An Aroostook County woman’s healthy eating crusade that links farms with local schools is getting attention from lawmakers and farmers statewide as she promotes the value of getting school kids healthy local foods.
What started earlier this year as a small pilot program of the Maine Department of Education’s Regional Local Foods Project, led by coordinator Roxanne Bruce, has blossomed to include most of the county’s schools.
As a result of the program, students are now eating and growing their own produce, local farmers are contracting with school nutrition programs, and lawmakers are expected to visit Aroostook County next week to see how it all works.
Childhood food insecurity is higher than the state average in these districts, said Colleen Frawley, advocacy manager for Full Plates, Full Potential. Getting a first-hand look at school nutrition programs and hearing from the people who cook for and serve The County’s children with limited resources every day is really important for lawmakers, she said.
“It is really important for lawmakers as they make budget and policy decisions to protect these federal programs in Maine,” Frawley said.
With the help of Full Plates, Full Potential, five state lawmakers will be going to four County schools for breakfast and lunch to see Bruce in action next week. The legislative cohort includes senators Trey Stewart and Susan Bernard, and state representatives Tracy Quint, Mark Babin, and Joseph Underwood. Bruce hopes they will take her up on her infamous edible insect food challenges.
“At one of the schools we are doing a parfait bar. The kids are making yogurt parfaits,” she said. “And at another we are tasting three different kinds of potatoes. It will be easy for them to interact with the kids.”
Bruce, who has a doctorate in business administration focused on agricultural marketing, wears several “good food” hats that blend well together as she teaches farmers how to market differently, helps school nutrition directors buy and use locally grown foods, and shows kids how foods they thought they hated can taste good — or at least better than edible crickets.
To get kids to try carrots, beets or other fresh vegetables, Bruce gives them a choice, carrots or an edible insect. About half try both and some choose only the insect, she said, adding that she has also prepared cricket powder muffins that kids love to try.
Every day she’s on the road to a farm, a school or both as the regional local foods project coordinator as well as the manager of the northern Maine FarmDrop hub and a member of the newly created Aroostook County Food Council.
Just this week, Bruce began working with County schools and farms to negotiate so-called forward contracts to lock in quantities and price. As Bruce explains it, she asks school nutrition directors how much produce they will need for the year and how much they can pay. So instead of ordering from a national purveyor, the schools can keep much of their fresh food needs within the local community.
For example, she has one school that needs 800 pounds of carrots at $1.89 per pound and they need to buy 200 pounds at a time, she said. And then she finds local farms who can meet the criteria.
“The farms are thrilled,” she said. “The schools pledge [to buy] a certain amount of produce and the farmers accept the pledge.”
Bruce’s efforts to link farms and schools is an innovative way to make sure kids eat healthy because USDA reimbursement rates and benefits currently force institutions to buy the cheapest food possible, not the healthiest, said Frawley, adding that Maine schools cannot afford to purchase, prepare, or serve local food on the federal reimbursement rate alone.
“They can’t recruit or train staff with culinary experience and skills and we don’t have the equipment or space, and the state has a school construction funding crisis,” she said. “We provide technical support and grants to school meal programs and want to showcase the important work of these school nutrition programs in feeding children in Aroostook.“
Bruce said she is always looking for more farms to work with as long as they are from Maine and can transport food to the northern-most parts of the state.
As an example, Maine fresh grown wholesaler Peak Season from Freedom makes regular trips north with their Maine grown farm products including yogurt, apples, squash, carrots and Good Crust bread, she said.
“Once the connections are in place, we can all work together more smoothly and let our community grow,” Bruce said.
