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Last week, the lunchtime routine seemed a little different at Vanseboro Farm Life Elementary School in Craven County.
As culinary students at West Craven High School were individually serving their own test kitchen recipes, fifth graders sat next to them in the school courtyard, sharing research posters about healthy food groups with younger classmates. was presented to
“There is a myth that ancient grains are tasteless,” said a fifth-grade student presenting in the grain food group, pointing to a poster. “But actually, ancient grains can be seasoned deliciously!”
By the beef section of the test kitchen, Kristen McCoy, a local rancher at McCoy Cattle Farms in Cove City, asked several students about how the meat for the beef chips displayed next to her was sourced. I answered some difficult questions.
“Did you kill the cow?” exclaimed one student when he learned that one of his cows pictured on the student’s research poster may have been the source of today’s diet.
“We have a lot of cows,” McCoy said. “And that’s how we make sure everyone can eat in our community.”
October is Farm-to-School Month across the country, and last week’s Farm-to-School Fest at Vanseboro Farm Life Elementary School marked the occasion.
Craven County district and school officials sourced local ingredients and helped students develop and test recipes for healthy, palatable school meals. The day also included an educational component teaching students that eating from healthy food groups is important for good health, and that it is also important to taste good.
“We’re trying to change the way children see food, and the way communities see food,” said Craven County Schools Nutrition Director Lauren Weiland.
What is Farm to School?
A primary goal of Farm to School is to help school districts build stronger relationships with local producers and incorporate local ingredients into school lunches.
Farm-to-school details
In Craven County, Weyland has worked hard over the past few years to foster strong relationships with local growers, especially given the supply chain issues impacting the school district’s ability to source food. Her hard work paid off.
“More than ever, we’ve built relationships with farmers, so we haven’t missed a beat when it comes to missing out on (groceries) for our kids,” Weiland said. A lot of neighborhoods are complaining, ‘You can’t get this, you can’t get that,’ but I use local farmers.”
A statewide coalition is working to make it easier for districts to source locally grown food for school lunches, especially from small farmers and farmers of people of color.
And last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the North Carolina Department of Agriculture more than $5.6 million in funding to expand farm-to-school initiatives like Craven County.
“Increasing opportunities for North Carolina farmers to source local products from North Carolina farmers is beneficial to consumers, farmers and the local food supply in the long term,” said Steve Troxler, North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner. said in a press release announcing the award.
Lynn Harvey, director of school nutrition services for the North Carolina Department of Public Education, said this is great news for North Carolina’s farm-to-school programs.
“More money to buy locally grown products will help alleviate supply chain problems,” Harvey said. We have programs in schools where school nutrition managers have the freedom to buy food directly from local farmers.”
Making it easier to incorporate locally produced ingredients into school cafeterias
Working with local producers is not as simple as, say, ordering a large batch of beef and seeing the order arrive a week later. For example, serving beef chips to an area with thousands of children requires thorough meal planning and relationship building. Producers like McCoy Cattle Farms take years, not weeks, to raise cattle and prepare them for slaughter.
School districts should also be mindful of producers seeking to establish contractual relationships with multiple consumers. Therefore, when ordering, school nutritionists should be aware that they cannot ask for a full crop of vegetables from a grower if they cannot promise to ask for the same order each year.
Another hurdle small farmers sometimes encounter in getting their products ready for use in schools is called GAP certification. GAP stands for Good Agricultural Practices and is a regulatory mechanism to ensure that students are eating food grown in healthy environments. However, it can be costly, which is a barrier for some small farmers. New federal grants could cover some of that cost, depending on how it’s implemented, so small farmers can participate in Farm to School efforts.
Harvey said more support is flowing through the pipeline to address some of these barriers. In addition to the NCDA award, DPI last month received a $1.5 million grant from the USDA for him to work with NCDA on a farm-to-school initiative.
“To work with NCDA to work with these small farms to build their capacity to build agricultural cooperatives and help small farms bring more products into the school nutrition environment. “This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, but we just didn’t have the resources to do it.”
School lunches are healthier today, and farm-to-school initiatives can deliver even greater nutritional gains
In the 1990s, federal nutritional standards for school meals were not as stringent as they are today.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires schools to adhere to stricter standards, redesigned in 2012, requiring more fruits, vegetables, and healthy grains than before.
result? A 2019 USDA study found that between 2010 and 2015, the nutritional quality of school meals increased by 41%. And his 2021 study by Tufts University found that schools are the healthiest places for kids to eat because grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and food trucks all serve nutritious meals. I found it to be a great place. As a result, this also prepares students for success in the classroom.
However, it can be difficult for districts to meet strict nutritional standards today, when supply chain problems, largely caused by the global pandemic, pose an unpleasant surprise. Orders may suddenly be unable to be fulfilled due to the inability to obtain the necessary supplies for school lunches planned months in advance.
In that case, Weyland says you need to have a plan B.
“If the USDA wants to continue to build bridges between local farmers and school districts, we have to recognize that they have to have some flexibility for us,” said Wei. Rand said, “They have to realize that we are doing our best. If we weren’t served as we were told, we didn’t meet our eating pattern for the day.” If [we would receive] Then it’s okay. “
Weyland is looking forward to future Farm to School events, but said he appreciates partnerships with local growers like McCoy Cattle Farms. .
“We’re now looking at calculating adding locally sourced rice to their beef. I think that would be a great menu item,” Weiland said.
With more time, relationship building, and more financial support for Farm to School initiatives, the ability of school districts to rely on locally sourced foods could allow students to look to their weekly dishes as a more consistent feature. There is a nature.
