In early June, the Vermont Agency of Education announced that five school districts in the state had earned a Local Foods Incentive Grant by purchasing a sizable percentage of food used in their school cafeterias from Vermont farms during the 2021-22 school year.
Windham Northeast Supervisory Union and Windsor Central Supervisory Union earned 25 cents per cafeteria meal by buying more than 25 percent local foods. Burlington School District, Central Vermont Supervisory Union and Mount Abraham Unified School District will get 15 cents per school meal for buying more than 15 percent local foods.
The state legislature created the Local Foods Incentive Grant in 2021 as a way to promote high-quality school meals and provide a boost to local growers. In its inaugural year, 23 school districts were awarded a total of approximately $490,000 to help increase the amount of local food they purchase.
In its second year, however, the grant process became more competitive, with school nutrition programs required to account for the quantity of local food they purchased between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, by submitting receipts to the state in December, according to Harley Sterling, school nutrition director for Windham Northeast. During that period, Sterling’s district had the top percentage of Vermont-grown food in the state — 27 percent — which amounted to $137,000 spent at Vermont farms. The grant will provide an extra $27,600 to Sterling’s food budget next year.
Sterling said many of his favorite cafeteria recipes incorporate Vermont products. He uses Nitty Gritty Grain cornmeal to make corn bread and polenta and as a thickener in a chili-cheese sauce. The Charlotte-based grain company’s Wapsie Valley variety, which has red flecks in it, “makes pizza dough look so cool,” Sterling said.
The school district procures eggs, carrots, potatoes and greens of all kinds from Harlow Farm in Westminster, one of the largest organic farms in the state. Homemade ranch dressing for the salad bar is made with organic, grass-fed buttermilk from Butterworks Farm in Westfield. At one of the district’s elementary schools, Westminster Center School, a bountiful garden supplies kale, edible flowers, tomatoes and peppers to the cafeteria.
A veteran of restaurants, Sterling said it’s customary in that industry to purchase food on the cheap and try to make it look as fancy as possible. As a food service director, he’s doing the inverse — “trying to buy the best possible food you can find and pass it off as sloppy joes or nachos,” he said with a laugh.
That included 2,500 pounds of beef from Cloudland Farm in North Pomfret, a producer with which Windsor Central has had a relationship for years. Cafeteria staff use the meat to make homey dishes such as shepherd’s pie with local corn and potatoes, ground-beef tacos and meatballs. Windsor Central’s PB&J sandwiches have jam from Blake Hill Preserves in Windsor. Maple syrup from several nearby producers tops two popular dishes: chicken and waffles and buttermilk pancakes. Eggs are delivered weekly from Stockbridge’s Birdsong Farm, which is run by the high school’s Nordic skiing coach.
Czaja, who previously ran the kitchen at Woodstock Elementary School as an innovative “learning lab” to educate kids about healthy foods, said it feels good to be recognized.
“We’ve been doing it for years,” Czaja said of purchasing Vermont-grown food, “so to put a monetary value on it … actually shows we’re doing it instead of just saying the word ‘local’ or the word ‘Vermont.'”
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2023.
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