Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch II: Maximizing School Food Service

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch II: Maximizing School Food Service

Summary

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch II (WHL) has built on successes of a thriving farm-to-school project in Madison, Wisconsin and has begun to overcome the constraints which severely limit grower access to the school food service market. Processing locally-produced vegetables into ‘food-service ready’ forms has begun at a local grocery co-op’s kitchen and is being sold to the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Food Service. Given their centralized kitchen, their heat and serve method of meal delivery for their 47 schools, and a host of other challenges, introducing local product into the meals program has proven to be quite difficult. More opportunity exists in smaller school districts where schools prepare more of their own meals. This opportunity is being pursued in school districts surrounding Madison while our work with MMSD continues.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Education: Preparing Elementary Student Palates

Short-Term Objective: Elementary school students know the sources, characteristics, and taste of diverse varieties of locally grown, fresh produce.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Elementary school students are receptive to new school lunch menu items consisting of or incorporating locally grown, fresh produce.

Long-Term Objective: Elementary school students enjoy and consistently consume school lunch menu items incorporating locally grown, fresh produce and have the basis for a lifelong understanding and appreciation for sustainable farmers and farming.

Menu Development: Expanding Fresh Food Offerings on School Lunch Menu

Short-Term Objective: School food service staff recognize opportunities and means of incorporating locally grown, fresh produce into school lunch menus.

Intermediate-Term Objective: School food service staff continue to create new school lunch menus incorporating locally grown, fresh produce.

Long-Term Objective: Addition of new school lunch menus incorporating locally grown, fresh produce is an institutionalized component of the school food service menu development process.

Processing: Providing ‘Food Service Ready’ Produce through Williamson St. Co-op Kitchen

Short-Term Objective: Co-op staff identify the legal, regulatory, and technical requirements for use of the Co-op’s equipment by third parties (i.e., farmers).

Intermediate-Term Objective: Co-op staff develop administrative and technical protocols that permit the use of the co-op’s processing facility by farmers.

Long-Term Objective: Co-op staff develop effective working relationships with groups of farmers who regularly use the co-op’s facility to process locally grown, fresh produce for sale to local schools and other institutions.

Recruitment and Organizing: Expanding Grower Ability to Supply

Short-Term Objective: Local, sustainable fruit and vegetable farmers learn about the opportunities to organize themselves to produce for the Madison school food service market.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Local, sustainable fruit and vegetable farmers organize themselves to produce for the Madison school food service market.

Long-Term Objective: Established organizations of local, sustainable fruit and vegetable farmers are selling to a robust institutional market.

Outreach: Educating Growers and Schools in Region about Farm to School Possibilities

Short-Term Objective: Farmers and school food service staff in the Upper Midwest learn of the opportunities and challenges encountered by the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch project.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Farmers and school food service staff initiate farm-to-school projects in their own Upper Midwest communities.

Long-Term Objective: Farm-to-school programs are established as a common component of the food and farm landscape of the Upper Midwest.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Short-Term Objective: Elementary school students know the sources, characteristics, and taste of diverse varieties of locally grown, fresh produce.

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch-sponsored educational activities have continued in three pilot elementary schools and have expanded to other interested schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD).

* 430 students from three pilot elementary schools and one middle school participated in field trips to local farms where they learned about food production, planted seeds, and harvested and ate vegetables

* Local ‘farmer-educators’ visited 38 classrooms in three pilot elementary schools and led food and farm educational activities for 700 students

* 1,440 students in three pilot elementary schools participated in classroom ‘vegetable tastings’ of a wide variety of local tomatoes and apples

* 2,040 students in three pilot elementary schools and one middle school participated in lunchroom tastings

* 1,380 students in three pilot elementary schools participated in a tomato seedling activity where they transplanted tomatoes into pots they took home to grow over the summer

* All three pilot elementary schools organized a ‘Harvest Celebration’ for their students (1,380 total) which celebrated Wisconsin agriculture and promoted the ‘WI Homegrown Lunch’ that was served in each school

* All three pilot elementary schools incorporated local salad greens and rhubarb (for muffins) into their spring school picnics for their 1,380 students

* Classroom snack program piloted in four elementary schools and one middle school where 1,160 students received a fresh vegetable snack in their classroom. One elementary pilot school has received fresh carrot coins produced by the Willy St. Co-op kitchen as a classroom snack for all 20 of their classrooms for much of the 2005-06 school year

Short-Term Objective: School food service staff recognize opportunities and means of incorporating locally grown, fresh produce into school lunch menus.

We have worked closely with MMSD Food Service staff to develop menu items that incorporate local ingredients that also work within their larger-scale system of meal delivery. We have also facilitated a relationship between the Food Service and the Willy St. Co-op kitchen in which the Food Service places regular orders to the Willy St. Co-op Kitchen who then delivers the product. We have assisted in finding an alternative local apple provider when the current supplier ended his deliveries to the district.

* District-wide meal Nov 2004. 7,200 meals served in elementary schools. $2,000 in produce purchased from local farms. Menu consisted of chicken-fajita wrap with vegetables (spinach, turnip, carrot, and cabbage), local apples, and sweet potato muffins

* Baked potato meal trialed in 3 pilot elementary schools

* Muffin development – worked with food service staff to test various muffin recipes incorporating local produce resulting in a Carrot/Sweet Potato muffin that was tested with students in a variety of settings and then offered on the elementary and middle school menus resulting in regular deliveries of shredded carrots and cooked, mashed sweet potatoes from the Willy St. Co-op Kitchen

* Food Service staff tours of Willy St. kitchen facility

* Meetings with food service directors from school districts in surrounding communities to pursue potential relationship with WI Homegrown Lunch including Sun Prairie, Mt. Horeb, Middleton and McFarland

Short-Term Objective: Co-op staff identify the legal, regulatory, and technical requirements for use of the Co-op’s equipment by third parties (i.e., farmers).

WHL has worked very closely with Willy St. Co-op managers and staff to create a strong partnership in processing local produce into ‘food-service ready’ forms for the MMSD Food Service. The Co-op has worked through numerous hurdles to get their kitchen facility up and running and to date has been handling the small amounts of local food processing themselves. For now this is a good solution as the co-op has a strong commitment to utilizing produce from local producers and more research needs to be done to find which products can economically be processed for the institutional market.

Short-Term Objective: Farmers and school food service staff in the Upper Midwest learn of the opportunities and challenges encountered by the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch project.

WHL has presented at numerous meetings and conferences to share what we have learned to date and to inspire others to take on the challenges and reap the rewards of starting farm to school projects in their communities.

* Presented a Farm to School Workshop to 60 people at Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI February 2005.

* Presented to 30 Food Service directors, nutritionists, and others promoting nutrition in schools at the Action for Healthy Kids Summit in Middleton, WI Nov, 2005.

* Invited by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to present the farm to school model to 25 food service directors participating in the USDA funded Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

* Presented a Farm to School workshop at the annual Iowa Network for Community Agriculture conference in Des Moines, IA on February 4, 2006.

* Presented to 250 WI fruit and vegetable producers re the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program at the WI Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Producer conference in Oconomowoc, WI Feb 8&9, 2006.

* Plans to present at the Wisconsin School Nutrition Association Conference in August, 2006.

Short-Term Objective: Local, sustainable fruit and vegetable farmers learn about the opportunities to organize themselves to produce for the Madison school food service market.

The groundwork continues to be laid for this organizing effort by facilitating successful relationships between food services and area growers. Outreach to potential suppliers is ongoing as opportunities to sell to institutions increases.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Elementary school students are receptive to new school lunch menu items consisting of or incorporating locally grown, fresh produce.

The numerous opportunities students have had to eat fresh, locally grown produce, through classroom activities, our snack program, and farm field trips, has clearly made these students more receptive to eating fresh items in the classroom or field trip setting. Their receptivity to new items on the lunch menu will continue to be assessed as new menu items are introduced.

Intermediate-Term Objective: School food service staff continue to create new school lunch menus incorporating locally grown, fresh produce.

Now that the Co-op’s kitchen is reliably providing product, school food service staff feels more comfortable that a consistent supply is possible. Questions remain about what the Co-op kitchen will need to charge for various items which will determine their usefulness to school food service.

* Food service staff have experimented with various products from the Willy St. Coop kitchen including diced potatoes, diced onions, and diced peppers to incorporate into existing and new menu items including soups and chili for the middle and high school meal program.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Co-op staff develop administrative and technical protocols that permit the use of the co-op’s processing facility by farmers.

Third party use of the Co-op’s processing kitchen has yet to be developed. For the time being the co-op is processing the vegetables themselves using their existing network of local producer to supply the product in season.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Local, sustainable fruit and vegetable farmers organize themselves to produce for the Madison school food service market.

This will need to evolve over time as growers see the potential for the institutional market and the right mix of suppliers is identified. An effective way for supply to be organized will have to be developed but it remains to be seen whether growers themselves are able to take on the organizing or whether a third party will need to be involved.

Intermediate-Term Objective: Farmers and school food service staff initiate farm-to-school projects in their own Upper Midwest communities.

As a result of our outreach through the 25 schools participating in the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, connections have been made for local producers to sell to schools for their snack programs and many of these schools have implemented farm to school educational activities. WHL has responded to numerous inquiries from school districts around the state regarding starting farm-to-school projects. WHL is also participating in a regional farm-to-school organizing effort sponsored by the National farm-to-school program, which will be able to provide additional resources to communities in the Upper Midwest wishing to begin a farm-to-school program.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Through our educational activities in the classroom and on farms, we have clearly shown that students will eat fresh vegetables including those unfamiliar to them. We have demonstrated that new menu items can affordably be created and served by the MMSD Food Service. Items such as vegetarian chili (utilizing local onions and peppers, diced by the co-op’s kitchen), a baked potato soup (using local potatoes diced by the co-op’s kitchen), and a carrot-sweet potato muffin (using local carrots and sweet potatoes), have been served district-wide to 7,000 elementary school students and continue to be evaluated by the MMSD Food Service.

We have begun to address the question of processing fresh vegetables through our partnership with the Willy St. Co-op kitchen, which is processing and delivering vegetables for MMSD Food Service as well as processing snacks for the WHL classroom snack program. To date the kitchen has sold: 162 lbs of mashed sweet potatoes, 320 lbs of shredded carrots, 10 lbs each of diced peppers and onions, and 40 lbs of diced potatoes to the MMSD Food Service. In addition, WHL has purchased over 780 lbs of carrot coins and 800 lbs of fresh apples for our own classroom snack program.

A WHL alternative school fundraiser was developed and successfully piloted by one elementary school in the fall of 2005. Local farm products were offered for sale individually and as a gift basket during the holiday season. Items included local cheese, summer sausage, honey, beeswax candles, maple syrup, winter vegetables, dried cranberries, and dried cherries. Over $2,600 went to area producers and $2,400 went to the school as a result. Three additional schools are interested in using this fundraiser in the fall of 2006.

WHL’s reach and influence has expanded statewide through numerous presentations and a thriving partnership with the WI Department of Public Instruction (DPI) with the implementation of the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in 25 WI schools and especially in Madison’s Sherman middle school. We are consulting with participating schools to create links with foods from their local farms as well as assisting with the evaluation design and implementation to demonstrate the benefits of increasing student access to fresh fruits and vegetables. This work will position WHL to serve as a resource to interested school districts throughout the state.

Collaborators: