Eat Local-Washington Grown Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Eating Washington-grown produce is the goal for many school districts across the state, but something that becomes more challenging with school-sized orders.
Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Hector Castro says they are helping expand “Eat Local First’s” online tool called the Washington Food & Farm Finder that now has a “Find a Wholesale Vendor” tab …
CASTRO … “There’s a lot of interest in the farm to school movement, and if you’re in a school district and you’re looking to source food for your cafeterias, for your students, you need it in greater volume than the average consumer.”
So, Castro says they’re helping make that connection …
CASTRO … “This is meant to help them find vendors in their area that can sort of meet that volume need. In addition, there are some features to the tool in some school districts buying the food is one part. They may have other factors that they have to consider when they’re purchasing the food. And so, there are other elements that are featured in the Find a Wholesaler tab.”
But schools, Castro says might be looking for certain wholesalers …
CASTRO … “Some of them are ways to fall back on like environmental and social practices, sustainability, other aspects that the school district might be concerned with in making their purchases, or that are things that they want to support. So, those are also features of this tool to help them better identify the wholesale producers that they want to work with.”
For more information, go to www.eatlocalfirst.org and learn more about Eat Local First Washington Food & Farm Finder.
