Local Flavor: The Benefits of Keeping School Lunch Local

For one week each fall, schoolchildren across Maine look forward to some of the tastiest school lunches of the year, and with every bite, they enjoy the satisfaction of knowing they are supporting local farmers, fishermen, growers, and processors. However, many in Maine, including John Rebar, executive director of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Nancy McBrady of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine, are working to transform a one-week emphasis on local food in public schools into a yearlong practice.

“Maine is a leader nationally in selling food locally,” explains Rebar. “But because foodservice was often based on a heat-and-serve approach – selling into schools has presented a significant challenge for growers over many decades.” Nonetheless, the attitude toward local foods is rapidly changing, and Maine just may be ready for a new era of local institutional food.

Local school lunches

Rebar and McBrady are working to stimulate conversations about bringing more locally grown foods – like Wild Blueberries, apples, broccoli, carrots and cabbage – to Maine’s schools.

During last year’s academic year, Maine served a whopping 24.7 million lunches, according to Stephanie Stambach, Child Nutrition Services at the Maine Department of Education and the state’s farm to school coordinator. This year, the majority of Maine’s 620 K-12 public schools will participate in Maine Harvest Lunch Week, which ran from September 19-23.

“Maine Harvest Lunch Week has a dual purpose,” explains Stambach, “to promote fresh, local foods in Maine’s school cafeterias and to teach students where their food comes from,” she notes. “Some will dedicate one day to providing local products; whereas others will spread local items throughout the week.”

Portland Public Schools To Serve Local Foods

At Portland Public Schools, nearly 10,000 elementary lunches will be served over Maine Harvest Lunch Week, according to Dawn Hilton, Portland Public Schools Food Service Director. Each day will focus on a particular Maine ingredient. On one particular day, for example, all of the city’s elementary schools will incorporate Wild Blueberries on their menus, a move that directly supports the state’s Wild Blueberry industry.

wild blueberries of Maine

“I believe Wild Blueberries have a special place in Maine Harvest Lunch Week because you can’t get more Maine than that,” noted Stambach.  “I think a lot of schools want to support our Wild Blueberry growers and this is a perfect way to do that.”

Portland Public Schools sourced its Wild Blueberries from Wyman’s of Maine, one of the state’s largest Wild Blueberry growers and processors, which harvests and processes Wild Blueberries that are grown on its own fields and on fields owned by independent families and growers in Down East, Maine.

“It’s fantastic to know that kids across Maine will be both learning about and enjoying the incredible agricultural bounty of our state,” says McBrady, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine.  “By choosing to serve locally-grown, harvested and processed foods, the schools are supporting an entire industry and a unique way of life here in Maine.”

“The Commission supports the Maine Harvest Lunch Week and is also ramping up efforts to increase year-round frozen Wild Blueberry consumption in schools through concerted outreach and promotion” McBrady adds.  “It’s easy for Maine schools to incorporate frozen Wild Blueberries into their menus, especially since blueberries are universally loved and can easily be used as an ingredient in breakfast items like smoothies and parfaits, and lunch items like salads and sauces.  Wild blueberries are delicious, nutritious, and can be served year-round as part of a healthy diet, especially since they are primarily sold as a frozen product.”

A Program That Was Ahead of its Time

Maine Harvest Lunch Week was a 1980s-era Maine Department of Education invention launched ahead of its time, before the state had experienced a historic local foods and school garden renaissance.  The program was axed in the 1990s due to state budget cuts, and resurrected in 2005. Since then, a nationally recognized local food movement and a heroic school garden crusade have augmented the initiative in Maine.

During Harvest Lunch Week, local Maine products will be incorporated into school menus across Maine. These high-quality, nutritious, locally sourced meals will reinforce what’s being taught in the classroom, where students are learning about the science of food from seed to plate, and about the power of local economies.

Eating Local? If Not, Something’s Fishy

Something fishy happened recently to a Wild About Health reader.

On a quest to buy fish in the midcoast Maine area, he found swordfish from a local monger. It had just come in that day – from Uruguay. “Why am I buying fish from that far away when I live in midcoast Maine?” lamented local food aficionado D. Speer. “And,” he added, “it may have been ‘just in’, but when was this fish actually caught?”

It’s the irony of global food commerce. Lisa Turner, owner of Freeport Maine’s Laughing Stock Farm reasons in her new book The Eat Local Cookbook that while it’s a wonderful thing that crops like wild blueberries from our state can be enjoyed by others around the world in the same way she enjoys imported foods like coffee, what doesn’t make sense is buying imported apple juice when cider is available down the street. Her book – a cookbook of seasonal recipes – is based on making meals that take advantage of local treasures that actually are down the street, with a heavy slant toward vegetables and unprocessed foods.

So, how did the swordfish turn out? Speer was frank: “It was mushy.”

Small Growers

A benefit of living in the state of Maine is that local growers are everywhere. There are over 160 farms and over 6500 “shares” in Maine – some are big, some are small, some harvest herbs, some mushrooms; some grow veggies, while some offer milk and cheese. Community residents commit themselves to buying local, and farmers reciprocate by providing the best product they can. As a result, thousands of dollars remain within communities rather than being distributed around the globe.

More than ever, Maine communities are embracing the local food movement. One notable model exists in Washington County, where the Machias Marketplace provides a local buying club for residents.

One day each week, fresh, local food straight from farmers is brought to about 100 families and to the local co-op, providing residents with access to fruits and veggies, milk, meat and baked goods.

Another hint that local, seasonal eating is a growing passion in the state can be found in the trove of seasonal cooking classes and books that focus on seasonal cooking. As a complement to books like Turner’s, a series of classes taking place this spring and summer at the Portland Public Market in southern Maine adopts a hands-on approach. As part of the series, sponsored by the Maine Real Food Project, local chef Frank Giglio teaches attendees how to cook directly from the state’s bounty – both land and sea.

Reasons to Eat Local

Perhaps the best reason to eat local is that your health will benefit. You’ll get plenty of whole, unprocessed foods as well as a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. But there are plenty of reasons in addition to health to start eating primarily food in your proximity.

  • If you are experiencing meal-making ennui, eating local can throw a wrench into your cooking, in a good way. You’ll be forced to do new things and get inspiration from new ingredients.
  • It’s all about flavor. Plain and simple, local foods are given a chance to ripen longer, and that means better taste. Foods that travel to get to your local store are usually picked prematurely so they keep longer. Those foods rate high on looks but low on flavor. (That’s why IQF, or individually quick frozen foods, are a great alternative in winter, or any season when fresh isn’t accessible.) And, when food travels less, that’s better for the environment.
  • Another reason that local foods shine in health? Because the nutrients of prematurely picked foods suffer, too. Farmers also make efforts to use nutrient-rich soil and reduce the use of chemicals. Ask a local farmer about their growing methods.
  • Eating local is good for the local economy, and it supports local land development. In addition to supporting your neighborhood farmer, it keeps dollars close to home.
  • Finally, eating local is fun. Picking up local foods means you are making a connection with the earth, with your community, and with local farmers. You get to make colorful choices, and pick from a variety of options. And that will make you feel not just healthier, but happier.

5 Ways to Start

Inspired to start eating local? It’s the perfect time! Here’s five great ways to start:

1. Find a farm. If you are in Maine, you can use the MOFGA website’s food map to find the closest farm near you, or head over to Eat Maine Foods for a map of your closest CSAs. Then, get to know the ropes of local farms so you feel at home there. You can use our tips for shopping farmer’s markets.

2. Commit to spending a set amount of your grocery budget on local food. Try one-third to one-half to start. In the summer, depending on you accessibility, there is often no reason to purchase non-local produce, and local meats are available from farms and some markets.

3. Join those who eat only food grown in a 100-mile radius of wherever they live. Or, start smaller by deciding to make one meal a day out of strictly local foods.

4. Try one new local/seasonal fruit or vegetable each time you shop.

5. Buy a cookbook that provides recipes based on the season like Turner’s Eat Local, or take a class on eating local, seasonal foods.

What’s your community doing to foster healthy eating through local food? Give us a comment or email us at editor(at)wildblueberries.com and let us know!