Students work to bring locally-grown food into cafeteria
By Mollie Wood
Farm 2 Fork Team
With the Labor Day holiday upon us, the very last schools to start classes around the state have begun their fall terms. And these days, the Farm2Fork movement is as much a part of the school day as it is everywhere else in our lives.
At lunchtime in a number of West Virginia's high schools, students enjoy a meal made from ingredients that were grown by fellow students. Many schools showcase the student farmers who have grown food being served that day by highlighting them on the menus and other school signage. It is certainly an appropriate way of recognizing the hard work and initiative of these students, but there is an additional motive. Cafeteria staff have repeatedly seen that when it is other students' products that are being served, the amount of food wasted is dramatically reduced. It seems that not only do the student producers take pride in their achievement, but their classmates do as well.
In a few cases, agricultural education programs around the state are growing food for their schools, and high school students learning culinary skills as part of the ProStart program are then doing the processing, so those foods can be used in the cafeteria. Students are not only learning valuable technical skills, they are actually developing their own local food system.
Even when the food is not student grown, depending on seasonal availability, a large percentage of schools around the state now offer local produce on their garden bars daily. Other schools have sponsored "local" days in which most or all of the components of the meal are locally produced.
Initiatives this highly coordinated obviously did not happen by accident. Beginning in 2011, food service directors around the state were actively encouraged to purchase locally-sourced products as part of a statewide initiative called Farm to School, coordinated by the West Virginia Department of Education's Office of Child Nutrition.
The reality is that Farm to School is not only a public health initiative, but also a tremendous community and economic development opportunity. Clearly it has the potential to improve the health of West Virginians by developing lifelong nutritious eating habits among students because it changes the way young people think about food.
Farm to School initiatives also strengthen our communities themselves by connecting schools with local farmers, so that in addition to the health benefits, when local dollars stay within the community, the impact is significant and overwhelmingly positive.
When the Office of Child Nutrition began actively encouraging Farm to School projects within their federal nutrition programs, it became clear that they could not do it alone. West Virginia's small farm producers needed to trust that schools would buy their products and county food service directors needed to trust that there was enough quality product to purchase - and that it would be available when they needed it.
Although the W.Va. Dept. of Education had access to food service directors around the state, they lacked credibility in the farming community. The average age of the West Virginia farmer was 59 years old, and the number of active farms was on the decline. The question remained, as Farm to School grew, would West Virginia farmers be able to meet the growing demand?
In 2012, to address the issue, the Office of Child Nutrition formed a series of partnerships with the Dept. of Education's Office of Career and Technical Education, the W. Va. Department of Agriculture, the West Virginia University Cooperative Extension, as well as several nonprofits - the New Appalachian Farm and Research Center, and the Collaborative for a 21st Appalachia. This massive collaboration became known as the West Virginia Farm to School Community Development Group. Initially, the group had two main goals as their focus: 1) Grow the next generation of farmer in West Virginia; and 2) Increase the amount of local foods in West Virginia schools.
Funding was secured through the state's Department of Health and Human Resources as part of a five-year Community Transformation Grant that was used to help agricultural education programs around the state purchase needed equipment to teach students the latest in food production techniques and trends. Additionally, entrepreneurial grants and business planning assistance were provided to students to help them start their own farming businesses. By providing teachers and students with knowledge and tools, students in West Virginia started becoming successful producers and viable businessmen and women. In all, 65 student entrepreneurs and 13 funded agricultural education programs were funded with Community Transformation Grants from 2012 to 2014.
A USDA Team Nutrition grant has also provided funding to an additional 16 schools to encourage students to sell to cafeterias and to support student internships. For the third straight year, AmeriCorps members around the state are working to build capacity in various regions of the state, providing garden based learning to students in specific schools, hosting local food events in school cafeterias and implementing other campaign events to spread the word about Farm to School in West Virginia.
Since 2013, nearly all 55 West Virginia counties have purchased varying amounts of locally produced foods. The schools have spent over $1.5 million on local products purchased from West Virginia farmers; nearly $100,000 of this amount has gone to student farmers.
"Today, across the country, only 20 percent of every food dollar spent in a grocery store goes to the farmer. But with the Farm to School initiative, there is opportunity for the farmer to get 100 percent of each dollar spent on students' food, and so all of that money stays in the community, " said Tom McConnell, Director of the WVU Cooperative Extension Small Farm Center.
With more county food service directors working with farmers and more farmers growing products for schools, there's been a shift toward developing food hubs that can manage the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of local products for local farmers and school districts. A successful food hub allows farmers a convenient way to sell their product and an easier method for the directors to purchase local foods in the quantity they need for schools.
The West Virginia Farm to School Community Development Group believes that creating and maintaining vibrant local food systems require a basic level of infrastructure to move food efficiently from farms to school cafeterias. Regional hubs establish economies of scales that allow schools to purchase local products at an affordable cost, while at the same time maintaining a sustainable profit margin for the local farmer.
Now, the Office of Child Nutrition has obtained two separate grants to develop food hubs. The projects are intended to: 1) create a community of learning for two regional food hub service areas and county food service directors to foster information sharing and peer to peer learning; 2) identify farmers in each area who are interested in growing and selling food in a model that supports dedicated growing; 3) develop a "market order" or a collective growing list for farmers that identifies the items and amounts that local school systems are purchasing or want to purchase; 4) provide technical assistance to producers in the areas of large scale production, business management; and 5) evaluate the effectiveness of the regional food hubs to "solicit" farmers to participate, and to increase the amount of local products served in school cafeterias.
Melinda Griser, local food coordinator, is working to streamline communication between both farmers and schools. Her efforts mean that farmers and schools can focus on their work while Melinda is able to tie all the pieces together and create a clear, consistent process. Creating consistency will establish a strong program that continually moves locally grown West Virginia produce into schools.
"Just in the past month, I have gotten the chance to meet a handful of great farmers within my five county radius. These farmers are absolutely excited to be a part of such a tremendous opportunity and schools see the benefit in creating a consistent process to make their purchases," said Melinda. Working with Preston, Upshur, Barbour, Randolph and Tucker counties, Melinda communicates directly with each farmer to learn what they grow, how much they grow, what they are willing to grow and their capacity to grow in the winter. By sharing this information with the county food service director, they have a better idea of what each farm in their area can offer to their schools as well as the months the produce is available.
Once a consistent relationship is built, farmers can plant according to the school's needs; farmers will know where that crop is going before the seed is even in the ground. With this process, a foundation is being created that allows the schools to plan accordingly and know they are getting specific produce from local farms. This system also allows the farmers a dependable outlet to sell a considerable volume of their crops.
"With a consistent, structured process for aggregation and distribution, there is the opportunity for the schools to plan their local purchases far in the future. Some farms and schools have already done a great job of working together to get the local foods into the schools. With this grant, we are able to expand on the great work that has already been done and see continued growth throughout the state," Melinda said.
For more information on West Virginia Farm to School, contact Bekki Leigh, Farm to School Coordinator, Office of Child Nutrition, at 304-558-3396 or Melinda Griser, Local Food Coordinator, at mgriser21@gmail.com.
By Mollie Wood, Assistant Director, WVDE Office of Child Nutrition, and Melinda Griser, Local Food Coordinator, New Appalachia Farm and Research Center