Farmers can't sell to state's schools

DELMAR - The strawberries just turning red on an Eastern Shore field here could end up on plates almost anywhere - just not on cafeteria trays at a middle school down the road.

Wicomico County farmer Patrick Hochmuth remembers when farmers used to deliver produce to local schools, but now the only local outlets for his 15 acres of produce are farmers' markets. That's because schools aren't set up to accept local produce, leading to a Byzantine national food distribution grid where apples from Maryland end up in South Carolina but aren't served in local schools.

"The trouble is that major school systems, to get what they want, they deal with a wholesaler," Hochmuth said.

A bill awaiting the governor's signature aims to change that. It's part of a national Farm-To-School movement that's headed to Maryland to put more local produce on cafeteria trays. The twin missions of helping local farmers and trimming fuel costs for shipping food found unanimous approval from legislators.

The bill would start a "Maryland Homegrown" week in school cafeterias and encourage schools to teach kids about local agriculture through field trips to farms. Some states display posters of local farmers in cafeterias so children in lunch lines learn where their food comes from.

"This is a great idea," said Bobi Crispins, who grows fruits, vegetables and flowers in Millersville but doesn't sell to local schools.

Asked why she doesn't sell to three schools near her farm, Crispins said: "I never could figure that out. I tell you the truth, I can see in the fall and winter when nothing's in season. But when you have things in season, the kids could have food hours from being picked instead of a few days from being picked."

It's a lot more complicated than it sounds to get produce from across the street into a school, though. Schools are bound by U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines that sometimes leave them with only 90 cents per meal to spend on food. Bidding laws mean schools often aren't allowed to spend more on produce grown locally.

Schools need orders placed months in advance, and they often aren't equipped to handle simple preparation work such as peeling carrots or scrubbing dirt-crusted potatoes.

The limitations result in the cafeteria food everyone remembers: canned fruit salad, frozen vegetable medleys and salad bars populated by limp iceberg lettuce and wooden grated carrots.

"The food services in most schools aren't usually prepared to deal with whole foods," said Janet Bachmann of the Arkansas-based National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, a USDA-funded agency that promotes local foods in schools. "They want something that's at least partially prepared and ready to pop in the oven."

Maryland's bill would put educators in touch with state Department of Agriculture marketing folks to figure out how to put products. Officials in other states have said that schools and farms are enthusiastic about the idea of local food in cafeterias, but they need a go-between to set it up.

"They did want to purchase local, but they didn't know whether they could or not, how would they do it, would there be the quantity, would the price be in line," said Chris Kirby, program administrator for Oklahoma's Farm-To-School Program.

Oklahoma started serving locally grown melons in a few schools in 2002, and now that state's melon program has grown to hundreds of schools.

Kirby said agriculture education and more local produce in cafeterias help address childhood obesity, too. When kids learn about agriculture, they get curious about trying new foods.

"I've seen kids get excited about beets and turnips and radishes because they pulled it out of the ground," Kirby said. "But if you hand a kid a beet and say, 'Eat this, it's good for you,' they say 'Eww.'"

The obesity problem has more states willing to invest more in school food than before.

"I'd say in the past five years, it's gained a lot of momentum," Bachmann said. "People are saying, 'Good grief. Our kids are eating such junk.'"

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