Students at a middle school in Hagerstown, Maryland, got to choose at lunch from among cups of fresh grapes, oranges, and watermelon, as well as sides of salad and squash, and pizza that was made with marinara sauce from locally grown tomatoes, the Herald & Mail reports.
Erin Hysom of the Maryland State Department of Education and Karen Fedor of the Maryland Department of Agriculture joined county school officials and representatives from State Farm Insurance for lunch at E Russell Hicks Middle School to celebrate the effort on the part of communities and schools to bring local produce to the lunch room.
The county’s food-service employees worked for about four weeks over the summer to make 11,000 pounds of the marinara sauce. That’s enough for about 38,000 slices and could last the whole year. (The sauce is also being used in non-pizza food items.)
“We know the kids are eating what they are taking,” the paper quoted Jody Francisco, manager of culinary development for the school system, as saying. She said that was why they accepted about $7,000 from State Farm Insurance to purchase food processing equipment to go into production making marinara sauce from locally grown tomatoes.
“First and foremost, we want to give product to our students at the peak of freshness, and so when you’re buying it from a local farm, you’re getting it straight from the field,” WHAG-TV quoted Jeffrey Proulx, supervisor of food and nutrition services for Washington County Public Schools, as saying. “It’s fresh, it’s tasty, it’s juicy, and that’s the way kids want it and that’s the way adults want it.”
Farm to School Month, which takes place annually during October, is a time to celebrate the connections between children and local food, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s website. “From taste tests in the cafeteria and nutrition education activities in the classroom, to farm visits and school garden harvest parties, schools, early care and education sites, farms, communities and organizations in all 50 states and DC join in the celebrations.”
The celebration was first announced by Congress in 2010 in hopes of improving child nutrition, supporting local economies, and educating children about the origins of food. Additional resources focused on farm to school are available on the USDA’s website.