Expanding Farm to Cafeteria Connections with Harvest Preparation and Preservation Training

Expanding Farm to Cafeteria Connections with Harvest Preparation and Preservation Training

Summary

We are about halfway through our project, having offered 2 of 4 events to 42 food service workers from 15 institutions. Outcomes have exceeded our expectations with 92% of participants reporting new skills, new food use and new farmer connections. In addition, we have 4 farmers who are new to the project and 4 new products being utilized by participating cafeterias. In addition, 7 cafeterias worked together to develop a local foods entrée that has been tested and served to over 1300 students with great success. We have presented our methods and outcomes at 3 conferences and are also working with NYS Dept of Ag and Markets to ease the process for municipal cafeterias to purchase from local farms.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. 1. 4 sessions total: 3 training and 1 final evaluation/celebration event
   2. 20 participants per training session
   3. Increase in participating farms, cafeterias, preparation and preservation skills, local foods utilized.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. 2 training sessions were held in 2010: Anticipating the Fall Harvest at the New York Wine and Culinary Center (NYWCC) in July and Preserving the Fall Harvest at Bloomfield Central School (BCS) in October.

2. Anticipating Fall Harvest Training had 26 participants, and Preserving the Fall Harvest Preservation Training had 16 participants. We limited the second session as we used a smaller kitchen, at BCS, that had a Combi Oven. The New York Wine and Culinary Center did not have a Combi Oven or Convection Steamer for preserving the fall harvest. Participants were from 10 school districts, 2 human service agencies, 1 hospital, 1 college and 1 camp.

3. At the end of the sessions, 92% of the participants reported new technical skills (esp. knife and freezing skills), awareness of new products/recipes (esp. organic black beans in burgers and hummus, frittatas with seasonal vegetables, pasta primavera with seasonal vegetables, mini mirai corn, Muranda cheese), and connections to local farms (Cayuga Pure Organics Beanery, Soul Food Farm, Muranda Farm, Fish’s Farm

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

In addition to the new connections reported at the end of the training, all of the participants have since reported ordering increasing volumes of local fruits, vegetables, and black beans…as well as freezing broccoli, cauliflower and winter squash for winter use. We don’t yet have totals but at least 800 pounds of broccoli, 200 pounds of cauliflower and 70 pounds of winter squash were frozen by 7 school districts.

Made possible by a Rural Health Grant through Thompson Health (our local health system), these same 7 leading school districts formed a School Food Independence Committed led by Alyvia Burkey, a nutrition educator from the hospital. They took the black bean burger recipe we created in July and refined it and taste tested it with students. They ended up with a complete plant-based entrée, Black Bean Sliders with Spicy Mixed Fries (tex-mex seasonings baked on sweet potato and russet potato wedges) that have now been served in these 7 school districts as the primary entrée.
We have presented our methods and outcomes at three conferences: NYS Association of County Administrators, Growing Health: Rural Health Network of S. Central New York, and Diggin’ Diversity: NOFA-NY 2011 Winter Conference.

Ann McMahon, special assistant to, Darrel Aubertine, our new NYS Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, attended our NOFA-NY presentation. In our presentation we explain to Food Service Directors and Farmers how to work with the “Intent to Purchase Local Foods” notice that is required by law. At the end of the presentation Ann asked us to propose a way to make the notice helpful and inviting vs. onerous and discouraging for both the farmers and municipal food service directors. We are working on that right now.

Collaborators: