MIDDLETOWN—As schools in Orange County prepare to welcome students, food service directors are planning how to make their budgets stretch to serve the best lunches possible. Several districts are committed to the Farm to School program for students who have qualified for a free or reduced school lunch.
Four school districts in Orange County take advantage of Farm to School funding--Newburgh, Middletown, Port Jervis, and Valley Central. The grant is based on the free and reduced lunch population.
Stiles Najac, food security coordinator for Cornell Cooperative Extension, drives the Glean Mobile, an 18-foot refrigerated box truck throughout the county. She connects local farmers with food service managers in schools as part of the two-year Farm to School grant.
The USDA’s Farm to School grants help schools receive fresh produce and local farmers to sell produce at its peak. The Cornell Extension works to help school food service professionals get involved and consider them the cornerstones of the program. The Extension partners with the county’s Department of Health to implement the grant.
Najac is in charge of procurement and works directly with the local farmer or distributor. “Creating a thriving farm-to-school program takes a lot of buy-in” she says. “You have to locate the people who are the most interested because they are going to be the ones who carry it until it’s established.”
Constraints in Food Service
Food service directors face daunting budgetary constraints. “They have a certain dollar that they are looking for. It is actually up to the farmer to meet that,” said Najac.
Bob, Glohs, director of Food Services for SUNY Orange-Middletown, manages two food stops at the college. The Shepard Center cafeteria serves breakfast and lunch weekdays and a salad bar. The Sarah Wells Café in the Rowley Center offers soups, artisan salads, pizza, burgers, “gourmet” hot dogs and a “WAF Stop” for custom waffles.
Both eateries are cash operations and compete with 40 places to eat within a mile of the campus. Like most Americans, college students have developed a taste for fast food. “There is still that strong element that wants their fries and hamburgers. That’s the way they were brought up.” Glohs sees this changing, somewhat. “Students are becoming more and more sophisticated in what they are eating.”
The Middletown school district has been using local produce for years. The Farm to School and other federal programs support 75 percent of the district’s students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Director of Food Service Eileen Goodman said she only buys local produce.
