Locally grown food a hit in schools
By Carol Stender
cstender@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 10/06/2011 10:00 AM
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BENSON, Minn. — Jeanine Bowman didn't panic when she received 1,800 ears of locally grown sweet corn in late August. Instead, she prepared it with other fresh, local foods in the Morris Area School's hot lunch program.
Bowman is food service director for the Morris Area and Benson School Districts. Over the last three years, the schools have added more locally grown fruits, vegetables and minimally processed foods to the menu.
The school districts are among 123 Minnesota schools taking part in the Farm to School initiative. The schools have been celebrating Farm to School month during September. Farm to School encourages the use of local foods. It's a win-win for growers, for schools that participate and for the community as students connect the foods they eat with the farmers who grow it.
"I never understood why we couldn't use locally grown foods in the past," said Bowman, who was a general manager at the Willmar Perkins restaurant for 10 years.
She became food service director at the Benson School District nine years ago and the Morris Area district three years ago, she said. Bowman said Morris Area School used local produce in its lunch program and wanted to do the same in Benson.
Her efforts started slow, she said.
Bowman got Minnesota-harvested wild rice from an Aitkin-based company. She added beef hot dogs made from lowline Angus raised on Prairie Horizons farm and processed at a Hancock processing plant.
The Morris Area's ag department did a "foraging class" that involved students helping Bowman find local foods. She also visited farmers markets to talk about the schools' needs for local produce.
She purchases honey from the Peterson family and Honey and Herbs, both near Benson. Pork is raised by a local farmer. Through Morris Area's ag department, she receives vegetables raised in the school garden and ag department's greenhouse.
The program is a hit with students. Kohlrabi, squash, broccoli, turnips, parsnips, squash, pumpkin and more are included in the menu.
The food service staff and head cooks have embraced Farm to School. They are developing and testing recipes.
Sometimes the fresh vegetables are steamed. Squash and pumpkins are baked.
Meals include shredded pork with red-skinned roasted potatoes or chicken breast with wild rice.
Bowman has learned not to pair certain food items — like potatoes, which need peeling, and pork chops, which need the cooks' attention.
Sometimes the produce is ready in mid-summer. It isn't a problem, she said. Schools can't can vegetables, but they can freeze them.
Bowman grew up on a Benson-area dairy farm as the youngest of the family's six children. Her parents fed their large family from their large garden.
Her parents still plant a garden and have brought their abundant produce to the school to share, she said.
She takes the term local to heart and purchases somebakery items from the Benson bakery. The bakery uses organic whole grains with some of the grains produced locally in Milan, she said.
Bowman makes sure each vegetable is featured more than once in the monthly meal plans. Sometimes students aren't familiar with a vegetable, but food service staff provide information detailing the vegetable.
Bowman has gotten into the locally grown act. She brought cherry tomatoes from her own garden for the schools' salad bar.