Growers, education officials explore farm-to-school viability

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — Interest in getting more locally grown food into school cafeterias through various farm-to-school programs is well documented.
Farmers see it as a new market for their products and a way to educate youth on how food is grown.
School food service directors appreciate the benefits of using fresh products for taste and nutrition and supporting local businesses.
But creating a sustainable infrastructure to get the food from farm to school lunch tray needs more attention and that was the focus of last week’s Maryland Farm to School Workshop.
The workshop brought together the two sides — farmers and school food service directors — to network mostly and get an idea of the issues they each have to deal with in making a farm to school program work.
Susan Bradford, area manager for food service at Wicomico County Public Schools, said making connections with growers was initially difficult, but they have been able to serve local watermelon and other produce in its schools.
She added that she plans to look at her expected volumes again to see what foods will make the most sense to get locally, because though it may mean more work, it’ll likely be worth it.
“If I’m going to serve a tomato, I want them to eat a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato,” Bradford said. “We think it’s where we need to be moving.”
Distribution, transportation were repeatedly cited as issues that both sides have to work out.
Storage is often a premium at many schools, requiring at least weekly deliveries.
Price can be another hurdle with school food programs operating under tight budgets and farmers needing to see enough return to make the venture worthwhile.
“Always remember, if it won’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense,” said John Hallowell, a grain and vegetable grower in East New Market, Md., who attended the workshop. Hollowell said he hadn’t yet sold produce to schools but was interested in seeing if it could be a fit for his operation.
“We’re always looking for another market for our products,” he said.”It would be nice to educate the kids, that’s a big part of it.”
As for working through those issues, the workshop’s organizers said there’s no one-size-fits all answer and as communication and relationships strengthen, solutions will come.
“It took a long time to get here, and it’ll take a long time to get back,” said Stew Eidel, training and nutrition specialist at Maryland State Department of Education, recalling his days as a student when cafeteria workers cooked mostly from scratch.
Eidel also told attendees to think creatively about getting local food in schools.
In some cases, produce a farmer may not be able to sell otherwise could be useful to a school, potentially giving a farmer a useful outlet and the school a lower price.
Watermelons with some sun bleaching were mentioned, as were small apples and odd shaped cucumbers and other vegetables.
“A school nutrition program, a creative one, can probably figure out a way to use that product,” he said.
At the state and federal levels, there are some initiatives designed to facilitate farm to school transactions. 
The new Geographic Preference Rule was discussed. Established in the 2008 Farm Bill, the rule allows school districts to give preference to local producers when putting purchases out for bid and set its own definition of local.
The rule can only be used for unprocessed products only encourages local purchases, it doesn’t require it, according to Sarah Trist, program specialist at the Maryland State Department of Education.
MSDE also has begun a pilot program called Cook Smart in four counties: Cecil, Harford, Washington and Garrett.
The program provides technical assistance and training to food service workers to be better able to handle raw ingredients like fresh fruits and vegetables and move toward cooking from scratch.
Though growing pains persist in the farm to school movement, there are successes.
Karen Fedor, marketing specialist for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, said there is much demand in the Lower and Mid-Shore county school districts, which tend to have less students than more urban districts and are closer to producers.
The state’s Homegrown School Lunch Week continues to grow in participation as schools bring in locally grown food for meals.
“This program is reaching a high point and all because we see it as building a foundation for agriculture,” Fedor said