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PACKING CABBAGE
LaSAS students (from left) Marlee Bernard, Tenley Bordelon and Lane Nugent bag heads of cabbage for delivery to Avoyelles Parish Schools for use in this year’s Christmas lunches. {Photo courtesy of Jenny Welch}

Farm to School program puts local produce in APSD cafeterias

When it comes to food, there’s grocery store “fresh” and then there’s from-the-farm fresh.

The Avoyelles Parish School District is trying to cut the distance from the field to the lunch plate in its schools by using locally grown produce, Food Service Supervisor Jenny Welch said.

“We are serving sweet potatoes grown by Todd Cullen Farms in Evergreen,” Welch said. “For our Christmas lunch, we will be serving cabbage at all 10 schools from the LaSAS school garden.”

The “Farm to School” initiative is a three-year effort of the state Department of Education’s Division of Nutrition Support to encourage schools to utilize locally grown food products. The state is providing $900,000 statewide to support the program, which is designed to increase the amount of locally produced foods served in schools.

Avoyelles has not been awarded any grant funds to aid in its program, but will be applying for the funds, Welch said.

The initiative partners include the LSU AgCenter and Department of Agriculture and Forestry and Pennington Biomedical Research Center, as well as other collaborators throughout the state.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that schools with strong farm to school programs have higher school meal participation, reduced food waste and increased student willingness to try new foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Welch said the program is a good idea and will benefit the school system and local producers. It also allows the district to utilize one of its mostly untapped resources.

“LaSAS is such an asset,” Welch said, noting the school’s emphasis on agriculture. “We need to utilize all the wonderful stuff they have been growing.”

Welch attended a state Farm to School conference in Baton Rouge earlier this year “to become aware of ways to get food that is locally grown into our school cafeterias,” she said.

HEALTHY EATING

While Avoyelles-grown would be ideal, the district will also be looking for state-grown produce where available.

“The Farm to School program encourages healthy eating for all of our students and supports the local economy,” Welch said. “We produce a variety of produce across the state and we will be making a conscientious effort to include these items in our cafeteria menus.”

Welch said it is hoped the program will “spark interest in our agriculture and also teach students to include a variety of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.

“Healthy eating is learned at an early age,” Welch noted. “If we can expose our students to a variety of locally grown produce, our hope is that we can encourage a healthy diet throughout their life.”

LaSAS Ag teacher Ward Bordelon said he and fellow teachers Robin Moreau and Brandon Sostard were asked to participate in the Farm to School program a month or so ago.

“We had an abundant garden this year, so we are able to provide cabbage for all of the schools for Christmas dinner,” Bordelon said. “I believe it’s about 800 pounds of cabbage.”

Bordelon said the program was “new to us” but believes it is a good idea. The school hopes to continue providing food items for the other schools in coming years.

CHICKEN AND EGG

In a kind of “chicken and egg” situation, the question is whether the local Farm to School program will grow because of more locally available food products or if more locally available food products will be grown because of the APSD’s Farm to School program?

Besides sweet potatoes, sweet corn is another possible “Farm to School” item currently grown to some extent by Avoyelles Parish farmers. Most corn in the parish is used for livestock feed.

Sugar cane and soybeans must be processed elsewhere before they would be table-ready for the school cafeteria. There are also small vegetable stands around the parish selling seasonal produce, such as okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, satsumas, watermelons, blueberries and other items.

County Agent Justin Dufour said he is intrigued by the program and is interested to see how the school district implements it and if more suppliers step forward to work with the district.

ABUNDANCE OF GARDENS

“We have an abundance of home gardens in Avoyelles,” Dufour said. “Most make a really nice garden and produce more than they need. They share with neighbors and exchange their produce for those from a neighbor’s garden.

“However, we do not have much commercial vegetable production here,” he continued. “We do have some large gardens that sell their produce on the roadside or at the farmers markets, but not large enough to be classified a commercial venture.”

Dufour said there may be enough sweet corn grown in the parish to participate in the Farm to School program.

“Some schools have gardens, but most are small and are not sufficient to supply vegetables to the school,” Dufour said. “This program may open the door to establishing more school gardens and expanding those gardens.”

Welch also noted the large number of small producers in the parish.

“There are many small vegetable garden farmers in the parish who may not be able to provide produce for all of the schools, but might be able to serve one or two schools,” Welch said.

“For example, Bunkie High is planning to grow strawberries as part of its ag program,” she continued. “They may not be able to grow enough for all the schools, but we hope to be able to use them to cut up for salads for the high school and possibly Bunkie Elementary.”

The hope is that the schools will someday be able to secure a good variety of fresh vegetables and other produce from local producers.

NOT A NEW IDEA
Purchasing local products is not a new idea. It has been a practice in some districts for several years. Statewide in the 2013-14 school year, schools purchased more than $10 million of locally produced food items, including milk, AgCenter Farm-to-School specialist Crystal Robertson said.

She noted that almost 31 percent of school districts have plans to purchase more local foods for their schools.

The Louisiana Farm to School Program is funded with restricted federal child nutrition program state administrative funds, Robertson said. The program supports activities such as developing an inventory of farming operations throughout the state and fostering relationships between schools and local farmers. It also helps school districts include local farmers, food processors and suppliers in the procurement process, she added. It also provides procurement guidelines for farmers and schools and guidance concerning proper equipment required to prepare fresh food.

The program works to integrate classroom and hands-on activities related to agriculture, food, health and nutrition into the school curricula and develop farm to school resource materials for local schools and farmers, including a Louisiana Farm to School Handbook.

“Farm to School activities are already taking place across the state,” Robertson said, “so we are looking forward to supporting those efforts as well as inspiring new partnerships and providing a strong foundation for growth.”

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