New Hampshire Farm to School inspires students to grow and eat local food while learning about it.

Students made the connection the first time kale was featured in their school lunches.
Kate Donald, of Stout Oak Farm, said she heard about it from parents who shop at the local farmers’ market or buy a share of her produce. Their kids knew they were now getting fresh foods from local farms in the cafeteria.

Much of the credit goes to the New Hampshire Farm to School program, which works to connect local farmers with school food services, making lunch breaks more nutritious, sustainable and even educational.

A renewed appreciation for local food has prompted some schools to go beyond buying local produce to growing it on school grounds, giving students the opportunity to learn about food production through experience and reap the benefits.

the new farm in town
Stout Oak Farm recently relocated from a leased property in Epping to a permanent location in Brentwood, just a few miles from Exeter High School, where the farm started delivering food this year.

“We’re close neighbors now and we’d like to see it keep going,” Donald said.

The farm delivered a variety of produce, such as carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, peppers and kale, once a week in September and October, while there was enough to go around.

A meeting was held at the school, where other farmers committed to making contributions on different weeks. Then a volunteer broker, Alexis Simpson, a parent and member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire, agreed to call farms to find out what was in season and how much it costs. She would relay the information to Jeanne Pierce, food service director for the Exeter School District, who would e-mail the farm to request certain quantities.
Both Donald and Pierce said having an intermediary was key to finding the time to communicate, and she would recommend it to other schools.

Pierce also orders from Apple Annie in Brentwood for fruit, Brookford Farm in Rollinsford for dairy, Stewart Farm in Stratham for beef, and others. “I work with a lot of farms,” she said.

getting to know the food chain
Exeter High School highlights the local food items in its menu and salad bar so students know where the food is coming from. There was also a “Food for Thought” week, when a different local food was celebrated each day, farmers were invited to speak at an assembly, and students watched “The Greenhorns,” a film about the young farming community.

In addition, there is a garden with four raised beds on school property, established with help from Exeter’s Citizens for Community Wellness group, and tended by parents, faculty and staff, and the school’s Environmental Club.

Citizens for Community Wellness is a year-old group that includes school food service directors, parents, teachers, chefs, farmers, students and nutritionists in support of healthy choices for kids, including Farm to School.

Among other things, the group has hosted a cooking demonstration to help food service directors come up with recipes, such as kale chips and sautéed kale.

“I think it’s important people have an understanding of where food comes from,” Pierce said. “It actually tastes better, the fresher it is.”

She’s even expanding her own palate, recently experiencing the bright pink centers of watermelon radishes and the flavor of sweet dumpling squash, thanks to local farmers.

“I’m enjoying it and I hope others do too,” she said.

finding a strategy that fits
Pierce said schools have to start small when reintroducing local food. Small farms tend to give priority to direct, retail markets and don’t always have enough quantity or consistency for schools.
“If there’s a way farmers can increase quantity, we’d all love to see that,” Donald said, noting Stout Oak’s new land has more acreage where they hope to plant perennials and fruit trees.

Farm to School also faces the challenges of transportation and higher costs for the food and the labor of handling it.

“School meals are on a very tight budget,” Pierce said.

But, she said, the change is positive and both farmers and educators are optimistic about it.

“They want to make it work and we want to make it work,” she said. “Everyone’s trying.”

Originally established as a pilot program in 2003, NH Farm to School serves as a facilitator to help farmers, distributor, teachers and administrators adopt farm to school practices. The program helps negotiate systems for schools to purchase locally sourced foods, distributes educational materials for stakeholders, provides information for school curriculums, and works to enhance the visibility of farm to school efforts.

Farm to School coordinator Stacey Purslow, of the University of New Hampshire, said more schools are reaching out to the program all the time. She is currently conducting a survey and expects numbers to prove the growth in January.

The program’s first statewide conference, held on Nov. 19 in Lebanon, invited participants to workshops on topics like school and community gardens, composting, integrating agriculture education into the curriculum, stretching food budgets and fundraising, and growing a Farm to School program. A national conference is planned for next August in Burlington, Vt.

Purslow said there’s increasing interest in making changes within school lunches, in terms of both improving the quality and caring about the source. But, she agrees with Pierce, schools have to be creative to make it happen, because the food can cost more and preparing it can be more time consuming. There are grants available for gardens, though.

She said much of the change is community driven because the buy-local movement is so strong and parents are concerned about health issues like childhood obesity.

a growing movement on the Seacoast
The lunches may not always be gourmet, but some local schools are not settling for the “pizza is a vegetable” rumor prompted by the legislature’s decision to uphold the high nutrition equivalency of tomato paste. When pizza is available at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, for example, the crust is made with whole wheat.

And now, with the addition of fresh and organic foods, it seems school lunches are improving and returning to a healthier base.

Trish Simas, director of food services at Winnacunnet High School, calls ahead to pick up orders of apples, peaches and other fruits from Applecrest Farm Orchards in Hampton Falls. She also requests large shipments of local meats, including a recent order of ground pork from Kellie Brook Farm in Greenland.

Simas said some schools were getting New England fish from Eastman’s in Seabrook, but it recently went out of business, so she’s hoping to find a replacement.

Simas said getting local food in schools has been a challenge, but it’s gotten easier in recent years. “It’s a matter of reaching out,” she said.

To her, the local movement is not just a career choice but a lifestyle.

“It’s important to have (local food) everywhere, not just in schools. It’s important to have a smaller footprint about what we produce and consume,” Simas said. “I think it’s vital, really.”

She said the school’s teachers appreciate the signage that let everyone know where the local ingredients came from.

“I like supporting local farmers and businesses whenever I can, just on a personal level, and in schools, it sets an example for kids,” she said.

Winacunnet also has a winter CSA share with Brookford Farm of Rollinsford.

Dover High School has a greenhouse that was originally build for the horticultural program, but now also grows lettuce that can be harvested every month or so to supplement the salad bar, Purslow said. Little Harbor School in Portsmouth has a parent-run garden that provides lettuce, carrots and tomatoes for salads.

“As long as schools are trying to do something, that’s great,” Purslow said. “If that’s successful, then it’ll grow.”

Some schools are currently working on a composting system for scraps and leftovers and some are looking into using the kitchen in summer months to process and freeze foods when in abundance, Purslow said. But, she added, “Local foods are available year-round.”