Increasing Farms Sales Through Harvest of the Month

Increasing Farms Sales Through Harvest of the Month

Summary

We are 9 months into our grant period and are 1/3 of the way to our list serve membership goals. The identified fall season farm to cafeteria sales of more than $28,000 in 8 cafeterias are on track to exceed the $40,000 annual estimated farm to cafeteria sales from 11 cafeterias reported in 2010 as part of CNE 10-069. Given the significant weather and regulatory challenges faced by farmers and food service directors, less progress has been made in fostering communication between farmers and food service directors and engaging farmers and food service directors in the new Harvest of the Month initiative intended to expand the breadth and seasonality of farm products served to expand the volume and consistency of farm to cafeteria sales.

From August to November 2012, 10 e-blasts were distributed to a list of interested food services directors, farmers, distributors, and restaurateurs starting at 12 and expanding to 40. Recently the distribution list has been expanded to include approximately 50 additional contacts, who have not yet had contact with the project leader to express interest in the program.

Our end of year survey received information from 10 food service directors, including 8 purchasing and serving local foods. Seven of the 8 cafeterias reporting use of local foods are school districts and apples are the dominant purchase accounting for nearly 50 percent of purchases. A number of the schools also purchase seedless grapes from a local grower who delivers. Other items purchased in quantity include winter squash, tomatoes, and melons. Other items purchased in smaller quantities include zucchini, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, potatoes, cabbage, and Brussell sprouts. Melons and broccoli where identified Harvest of the Month items, as were pumpkins and collards.

Although many food service directors served local foods, including Harvest of the Month items, none of the participating food service directors actively engaged in the Harvest of the Month concept. Similarily, restaurateurs and grocers are serving local food, but have not engaged in Harvest of the Month.

A primary contribution of this project has been keeping Farm to Cafeteria on the minds of area farmers and food service directors during an extremely challenging year (see below) and identifying emerging challenges such as customer requests for Good Agricultural Practice certifications and the need for transparency all along the food chain.

It remains to be seen whether adjustments to the Harvest of the Month items to include more commonly served and available items will engage food service directors, and whether they will continue to seek out New York state apples now that many nearby growers are out of product, and what opportunities and challenges spring, summer, and fall 2013 harvests will bring.

Objectives/Performance Targets

This project identified 3 activities to increase the volume and consistency of local farm sales to institutional cafeterias and conventional food retailers:

listserve,
cafeteria Harvest of the Month commitment,
outreach to supermarkets, restaurants, and other conventional food retailers.

Specific goals included list serve participation by 10 to 12 farmers, 6 to 8 food service directors; 3 to 5 food service directors willing to commit to Harvest of the Month activities; and 10 to 12 contacts with supermarkets, restaurants, and other conventional retail buyers resulting in 10 to 15 Harvest of the Month events serving and promoting local food.

Following initial outreach, a number of farmers and food service directors expressed an interest in joining the list serve but to date only 4 farmers, 2 food service directors, and 1 coop extension educator have joined. Several other interested food service directors reported difficulty joining the list serve due to computer filters applied by their school, and this has remained unresolved. The participating farmers generally had limited breadth or quantity of product for sale.

To address these challenges, from September 2012 to the present, project list serve posts where also distributed via e-mail to those who had expressed an interest in the list serve or the Harvest of the Month program. These e-mails were initially distributed to approximately 12 food service directors with the list gradually expanding to include 40 interested food service directors, farmers, distributors, and others.

At a project team meeting on December 3, 2012, a decision was made to expand project awareness by adding to our distribution list all those who “should be interested”, not just those who have expressed an interest. The e-mail distribution list now includes others.

While initially 7 school food service directors expressed interest in participating in the Harvest of the Month program, due to the complexities and challenges of implementing the new school meal regulations of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, most did not intentionally menu, purchase, and serve identified Harvest of the Month items. A common refrain was-- new regulation are forcing me to use a cycle menu and this makes it more difficult to serve seasonal local foods. Year end contact, however, has confirmed that most continued direct and non-direct local farm purchases.

While collecting information on cafeteria local food purchases, food service directors were also reminded of the importance of combining local food purchases with customer awareness of local food consumption and the availability of Harvest of the Month banners and project leader support to host Harvest of the Month events. Time will tell whether expressed interest will translate into Harvest of the Month events and/or expanded local farm purchases. Both options will face challenges over the next six months due to limited available quantities of the most cafeteria friendly storage crops (apples and winter squash).

Apple farmers experienced yields as low as 10 to 15 percent of normal due to an exceptionally warm period in February that encouraged budding followed by a seasonal hard frost. The low yields are wide spread enough that the price schools pay for a bushel of local apples has increased from $16 to $29, helping farmers reduce their losses, but pinching already tight school food budgets.

Similarly table grape yields were down 20 percent for one participating farmer; carrots and sweet potatoes yields were down 40 percent for another; and sweet corn, tomato, pepper, and squash yields were down more than 50 percent in another case due to weather challenges. Weather challenges included not only early warmth then killing frost in the spring but also drought followed by damaging rains and hail in the summer. These conditions also decreased the yields and storability of winter squash.

The project has identified 2 restaurants committed to sourcing local foods and interested in the Harvest of the Month project, but follow up contact efforts have not identified specific information on participation, purchases, or meals served. Contact with a large regional grocer confirmed their continued commitment to sourcing and promoting local seasonal fruits and vegetables and an unwillingness to shift their “playbook” to promote Harvest of the Month items.

No additional contacts were made with grocers or other retail food stores, in part due to the level of effort undertaken to engage other participants and also uncertainty regarding the quantity of local food readily available for sale given weather challenges.

Accomplishments/Milestones

An initial mailing to 211 farmers, food service directors, and other food system folks went out in late June instead of April as anticipated. Thus the project did not engage school food service directors before summer break nor promote sales of spring crops like asparagus and strawberries.

Between August and November 2012 the project leader distributed 10 e-blasts to project participants to encourage purchase and serving local foods. Topics included identifying Harvest of the Month items, recipes, best practices from other food service directors, and sharing Harvest of the Month newsletters produced as part of a separate non-NESARE project in a nearby county.

The project has been successful in obtaining verbal commitments of food service directors regarding interest and participation in the listserve and Harvest of the Month but there is little evidence of active engagement in these initiatives. Farmers have also been reluctant to put focused efforts on promoting sales of identified Harvest of the Month crops. It seems a more flexible approach encouraging purchases of seasonally available items each month would be more successful. Farmers, food service, and distributors do not yet see the importance of transparency and promoting local food purchases. In 2013 we will continue to promote the many benefits of eating local, increasing food service director and farmer awareness of the health, community, environmental, and economic benefits.

Engagement activities focused more on supporting food service directors to purchase local foods than on outreach to farmers regarding availability or pricing. Through participation in a listserve geared to individual consumers seeking local food, the project leader was able to initiate match making efforts to find purchasers for crops farmers grew in excess of their need/available sales channels. To date, follow up efforts to confirm impact of these efforts are incomplete.

To date, farm to cafeteria efforts in Ontario County have been undertaken by local individuals with other fulltime commitments as farmers, food service directors, and extension educators whose existing workplace and social networks have benefited Farm to Cafeteria efforts. In this first year of the shift to a project leader able to apply consistent focus to this effort, the positive impact of this focus has been limited by the challenges of establishing new local connections as well as the significant new challenges faced by farmers and food service directors.

At a team meeting on December 3, 2012, we identified a need to adjust winter Harvest of the Month messaging to align better with what is now available locally (given weather changes); to promote what is in season/available each season, not just one item, through to Harvest of the Month; to expand contact with farmers regarding what they have to sell; to expand our e-blast distribution list; to regularly remind participants of the many benefits of eating local ; and to focus food service director outreach in 2013 on college, health care, and senior living dining facilities.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Our year end phone survey of farmers and food service directors has identified nearly $28,000 in farm to cafeteria purchases at 8 of 10 responding cafeterias. This includes direct farm purchases and some identifiably local items purchased through regional produce distributors. This amount also includes food purchased for a community dinner in Victor.

Due to changes in respondents, yields, and pricing, these numbers cannot easily be compared to previous years nor can they be attributed solely to this project. However, identified fall season farm to cafeteria sales of nearly $28,000 in this time of unprecedented challenges are still on track to exceed the $40,000 in annual estimated farm to cafeteria sales from 11 cafeterias reported in 2010 as part of CNE 10-069.

The primary contribution of this project has been keeping Farm to Cafeteria on the minds of area farmers and food service directors during a challenging year and identifying emerging challenges such as customer requests for Good Agricultural Practice certifications and the need for transparency all along the food chain.