Bringing Local Food to Schools

It’s National Farm to School Month, and our Food Hub is excited to celebrate our partnerships with local schools. Did you know that we deliver regionally grown food to more than 30 schools in our area? Each new school we work with means more students have access to local and nutritious foods.

Since July 2021, K-12 schools have purchased nearly $100,000 in local products from Food Connects—that’s more local dollars going back to our community and farmers! Vermont public schools alone totaled over $70k, $43k of which came from Vermont producers.

The Windham Northeast Supervisory Union’s (WNESU) Farm to School Cafe is a major contributor to this success. Over the summer, Harley Sterling, the School Nutrition Director for WNESU, and his team made weekly food boxes for hundreds of kids, ensuring all students had access to food throughout the summer. Stay tuned for more about this project! Or check out their holiday highlight or Cafeterias Unknown feature.  

Other than these great stories, we’ve introduced some new, school-focused products to schools.

1. The Bread Shed: “Humble Whole Wheat Loaf”

   • At 54% whole wheat, this product meets USDA regulations for the National School Lunch Program.

   • We distributed samples to schools and sold over 200 loaves since the start of the school year.

2. Miller Farm: 8 oz bottles of whole milk

   • Since late August, Food Connects has already sold more than 600 bottles to school. 

   • The bottles work well in private schools and as a special feature or part of “a la carte” sections in public schools.

If you haven’t heard already, there is a new local food purchasing incentive for schools in Vermont. “Act 67 created a pilot program that would temporarily establish a tiered incentive for public schools to purchase food from Vermont’s farmers: buy 15% local products, receive 15 cents back for every lunch served. The law also creates 20% and 25% tiers.” This means that the more local food purchased and the more students served, the more school nutrition programs benefit. And our Food Hub is ready to help by providing a plethora of quality Vermont products through our wide network.

Since the start of September, Vermont public schools have purchased over $14k food from Food Connects. Between already established purchasing practices and the new local purchasing incentive, $11k of these sales are from Vermont producers—totaling over 75% of purchases. Some of the farms and producers that are seeing sales to local schools include:

• Eggs from Maple Meadow Farm in Salisbury, VT

• Apples from Dutton Berry Farm in Newfane, VT, and Green Mountain Orchard in Putney, VT

• Pears from Champlain Orchards in Shoreham, VT

• Yogurt from Green Mountain Creamery in Brattleboro, VT

• A variety of veggies from Harlow Farm and Allen Brothers in Westminster, VT, in addition to Milkweed Farm in Guilford, VT

We also have a new partner in Karen Russo, Director of the Child Nutrition Program at Orange Southwest School District. Karen started ordering from Food Connects at the start of the 2021-22 school year, and her passion to feed her students nutritious and local foods has been evident from the start of our partnership. In her first month of deliveries alone, she has purchased a wide variety of fruits and veggies, including local apples, pears, carrots, corn, peppers, tomatoes, and so much more! In partnership with their Farm to School Coordinator, they will be making kale chips to serve over 400 kids across all of their elementary schools. 

We’re so excited that the school year is off to a great start. We can’t wait to see where our partnerships and local food purchasing incentive take us this school year!

New Farm to Table Campaign Honors Local Restaurants That Source From Monadnock Region Farms

The Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC), Food Connects, and the Monadnock Food Coop have joined forces to develop a "Local Food STAR Restaurant" campaign in our region. The goal of the marketing campaign is to connect the public with the finest farm-to-table dining experience in our region, as well as infuse much-needed income into the pockets of local farmers.

Farm to table dining has become the hallmark of communities that support local agriculture, providing rich culinary experiences using fresh, more flavorful ingredients frequently grown in sustainable and ethical ways. "We are very excited to honor Machina Arts Kitchen & ArtBar with our first Monadnock Local Food STAR Restaurant designation," says Roe-Ann Tasoulas, MFCC director. "Machina Arts Kitchen & ArtBar's commitment to local farms and great food is evident to anyone who has the pleasure to dine in this cool, innovative restaurant."

Machina Arts was founded in 2013 by Danya Landis and Rebecca Hamilton to address the need for an art-based cultural experience. "Over the years, Machina has transformed from a homegrown arts collective into a business offering a full-service Farm to Table Restaurant and Artbar," according to co-founder, Danya Landis. "We pay attention to each ingredient that goes into our food and drinks, providing customers with the highest quality and best-tasting food while supporting our local farmers." Chef Jordan Scott continues, "purchasing locally and ethically is a commitment to our local community and economy and we have built that commitment into our business from day one."

A Monadnock Local Food STAR Restaurant sources from at least 4 Monadnock Region farms in one year. Selected restaurants receive a free toolkit of materials—window decals, logos for menus, and for use on social media platforms, as well as other items—designating their business as a STAR Restaurant. Additionally, they will enjoy a feature story in the Monadnock Table Magazine and will be listed as a STAR Restaurant on MFCC's website.

"We hope that this program will incentivize restaurants to purchase from farmers and local food producers throughout the region, increasing the economic impact in our local community," says Laura Carbonneau, Food Connects Marketing & Outreach Manager. Food Connects works with restaurants throughout the region to help them purchase source-identified local food.

Machina Kitchen & ArtBar is located on 9 Court Street in Keene, NH. Reservations can be made at 603-903-0011. Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 4:00 PM - 11:00 PM.

To apply to become a Monadnock Local Food STAR Restaurant, contact coordinator@mfccoalition.org.

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Machina Kitchen & ArtBar's mission is to cultivate art and vibrancy through food, gallery installations, design, and experiential events, with a focus on breaking boundaries, exceptional quality, service, ethical sourcing, and community building.

The Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition is a coalition of 140 member organizations that come together regularly to build a sustainable local food system by cultivating community action and building collaboration to implement effective programs, projects, and policies.

Food Connects is an entrepreneurial nonprofit that delivers locally produced food through its Food Hub, and offers farm to school educational and consulting services.

The Monadnock Food Coop is cooperatively owned and operated by people in our community, and exists to meet our community’s need for:

• An accessible, community-owned downtown food market

• A marketplace that welcomes and connects community

• A healthy, sustainable food system

• The support of local farmers and producers

• Appropriate education and training for the community

• A strong, sustainable and improving local economy

Locally Rooted: Farms and Food in the Monadnock Region

As part of NH Eats Local Month the Monadnock International Film Festival (MONIFF), Monadnock Food Co-op (MFC), and Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC) hosted a virtual screening of Locally Rooted—a locally produced documentary by 710 Main Films. Locally Rooted follows the story of four local farms and the impact that the Farm Fund, a partnership between MFC and the Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD), has had on their farms.

Formed in 2017, the Farm Fund’s mission is to support local farmers in increasing sustainable food production and wholesale sales to contribute to a thriving local farm economy. The partnership between MFC and CCCD allows for a wide range of promotion and fundraising—through individual donations and the co-op’s Round It Up program. Farmers can apply to this local grant opportunity to help create vital infrastructure on their farms to continue to grow their business. The Farm Fund awarded over $59,000 in grants to 14 different farms, many of whom are Food Connects producers, since it began.

The film highlights the 2019 recipients of the Farm Fund and their infrastructure projects.

• Archway Farm: Owned by Mark Florenz in Keene, NH, built a new walk-in freezer to store his own pasture-raised pork.

• Echo Farm Puddings: Owned by sisters Beth and Courtney Hodge in Hinsdale, NH, updated their 20-year-old packaging machine for a more reliable and efficient machine that could add larger food service containers.

• Tracie's Community Farm, LLC: Owned by Tracie Lock in Fitzwilliam, NH, added a 6-row seeder to increase productivity.

• Manning Hill Farm: Owned by Sam Canonica and Sarah Costa in Winchester, NH, purchased a large, energy-efficient cooler to increase the storage capacity of their grass-fed milk.

The Locally Rooted event boasted a vibrant panel discussion with Mark Florenz, Beth Hodge, Jack Rixey (manager of Tracie’s Community Farm), and Greg Pregent, 710 Main Films filmmaker. One of the strongest points of discussion was how the process and details of this particular grant are helpful and different from other grant opportunities. The grant is easy to apply to, opening in late fall every year. And it is extremely flexible—there is a “tendency of a project to fit the grant” says Mark, versus.actully fitting the goals and needs of a farm. When Echo Farm was unsure about whether or not to purchase the new packaging machine, the infrastructure they knew they needed, the grant helped them take that plunge and on their terms.

This grant is unique for farmers, Beth noted, because it focuses on infrastructure, while other grants they come across are typically for marketing and development. “This program does an excellent job nudging farm on the cusp,” said Mark, helping scale-up small to medium-sized farms that will drive our local farm economy.

And local food increasingly at the forefront of community members’ minds. It is “very telling that most people turned to local farms (during COVID-19)” says Jack. Tracie’s Community Farm saw many new customers “come into the fold.” While not all may continue to purchase locally as their main source of food it is the foundation for future relationships. At Food Connects, our sales are increasing dramatically throughout the pandemic. Local food sales not only strengthen our local economy but also create more opportunities for community building and collaboration.

And the growth of these farms doesn’t stop here. There is a wide wishlist, from dry storage to alternative energy that will help fortify their positions in the local food market. Beth put it perfectly, that there’s “gotta be ways we can help each other,” through increased community partnerships and support for local businesses. We are excited to collaborate and grow with these farms and look forward to seeing the recipients for 2021!