Farm to School

“Farm to School”

You’ll hear that phrase every now and then. Quite simply, “farm to school” represents the basic notion that we can get better food into our schools. Beyond better, we can and should get regionally produced food into our NW schools.

Today I ate rutabagas with my 6-year old son at Atkinson Elementary in Southeast Portland. The rutabagas were on his tray because Portland Public Schools (PPS) worked with Hilltop Farms to source the yummy root vegetable. PPS has a Harvest of the Month program where they feature a regionally sourced product every month (the same product ends up on the menu at least twice in one month). PPS features both fresh and processed products in their Harvest of the Month program, helping kids understand that freezing blueberries is a great way to enjoy the yummy berry after the growing season has come and gone. Beyond the Harvest of the Month program, PPS goes out of its way to source as much local product as possible, routinely featuring “Local Lunches” such as Truitt Brothers 3-bean vegetarian chili.

And PPS isn’t alone. Schools THROUGHOUT the Northwest are interested in strengthening partnerships with regional vendors.

Food producers – please keep checking to see which schools have joined FoodHub and reach out to them. Can you commit to one or two items? Can you grow on contract for next school year? Suffer through the necessary paperwork and you might just find yourself making some little kid’s day.

Schools – please keep watching to see which FoodHub producers might be a good fit for you and reach out to them. Figure out how to translate your serving needs into poundage or case quantities that make sense to farmers.

Yummy food, happy, healthy kids. Let’s do it.

Michelle Markesteyn Ratcliffe will be leaving Ecotrust this week to join the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) as ODA’s new Farm to School Coordinator. One of her key responsibilities at the Oregon Department of Agriculture will be to help us make sure FoodHub is a fantastic resource for school food service directors and the regional vendors they work with.

Those of you active in getting great regional food into schools will understand what wonderful news this is. Michelle joined Ecotrust’s Farm to School program in June of 2007 and immediately made her mark.

During her tenure she led an ambitious local, state and national research agenda, supported farm to school activities in an eight-state region of the West as the Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School Network, was instrumental in creating the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network, successfully promoted farm to school legislation that changed policies and practices within the state of Oregon, personally answered 1,000s of parent, teacher, and concerned citizen inquiries about food in schools, mentored numerous graduate students and interns, brokered connections between schools and food producers that resulted in real change on the lunch line, launched a pre-K initiative, served as an eloquent and informed spokesperson, nurtured innumerable relationships and partnerships, acted as a beloved colleague and friend to many, and set an example for excellence that continually challenged us to do our very best all while having an extremely good time. (And this list really only scratches the surface.)

Please join me in congratulating Michelle on her new position and her many accomplishments.