Western Washington Food Systems Partnership

WSDA Farm to School Q&A

WSDA Farm to School Q&A Responses by Annette Slonim, Farm to School Lead, WSDA Regional Markets Program

Links to Washington Farm to School (F2S) Resources:

Events:

Questions & Answers

Q:   School districts often lack the equipment and can’t afford the labor costs to process fresh produce. Are you seeing more farms doing value-added processed products, more local processing facilities, or more districts getting equipment to process in their own kitchens?

A:   Anecdotally, we are seeing a little bit of everything. It just depends on the different funding streams that are coming in and what producers and schools can access.

In the second year of the F2S Purchasing Grants, we allowed funds to be used for kitchen equipment that would support the use of more local foods (e.g., chef knives, commercial mixers, tilt skillets, industrial food processors). Since the pandemic, a lot of districts’ kitchens are under-staffed and that impacts things, but by making investments in small equipment, they can process food faster. They may not use local food every day but may bring in a special farm product once a week or once a month.

Through another WSDA grant, we were able to offer meat processing grants as well as local food system infrastructure grants. We have seen really nice synergy with producers that have received those grants also engaging in F2S sales and using their grants to create value-added products. One example is that Puget Sound Food Hub has a partnership with Cloud Mountain Farm Center to add some processing equipment to create chopped greens, cubed squash, and other products that are aligned well with the school market.

Another great resource for farmers is Valued Added Producer Grants that are out right now. I was speaking with a farmer who is looking at freezing berries as a way to maintain markets year-round. Schools can never have enough frozen berries. 

Q:  What kinds of novel local items have you seen on school districts’ menus in the winter months when local food is more scarce?

A:   Micro greens is an interesting item we’ve seen. It’s something fresh that can be grown year-round. We also see a lot of yogurt, cheese, frozen berries, and dried fruit. In schools that are able to do processing, we see squashes, and staples like carrots, onions, and potatoes.

With the purchasing grants, we have seen a lot of local proteins (e.g., all cuts of meat, sausages, chickens). Not every school district has the equipment and infrastructure to cook meat from scratch. School kitchens are licensed by their local Health Dept. for specific activities. Some school kitchens are only licensed for heat and serve. If they want to start cooking from scratch, they need to get appropriate permits from the Health Dept.

We have seen partnerships between schools and local bakeries and local mills. For example, in Chewelah, WA there is a small shop called The Bread Box and they buy local flour and bake all their breads in house. There are a lot of very small school districts out there. They told the Bread Box they had a purchasing grant that required at least 51% of the flour to be from Washington. The Bread Box created a product that met school nutrition requirements and the schools were able to support this local bakery. In Bellingham Schools, they buy Focaccia and other breads from Avenue Bread. They are made with local grains and flours from Cairnspring Mills. The F2S purchasing grants allowed for further growth and larger volume purchasing of these types of products.

Q:   Distribution is always an issue, especially with smaller districts. It’s hard to get them food from local farms affordably. What are you seeing that is helping to solve that issue, and what is the role food hubs play?

A:  We do track how food gets to districts, asking whether they are purchasing through a distributor, directly from the farm, a processor, or a retail outlet. In the first period of the grant, about 50% of WA products were still sourced through a distributor (e.g., Charlie’s or a broadliner). We have seen a change with about 20% of products being purchased through a food hub and about 25% being purchased directly from farms.

For larger school districts, food hubs can be a real benefit because the districts are needing higher volumes that might be more than one farm can provide. So the food hub plays a great role in being able to aggregate products from lots of small producers. It can be challenging for small school districts that aren’t able to meet the minimum quantities food hubs set.

It also depends where a school district needs delivery. Some have a central kitchen or central warehouse and everything they receive goes to one location, which is ideal. In other cases, they could have satellite kitchens throughout their city or region that need delivery and no one can really make that work. The district won’t be able to get local product at every school on the same day at the same time, but they could get delivery for some schools on one day and another location another day. It takes a lot of planning and coordination.

North of Spokane, a food hub, LINC, is delivering to another community partner, Rural Resources Community Action, and Rural Resources runs a truck on an eight-hour route through multiple counties doing pick-ups and deliveries to schools and farms. A lot goes into making these F2S relationships happen. The food hubs play a really critical role in being able to connect small farms that don’t have their own distribution or ability to make trips into cities or urban centers where schools are located.

Q:   How can smaller farms benefit from F2S? It is difficult to compete with businesses like Charlie’s and Natural Harvest. They are so huge, and distribution can be a challenge. Are there specific ways in which some of these opportunities are available to our organization (Wakulima USA) to support the work that we do?

A:   There is definitely a place in F2S for smaller farms, especially if you are growing more specialty items. The opportunity comes down to building a relationship with the Food Service Director at your local school district, and finding the fit for your product. Do they want to do a single purchase for a special feature on a special day, or a couple of recurring small purchases? Can they come and pick up the products, or is there a location at once school site that is not too far away from where your growers are located so it’s not an undo burden on you to make the deliveruydelivery to the district. It’s really about finding the right fit. Start with learning which districts are in your area and who you can reach out to.

That’s also what we’re here for. We could schedule a phone call to discuss the products you grow and identify key people to talk to. It’s a process and not every product is going to be a fit for every school. It’s finding the school buyers who are interested in developing those relationships.

Q:  Where do you get your research and information about school gardens? We’ve been trying to get one set up for a long time and are hitting a brick wall. It would be great to have facts like you shared.

A:  You can use my presentation and take it to your school board and ask, “How can we make this happen here?” On the WSDA F2S Toolkit we have a small section on school gardens as well as school wellness policies, which is a good place to start. You could also look on the State F2S Network website at the School Gardens and Farm-based Education Community of Practice page to learn about other school garden efforts in WA state. You also can search by region to see who in your county is engaged in F2S and in what ways. That is a way to build regional partnerships.