Update on 'Farm to School Rural Revival' by Rural Action

Matt Moore's picture

 

Rural Action        Chesterhill Produce Auction

A Rural Action update on the Farm to School Ohio since the October 5th Stinner summit reception of $4200 to accelerate farm to school distribution and create materials to tell the story and fuel the process.

  • Farm-to-School is an ongoing effort in SE Ohio. Rural Action has been involved for nearly a decade. The services we offer to schools include product aggregation, the delivery of goods with our refrigerated truck,  professional level culinary training/advice, and graphic and media support. The truck, purchased from AVI Foodsystems, is an important part of our work developing production, aggregation, and delivery to our local food systems. With it, and with the assistance of a dedicated community volunteer driving and doing routine maintenance, we are able pick up produce for the Chesterhill Produce Auction and then deliver it to school system end users.
  • Rural Action has served locally since 2009 with the Healthy Communities Coalition, comprised of wellness providers, county health depts., and local organizations working to make a healthier community.  As the name implies, we work towards better health in our area, specifically around food.  Food access and security issues are key concerns, especially with children and the elderly.   As a result of issues identified by this group, and other meetings and discussions, Rural Action organized a regional Farm-to-School/Institution meeting at Lake Hope Lodge to put farm to school practitioners, stakeholders and interested farmers in the same room with the purpose of expanding networks and identifying shared goals.
     
  • On November14th, Rural Action convened this Farm-to-School/Institution meeting at the Lake Hope Lodge. Attendees were area growers, restaurateurs, chefs, culinary schools, health departments, extension educators, food banks, hospitals and public schools.  The goal was to discuss local institutional food system gaps and opportunities. With over thirty participants many issues were discussed, one of the primary being farm to school programs. Rural Action has provided food to area schools since 2007 through the Chesterhill Produce Auction (CPA), which we currently own and operate.  In discussions and workshops at School Cooks Conferences we’ve participated in since 2007 we have learned that when schools still have the equipment to do food preparation, they often do not have the manpower or time to do so. We presented the idea to the area culinary schools- Hocking College and WVU-Parkersburg- that their culinary students help defray K-12 School labor costs while receiving lab experience credit for doing prep work in school kitchens. At a follow up meeting at Hocking College, Jan. 16, Hocking College Dean of Hospitality, Alfonso Contrisciani committed to this idea, and local school partners at Federal Hocking have agreed to pursue the idea; and other local school partners are being pursued.
  •  The Jan. 16th follow up meeting at the Hocking College Culinary School,  featured an even more expanded turnout. More members of the health and food security communities including area foodbanks, schools and hospitals attended. Members of the Federal Hocking Local School District Food Group  (a group of teachers, community members, school cooks, and organizations working to get more fresh, local food into the Federal Hocking Schools), were in attendance-including the School Superintendant, and are working with  local growers to provide food for the school next year.
  • Rural Action has developed a seasonal harvest calendar based on three years of local food production data from the CPA.  This is a tool developed by Rural Action to facilitate purchasing/menu planning based on CPA fresh food availability.  It also serves as an attractive small poster sized local food educational tool suitable for class room use.
  •  We are participating in the Fed. Hock. Schools food committee meetings.  These meetings have been convened by Federal Hocking with Community and Foundation support to develop strategies to improve this rural school’s food offerings.  At these meetings we also began discussing contracting with more local growers for the upcoming season, and the aggregation and delivery capabilities provided by the CPA. Concern over the recommended FDA food safety regulations and the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act were discussed and clarifying information was provided.  This clarifying information included educating the school system on the farm food safety programs (GAP) implemented by the CPA and other farmers.
  • Since 2009 the Chesterhill Produce Auction has provided on-line and over the phone bidding opportunities, so buyers don’t have to attend the auction to bid, and receive delivery of fresh, local produce.  This is supported by photos of produce being disseminated, and the amounts and types of produce being posted on line for every auction. This has been an asset for many buyers, including Federal Hocking Schools, Marietta Schools, Ohio University, and the West Elementary School Wellness Committee.  The meetings in November, January, and the on-going Federal Hocking meetings have included stakeholder discussions of strategies for expanding and streamlining this system.
  •  Rural Action continues to administer the Food Is Elementary curriculum at Trimble Local Schools and Chauncey Public Library’s afterschool program; a school system and a student-centered community program in another district that are within distribution area of Chesterhill Produce Auction. Food is Elementary (FIE) is a hands-on food / nutrition education, preparation, and eating curriculum where students cook healthy meals (often from local ingredients) in the classroom. The teachers, faculty, and administration are informed of the meals and the pre/post-test scores, and are often brought a plate of fresh healthy food at the end of the class by one of the 2nd graders who prepared it. FIE connects children with cooking and healthy local foods while also familiarizing families, teachers, administrators, and school cooks with the ease locally-sourced, from-scratch meal preparation. Rural Action’s continuance of Food is Elementary leads to positive in-school relationships and discussions about the meals in cafeterias and the options in the region for local food system development.

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Comments

Thanks for the update, Matt!

Casey Hoy's picture

Hopefully other groups working on farm to school or other farm to institution projects can find some inspiration, ideas, or collaboration in the work that Matt and Rural Action reported on.  We'd encourage you to share it here with a comment if you have ways of tying in your efforts or supporting Rural Action's work.