Expanding Farm to Cafeteria Connections with Harvest Preparation and Preservation Training

Expanding Farm to Cafeteria Connections with Harvest Preparation and Preservation Training

Summary

We have completed all 4 of our events; 3 training events with 60 participants and one final celebration with over 1,200 participants. Since our last report, we offered a Savor the Spring Harvest training, with 18 participants, 100% of whom reported learning new useable, local foods recipes, 83% reported learning technical skills, and 89% reported new farmer connections. We also hosted our final celebration at Ontario County Fun on the Farm. The celebration took a different form that we originally anticipated, in an attempt to directly reach thousands of parents and students vs. solely reaching out to Food Service Directors. It was a success. We served over a thousand servings of local food recipes and 77% of those we surveyed said they would make the food at home and 50% said they would ask for it at school. We also surveyed all participating cafeterias about the usage of their new skills, foods and farmer contacts 6-12 months post-training and are still awaiting responses from 7 of 17 cafeterias.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. 4 sessions total: 3 training and 1 final evaluation/celebration event – All 4 SESSIONS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED
2. 20 participants per training session – COMPLETED on average (26, 16, and 18 participants over 3 training sessions)
3. Increase in participating farms, cafeterias, preparation and preservation skills, local foods utilized. – COMPLETED (see below for details)

Accomplishments/Milestones

One Training Event, Savor our Spring Harvest, was held at the New York Wine and Culinary Center on April 14th, 2001. We had 18 participants, 18 of whom reported learning new recipes that they felt were usable in their cafeteria, 15 reported learning new technical skills, 16 reported connecting to new farms.

New recipes included Strawberry Spinach Salad, Asparagus Soup, Quinoa Asparagus Salad, Dressed Asparagus, Spring Vegetable Frittata, Honey Mustard Dressing, and Fruit/Yogurt parfaits. We also connected with another NESARE Farmer grant funded project, Small-scale commercial Juneberry establishment and marketing and utilized local Juneberries in the parfaits and a “Mystery Basket” contest, where participants created new recipes on the fly from ingredients found in their baskets. The trainers/chefs and a NYWCC educator judged the contest, which was great learning and fun for all. Trainers/chefs included Todd Fowler, Food Service Director of Bloomfield Central School and Eric Smith, Chef/Instructor, NYWCC.

New technical skills included knife skills (making garlic paste, slicing cherry tomatoes, etc.), making a vinaigrette (emulsification), making a roux (for cream soup base), making a reduction sauce with berries, cooking new grains (quinoa and millet), using a food processor.

Our Final Celebration was originally planned to be a summer celebration to sample more local foods and capture the progress, successes and challenges of this project through program evaluations and dialogue. Over the course of the project we determined that we usually attract 1 or 2 new cafeterias and 1 or 2 new farms to each training event. For our final celebration we began considering how we could reach out to more cafeterias and farms. Our CCE contacts suggested that we exhibit at the Ontario County Fun on the Farm Event in the Fall. After some research, we decided to do 2 things:

a. Invite all program participants to join us at Fun on the Farm, where we would reach out to thousands of parents and school children directly, to get them engaged in the Fingerlakes Farm to Cafeteria efforts.
b. Email survey/phone follow up with our existing cafeterias and farms to track post-training use of local foods

FUN ON THE FARM: September 24th, 2011. We had two booths. One booth was a tabletop display highlighting the benefits of Fingerlakes Farm to Cafeteria, and large maps indicating the locations of our participating farms and cafeterias. There was also an activity for people to indicate with pushpins where there last fruit or vegetable came from. Of the people who participated, the results were: 19-Farm Market, 26-HomeGarden, 15-Farm Stand, 32-Store, 3-CSA, 2-Upick . There were over 4,000 attendees at the event.

Our other booth featured a cornucopia of local produce, and we prepared and served samples of 3 recipes made with local ingredients; Raw Fruit Tart (raw crust too), Taboulleh, and Basil Pesto on baguettes with fresh mozzarella. We served over 1200 food samples and surveyed 195 tasters. 183 tried a new food they had never had before. 77% said they would make it at home and 50% said they would ask for it at school. All tasters received the recipes and contact information for FingerLakes Farm to Cafeteria. We did connect with 3 new regional school cafeterias at the event, and many people learned that their cafeterias already participate in Fingerlakes Farm to Cafeteria.

EMAIL SURVEY: Results to be finalized late winter

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

In addition to the impacts reported above, we have surely increased student and parental awareness about the benefits of buying and eating local foods through the Fun on the Farm Event. Also, all participating cafeterias have requested their produce distributor to prioritize local foods in their orders, in addition to their direct farm purchases. Press and presentations included:
PRESS:
Two articles in the Canandaigua Daily Messenger
Two articles in New York State School Nutrition Association magazine, FOCUS
One article in “Country Folks” West edition (NYS farming magazine)
One article in Edible Finger Lakes Magazine
PRESENTATIONS (In addition to the presentations mentioned in our last annual report):
Saratoga County CCE
Wyoming County Economic Development Board
GLOW (Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming) ASBO (Association of School Business Officials)
Farm to School Day at NYS Fair – Prepared/Served local foods samples in the AgPod
Naples Central School – Talks with 5 Senior High Health Classes about the benefits of eating local and starting a Local Food Revolution Club.
Ontario County Agriculture Enhancement Board

Collaborators: