. FoodCorps envisions a nation of well-nourished children: children who know what healthy food is, how it grows and where it comes from, who have access to it every day.

Healthy Acadia is one of the six Maine service sites, and we are happy to have welcomed Dana Stevens to the Washington County-based position in August. Dana is working closely with our part-time Washington County Farm to School Coordinator. Her full-time volunteer position is adding much needed community capacity to build Farm to School in Maine’s most impoverished county. After two years of building farm to school programming in Washington County, Healthy Acadia has found schools are ready to receive the hands-on-the-ground support that our FoodCorps volunteer provides. Dana’s role involves expanding existing gardens and greenhouses, establishing new gardens in schools that are ready, doing taste test recipe events, organizing Maine Harvest Lunch events, and integrating new curricular resources at area schools. She is currently working in five schools, serving over 600 children, and more schools are requesting her support every week.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Over the past year, we have served more than 50 schools and 70 farms, helping to strengthen commitments and systems within schools to support ongoing local foods purchasing. We estimate over 3,000 Washington County and over 4,000 Hancock County students have been reached, either by eating fresh local foods in their school cafeterias, participating in a new school garden, or receiving food systems lessons from our coordinators. Nearly 2,500 students received fresh local produce in the fall of 2011 as a result of the SSA agreements made and an additional 300 students received occasional deliveries of fresh surplus produce as a result of additional sales by the SSA farmers to additional schools.

Collaborators: