Schools and politicians call new local food incentive a win-win

This article is written by Ethan Weinstein, a freelance writer.

For years, Kindergarten to Grade 6 students at Westminster Center School had two options for lunch: a sun butter and jelly sandwich, or a main course made from local dishes and created by Harley. Sterling.

Sterling ran the kitchen at Westminster Center, serving his healthy alternatives to kids wary of new foods. There were days when the students were reluctant to take his meals, and Sterling’s patience waned.

“There were definitely times when you would get, like, 10 or 12 kids in a row having only sun butter and jelly,” he recalls. “One day I had a temper tantrum and I was like, ‘OK, you know what? We’re not going to serve sun butter and jelly anymore. You can have a sun-butter-alone sandwich.'”

Students have grown to appreciate Sterling’s farm-to-table fare – and now more students can participate. He has since become the director of school nutrition for the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, spreading his local food initiatives throughout the district. And thanks to a Vermont state law passed this year, it will cook with more local foods than ever before.

Signed by Gov. Phil Scott in July, Bill 67 created a pilot program that would temporarily establish a tiered incentive for public schools to buy food from Vermont farmers: buy 15% local produce, receive 15 cents in return for each lunch served. The law also creates levels of 20% and 25%.

Sterling welcomed the incentive. “I’m super excited,” he said. “And I think around the state there’s a lot of buzz.”

Last year, Windham Northeast spent about 20% of its $ 650,000 food budget on local produce. Sterling hopes to reach that same level this school year.

Directors of nutrition services, food distributors and politicians are calling the new law a win-win. They say cafeteria trays will contain healthier food and Vermont farmers will develop reliable and increased sources of income.

The legislature has allocated $ 500,000 to reimburse schools this school year as part of a pilot program. And for this year alone, schools can receive 15 cents per lunch without hitting the 15% threshold. Instead, to qualify, districts must submit a local food procurement plan, designate a staff member responsible for its implementation, develop a process for tracking local food purchases, and comply with local food procurement guidelines. state reporting requirements.

Senator Chris Pearson, P / D-Chittenden, deputy chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said lawmakers modeled the new law on similar incentives in New York and Oregon.

“I think a lot of food managers would like to buy more local food, but it can be more expensive than food from big producers, commodity markets, etc.,” he said. “So we are trying to recognize this cost and help schools bear it.”

Although the incentive is currently funded for one year, Pearson hopes and anticipates its renewal. “I would like to see it on a more permanent basis so that schools can more easily depend on it,” he said.

In the 2020-21 year, schools received between $ 3.61 and $ 4 in combined reimbursement per free or discounted lunch, according to the National Education Agency. But only $ 1 to $ 1.50 of that money is used to buy food, said Helen Rortvedt, farm manager at the school at Vermont FEED, a Shelburne-based organization that has been promoting such initiatives for more than 20 years. years.

“You add 15 to 25 cents, and that makes a dent,” she said.

Food prices continue to rise and reimbursements from the US Department of Agriculture have not kept pace.

“Schools have figured out what they can buy with their very limited budgets,” said Rortvedt. “The main obstacle that persists is the cost. “

Betsy Rosenbluth, program director at Vermont FEED, stressed the importance of the links between farmers and students that the new law will create. A 2014 report from the Vermont Agency of Education found that Vermont public schools spend $ 16 million on food annually. The more local foods you buy, the more connections you make between students and Vermont’s food systems.

When asked if the local food incentive would be fully subscribed in his first year, Rosenbluth replied, “I think it is possible.”

But no one knows for sure what will happen. Previously, the extent of local procurement tracking varied considerably from district to district, as did the definition of “local” for each district. Now schools must use the definition of local established by Bill 129, which sought to standardize the term statewide. Whole foods must be from Vermont or within a 30 mile radius of a school.

For border districts such as Windham Northeast, which includes schools in Westminster, Bellows Falls, Grafton and Saxtons River, Bill 129’s definition of “local” changes the way nutrition directors think about food supply. ingredients.

Sterling, the district nutrition director, was forced to find new producers to meet the legal thresholds.

“Ground beef is a very expensive and very important part of our program,” he said. “We make tacos, sloppy joes, shepherd’s pie. This is a huge thing. In previous years, Sterling had obtained beef from a Massachusetts farm 40 miles away. Now he’s going to move to a Vermont farm.

State food centers appear to be ready to help schools find products that meet the local definition of the new law. Food hubs bring together food from small and medium-sized farms, distributing it to a larger market that most farmers cannot handle on their own. Food Connects, a food hub in Brattleboro, distributes food to 30 schools in Vermont and New Hampshire. All of the products it sells are identified at source, making it easy for schools to record and report their local purchases when requesting a refund.

Tom Brewton, a local food sales associate at Food Connects, worked with school nutrition directors this summer to prepare for the first year of Act 67. “A lot of food service directors are just starting to get started. with the verbiage of the law, and we are trying to get ahead of that and help our districts as much as possible to apply for the program, ”he said.

In addition to supply chain support from hubs like Food Connects, the Education Agency plans to hire an administrator to work directly with school nutrition directors.

Since taking over restaurant operations from Windham Northeast in 2018, Sterling has become a statewide leader in bringing local produce to the cafeteria. He plans to continue to lead by example by reaching the highest levels of the new law.

“I really want to show that you can get to that 20% or 25%,” Sterling said. “If we can do it, I think there are a lot of people who can do it.”