This year, the Brattleboro Union High School cafeteria has added local foods to its vending machine! Alongside more traditional vending machine snacks, Brattleboro Area Food Service Director Ali West is now stocking Brattleboro’s own True North Granola, Montpelier-based Garuka Bars, Rutland-based Sugar Bob’s Finest Kind, and Providence Rhode Island-based Shri Bark Snacks, all sourced from the Food Connects Food Hub.
The youngest Oak Grove School community members recently completed a delicious in-depth study of local foods, gardening, and cooking! Oak Grove School’s Pre-K program was one of the 2021 Early Childhood Education CSA grant recipients through the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. In its first year, this grant subsidizes 80% of the cost of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm share at the Vermont farm of your choice. Oak Grove’s Pre-K chose to work with Full Plate Farm in Dummerston, VT.
13 lucky 4 to 5-year-old students got to enjoy many locally grown treats this year, including radishes, kale, beets, scallions, brussels sprouts, and winter squash. It was their first time trying some of these new flavors for many students. Pre-K staff Jen Tourville and Jamie Champney and garden coordinator Tara Gordon found creative ways to inspire the students to try new things. Adding mystery to the tasting lessons was one successful approach—from the five senses mystery box to mystery smoothies, student curiosity was encouraged.
Each week, Jen and Tara put a different produce item into the five senses mystery box—an oatmeal container with a sock sleeve attached by a rubber band. They invited the students to put their hand in and feel the item and describe it with words, strengthening their language skills while also piquing their curiosity.
Recently, Jamie made a mystery smoothie for the class with bananas, frozen berries, yogurt, and a mystery ingredient (spinach). “Some students had never been willing to taste a smoothie before because they were already convinced that they wouldn’t like it,” Jamie said. “Adding mystery to the activity made all students curious enough to try it, and big surprise—they all liked it!” After they had tasted the smoothie and made guesses about the secret ingredient, Jamie revealed the spinach to her surprised students.
Produce that arrived weekly in the CSA share helped students make a connection to their school garden, where many of the same plants were growing. Tara regularly took students to the garden to harvest produce, and they combined their school garden-grown produce with produce from Full Plate Farm to cook some delicious recipes. The class cooked twice a week throughout the season, which was new and wonderful! Here are several of the most popular things they made:
Fresh vegetable spring rolls
Many soups, including stone soup and root vegetable soup
Sweet and salty radishes
Coleslaw
Jamie shared that often the students’ first response to the idea of new food was, “Yuck, I don’t like this!” but she discovered that when they cut the veggies into fun shapes or tried adding interesting flavors, for example, agave syrup to change the flavor of the radishes, students were pleasantly surprised to learn that in fact, they did like that food after all! For the more reluctant students, Tara introduced a five senses taste test, where the students closed their eyes and sometimes even plugged their noses when trying new food to focus on the texture of the food in their mouths.
The entire Oak Grove community benefitted from this in-depth study of local food and cooking by the Pre-K in several ways:
Food cooked by the Pre-K was often shared with school staff as a special meal. The staff got to enjoy several different soups and a root vegetable casserole prepared by the students and their teachers.
Bags of extra fresh produce were sent home regularly for students to share with their families. The produce came with a small sample of the meal that the students had made in school and the recipe, and families were encouraged to try the same recipe at home.
Extra produce was also shared with other classrooms in the school. For example, Erek Tuma’s 4th-grade class benefitted from pre-K’s abundance of kale for their kale Harvest of the Month taste test.
The classroom curriculum connections were particularly rich, linking cooking, gardening, and produce exploration with science and literacy. A visit from Ragan Anderson supported the program, nutrition educator from the Brattleboro Food Co-op, who came into the classroom, read stories with the students, and did a cooking project featuring butternut squash.
Jamie is already thinking about what she will do differently next season to improve the program. Some of her goals are:
Increase family feedback and family engagement. For example, send home every recipe with ingredients and invite families into school to participate in cooking and harvesting.
Build more community throughout the school. For example, have cooking buddies from other classes and cook for other classes.
Cook something once a week for staff.
Overall, this program was a huge success! As a result, the students are very excited about the school garden, and they look forward to cooking and gardening as a regular part of their weekly routine. Support from garden coordinator Tara Gordon was a key component to the success of this program, allowing students to spend time in the garden every week and engage in cooking activities throughout the whole season.
We are thrilled to highlight the new Local Purchasing Incentive, which passed into law in Vermont this past spring. This exciting new grant program available through the Vermont Agency of Education incentivizes schools to buy more foods grown or produced in Vermont. Offering a reimbursement of 15 cents per lunch served during the 2020-2021 school year and up to 25 cents per lunch served in subsequent years, this grant has the potential to transform school lunch in great ways by getting more fresh, local food into the lunch program while supporting the Vermont agricultural and food production economy.
Linked here is an FAQ Food Connects has put together about the new program. This FAQ is not an official Agency of Education policy. Still, it is a tool that Food Connects created to help schools begin to strategize about this while the AOE works out how to implement the program in the coming months.
We are working closely with school nutrition directors and administrators on this. Please reach out to farmtoschool@foodconnects.org if you would like to learn more!
Apple orchards, sweet potato fields, and diversified farms. School nutrition professionals gathered on farms across the state this past August; for many, it was the first time seeing their colleagues from other schools since the start of the pandemic.
Jointly hosted by Food Connects, VT FEED, and the School Nutrition Association of Vermont, these workshops were a time for school nutrition professionals to connect with farmers, think about local purchasing, and the opportunities of a new state bill that incentivizes buying Vermont products for their programs. In addition to touring the host farm, participants prepared a menu item that featured local products from the farm and met the school lunch meal pattern guidelines. There was also plenty of time for everyone to share stories from the past year and hear about what’s been working and what hasn’t been.
“The past 18 months have been especially hard on school nutrition professionals,” says Helen Rortvedt, Farm to School Program Director for NOFA-VT & VT FEED. “Working from home was never an option for them, and the need for healthy meals has only increased. It’s vitally important to have the time to come together, share best practices, and plan for restoring or expanding their local purchasing plans for the coming school year with colleagues.”
Made possible by a 2020 USDA Farm to School Implementation grant, participants got an inside look into the operations and hurdles local farmers contend with and discussed ways to get more of their products into school meals. A common theme throughout each of the workshops was the similarities between both professions in regards to the constant logistical details they had to consider—what’s the best packaging option for food, the constant battle for cold storage space, and how do you get your food to consumers (whether that be customers or students).
At the forefront of everyone’s minds was the local purchasing incentive recently passed by the Vermont legislature. Schools have incredibly low budgets for food (under $1.50 per meal), making it difficult for them to buy high-quality, locally produced foods. This new grant will help by reimbursing schools that use local ingredients in their meals. Given how new the program is, everyone has questions about what implementation will look like.
Food Connects is a natural partner for schools looking to increase local purchasing. The Farm to School Program works with school nutrition professionals, educators, and administrators to increase nutrition and farming education in classrooms, building interest in and demand for local foods by students. Once the demand is there, the Food Hub can deliver food from over 150 producers right to the school, providing schools an easy and affordable way to participate in the local food system.
At the beginning of the pandemic, local leaders in Springfield and Chester stepped up to organize new and familiar resources to feed their communities.
Trish Paradis, executive director of The Springfield Family Center (SCF), an institution that has been serving the community for almost 50 years, adapted services to support the increased nutrition need due to COVID-19. At the same time, Christopher Meyer, a Chester native, and Jason Tostrup, owner of The Free Range, began serving restaurant meals and meal kits for community members through their new non-profit, Chester Helping Hands (CHH).
“We were collaborating, sharing resources and supporting each other,” said Paradis. “When we heard about the potential for Everyone Eats! funding, we decided we could partner as a hub and better serve our region.”
SFC and CHH were awarded CARES Act funding to serve as the regional hub for Everyone Eats! (EE!), a restaurant stimulus and community food program, which has distributed over 17,000 meals since the summer.
EE! is not only feeding the community, it is also benefiting local restaurants. As the regional hub, The Springfield Family Center and Chester Helping Hands collaborate with 11 restaurants to distribute food at 10 different distribution sites in Springfield, Chester, Ludlow, Rockingham, Bellows Falls, Cavendish, and Londonderry.
This unique community food program creates opportunities for hard-working organizations, chefs, and individuals to do meaningful work in their own communities.
“We are really grateful to be a part of this program,” shared Nick Matush, head chef and co-owner of The Copper Fox in Springfield. “In these next few weeks, with tourism especially low, Everyone Eats! will really help keep us afloat. It puts money in our pockets when we’re typically closed and that has been a big help for us.”
Everyone Eats! is not only meant to support local restaurants but also local farmers. 10% of the food served must be purchased locally, which has connected local farms with local chefs. At the Copper Fox, Everyone Eats! meals are a way to utilize the local ingredients they already purchase.
“The Everyone Eats! menu changes depending on what we have but because our restaurant has a local focus, we are typically above the 10% requirement. We’ve made some vegetarian options like quinoa veggie bowls and rice and beans plus we’ve made beef stew, shepherds pie, BBQ chicken, and more. Any time we serve beef it is from our locally raised, grass-fed cows. We’re proud to be serving our community high-quality food through this program.”
Everyone Eats! Springfield will continue feeding the community, putting local chefs to work, buying from local farmers, and strengthening local networks until the end of December.
Everyone Eats! meals can be picked up at The Springfield Family Center Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and in the Springfield Plaza on November 18 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.
Chester Helping Hands distributes meals, first come, first served on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in front of Southern Pie Cafe on the Green in Chester. Registration required for delivery.
Want to support the continued efforts of these local organizations?
Follow The Springfield Family Center and Chester Helping Hands to learn about opportunities to donate and volunteer.
Looking for a locally made meal? Check out www.vteveryoneats.org for more information on finding a distribution site near you.
Creates a tiered local purchasing incentive for Vermont schools and correctional facilities.
Reimburses schools annually for local purchasing. Reimbursements would start at 15 cents per plate when at least 15% of ingredients are purchased locally. This would go up to 20 cents per plate at 20% and top out at 25 cents per plate at 25% and above.
Defines the broadest definition of local as grown or produced in Vermont or within 30 miles of Vermont. Processed foods would need to be made in Vermont and contain at least 75% locally sourced ingredients.
Provides an additional full-time position in the Child Nutrition Programs at the Vermont Agency of Education to assist schools in purchasing more local foods.
Schools in Vermont have a lot of buying power. $15.5 million was spent on food by School Nutrition Programs in 2018 and over half that money comes from outside the state via federal funding. If we’re able to create a stronger incentive to purchase food locally, we can keep more of that $15.5 million within our communities. This translates to higher quality meals and a stronger economy. The case for local food was apparent during the pandemic when shocks to national food chains demonstrated the resilience of local food. Leveraging schools to buy more local can help farms grow and develop a more robust local food system to protect our community against future uncertainty.
Local purchasing incentives are gaining traction regionally as well. New York currently has the most generous program in operation—any district that spends at least 30% of their food dollars within the state gets their state reimbursement quadrupled, from 6 to 25 cents per meal. A similar proposal is currently being crafted by a working group in New Hampshire. Nationally, the Small Farm to School Act was introduced in July and would take the incentivized local purchasing model nationwide.
Senator Balint and Sheila Humphreys of Food Connects chat with kindergarteners during breakfast after the bell at Green Street School.
In the Vermont Senate, there are 12 co-sponsors of the bill, including Senator Becca Balint from Windham County, Senators Dick McCormack and Alison Clarkson from Windsor County, and Senator Brian Campion from Bennington County.
The bill passed the Senate Committee on Agriculture with a favorable report and is now being reviewed by the Committee on Appropriations. Last action was taken on March 12th, 2020, and as normal Senate procedures resume we hope to see more action.
To learn more about how money is currently spent on school nutrition and what the impact could be if redirected locally, check out this info booklet from VT FEED and VT FTS Network.
Everyone Eats! Brattleboro (EE!B)—a restaurant stimulus and community food program—will continue through the end of 2020 thanks to a $654,210 grant from the state. The program brings nutritional relief, care, and comfort to the community and vital financial support to local restaurants.
To date, the program—which served as the pilot for a statewide rollout—has distributed over 11,950 meals to over 3,000 households while directly paying local businesses $120,000. These strong numbers enabled EE!B to ramp up to 850 meals per day for September through December 10, broadening the reach of the program.
The initial 4-week pilot worked with 9 Brattleboro restaurants to prepare meals four days a week. With the extension of the program, Shin-La and Echo Restaurant have been added to the line-up and its Program Director, Stephanie Bonin, is working to add others.
Residents in Brattleboro, Putney, Dummerston, Guilford, and Vernon can continue to pick up meals at 80 Flat Street in Brattleboro, Monday through Thursday until December 10th. Pick up is from 4 - 6 pm daily. Meals are free for everyone and no registration is required. Local social service organizations can also sign up directly for meals to provide to their clients. Please see https://www.brattleboro.com/EveryoneEats for more information.
New Everyone Eats! programs are cropping up statewide, with 10 “hubs” already created. As new programs get started, organizers look to Everyone Eats! Brattleboro for best practices. The program gained national recognition with coverage from NBC shining a spotlight on Vermont’s successful community response to the pandemic.
Restaurants involved: Dosa Kitchen, Yalla, duo Restaurant, Echo, A Vermont Table, The Porch, Masala House, Hazel, Shin-La, Mama Sezz, and The Works.
Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (DBA) is a non-profit whose mission is to promote the vitality of downtown, the primary center of commerce, culture, and community life for Brattleboro and the surrounding area. DBA is the official non-profit Designated Downtown Organization for the Town of Brattleboro, providing access to grants, technical assistance, and networking opportunities.
Food Connects is an entrepreneurial non-profit that delivers locally produced food as well as educational and consulting services aimed at transforming local food systems.
The Hunger Council of the Windham Region is a group of community leaders and organizations dedicated to ending hunger and malnutrition in the Windham Region. The Hunger Council of the Windham Region is part of the Hunger Councils of Vermont, which are coordinated by Hunger Free Vermont.
Vermont Foodbank is the state’s largest hunger-relief organization, providing nutritious food through a network of more than 300 community partners. The mission of the Vermont Foodbank is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry.
One of the mantras of Farm to School is the three C’s—classrooms, cafeterias, and communities. Of the three, cafeterias are arguably the most complicated—federal nutritional guidelines dictate much of what is served, complicated funding and eligibility formulas heavily influence School Nutrition Programs’ finances, and procurement regulations add to the pile of paperwork on Food Service Directors' desks.
In an effort to simplify all this, many districts contract out the work of feeding their students to Food Service Management Companies (FSMC, usually for-profit companies). Economies of scale and specialized experience in the field can give these companies a competitive edge and increased efficiency of feeding kids. There can exist a tension between school meal affordability and quality and the profit motive inherently tied to for-profit businesses. Similar discussions are playing out in other areas of American life where public services are privatized—healthcare, prisons, and schools at large.
For our discussion today it means that behind the scenes at the most local level, an individual school’s cafeteria, there are two bureaucracies sharing responsibility—the school administration and the FSMC. That can make effecting change more difficult and clear communication essential. It effects what students are eating every day. To get a better picture of the landscape of school lunches in southeastern Vermont, check out our Cafeteria Unknown stories.
Every five years, a district’s food service contract needs to be re-bid, which is when the school nutrition contract is open to the public for other companies and individuals to bid. This can be a time to reflect on the current state of school meals and reassess what values the district wants to elevate—this could include incorporating more local foods, improving meal quality, or moving towards universal meals. Springfield School District (SSD) completed its contract rebid this spring and staff from Food Connects, the Department of Health, and Springfield Hospital worked with the school staff to update the nutritional guidelines in their wellness policy.
Beth Brothers, SSD’s Health Coordinator, led this effort on the wellness team, which also serves as the district’s nutrition advisory council. Given the team’s interest in nutrition, it was a natural fit for them to take on much of the work in preparation for the contract being re-bid. Laurie Colgan, former State Director for Child Nutrition Programs, was contracted to manage the entire process and the wellness team dug into recommendations for nutritional changes.
Of all the bids received, one stood out to Beth and many others on the review committee. The Abbey Group, a Vermont-based FSMC, ultimately won the contract. In addition to being a local company, their bid stood out to Beth because of the emphasis placed on nutrition education for their staff. The commitment to professional development and higher wages helped the Abbey Group’s bid rise to the top.
Beth is excited to see what the new program looks like for SSD’s students this coming fall. Despite uncertainty over what school will look like, Beth and the wellness team hopes to see more local and healthy foods on the menu. She’s excited about starting a new relationship with the Abbey Group. When looking back on the entire process, Beth reflected that “the thing I have seen the biggest need for is stronger communication and collaboration.” It’ll be with that takeaway in mind that the wellness team starts the new school
Our Farm to School Team: Sheila & Kate
FRUITS OF OUR LABOR
With the school year wrapped up and summer in full swing, Food Connect’s (FC) Farm to School team is switching gears! Before jumping into summer programming, we reflected on what we accomplished during the school year. We continue to be inspired by the progress our member schools are making in their Farm to School efforts. In fact, this school year:
7 new schools created Farm to School action plans
75% of FC member schools report significant progress was made on their action plan
77 educators participated in Farm to School professional development
6 schools received new funding for farm to school programming
89% of FC member schools were able to better integrate the “3 C’s of Farm to School” (classroom, cafeteria, community)
Farm to School programs are positively impacting the local economy by helping to reduce childhood hunger.
This year, local food purchasing by FC member schools increased by 43%! We know that for every dollar spent on local, 60 cents goes back to the local economy.
Nearly half of FC member schools saw an increase in breakfast and lunch participation by free and reduced students this year. Some of this can be attributed to new programming such as Breakfast After the Bell and Universal Meals.
Over 100 community organization and school staff received professional development to improve Farm to School programming.
NOURISHING OUR COMMUNITY
We are eager to stay connected to students and families throughout the summer when local farms are bursting with fresh produce. This summer, we will run two programs, including our Summer Garden Program and a new Local Food Taste Testing Program in collaboration with Retreat Farm.
The Summer Garden Program includes garden support for 5 local schools, ensuring that the gardens are healthy and ready to harvest come September. Tara Gordon, Green Street School Garden Coordinator, will lead summer programming at all 5 schools this year.
Local Food Taste Testing, led by Keene State College Dietetic Intern Carissa Brewton, will take place on Fridays throughout the summer at Retreat Farm, in conjunction with Summer Meals—free meals provided to students under the age of 18. Swing by the farm to sample fun foods and participate in Farm to School activities with your little ones.
PLANTING NEW SEEDS
Our Farm to School team is looking forward to piloting some new and innovative projects this fall. Sheila Humphreys, Food Connect’s Farm to School Coordinator, will be exploring connections between the Farm to School and Trauma Informed approaches to education this fall with WSESU educators and other school-based staff. She will partner with VT Trauma Informed expert, Joelle Van Lent, to host a day-long training for school counselors, nurses, behavior specialists, and food service professionals. This project is funded by the Thomas Thompson Trust and will span three years. Year two of the project will focus on creating cafeteria settings that are comfortable, peaceful, and conducive to making good food choices and year three will include work around youth engagement in farm to school programming.
This summer, Food Connects is preparing for its 5th Annual Farm to School Conference. With lots of new staff coming on board over the past two years, we took a break from organizing this event. But, this year WE ARE BACK! The conference will take place in April and will include an array of wonderful workshops on topics such as curriculum integration, marketing, cooking with kids, parent engagement, and more! Stay tuned for details.
Much of this summer will be dedicated to planning for the next school year. We have lots of great information to digest from our spring stakeholder survey and plenty of qualitative feedback to keep us energized and inspired. One of our favorite quotes was, “Food Connects is awesome. You guys are all over the map with the ways you support our district’s Farm to School efforts, and as we have said before, the most important thing you give us is a sense of friendship and community - a bunch of absolutely great people all working on a little piece of this food system revolution”. Viva la revolution!
