05/29/07 Connecting Foods With Schools

Connecting Foods with Schools. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Bringing together locally grown and processed foods with Oregon schools is drawing a lot of interest and effort this spring. While state lawmakers continue to consider farm-to-school legislation, the Oregon Department of Agriculture has just completed a one-day meeting that brought together 24 local food processors with six major school districts interested in buying local. ROTH: Those six school districts represent almost a third of the purchasing power for the millions of breakfasts and lunches that are served to Oregon school kids every year. Gary Roth, administrator of ODA's Agricultural Development and Marketing Division, says the one-on-one meetings involved food service directors from such large districts as Portland, Beaverton, and Lake Oswego. Products sampled and considered ranged from fruits and vegetables to dairy products and baking goods- all local. The meeting was a success. ROTH: We've had several school districts tell us that there will be Oregon products they will have on the menus in the coming year that they would not have otherwise. The ultimate goal is to get healthy, nutritious local food as part of the 47 million school lunches and 22 million school breakfasts served in Oregon each year. Several other efforts to bring together schools, and local growers and processors are underway. Combined, all these efforts are building momentum and will result in better foods for school kids and a new market for Oregon agriculture. Roth says these latest efforts to get more local food products into schools is becoming an important objective for both schools and agriculture. ROTH: Getting Oregon products into Oregon schools absolutely fits with the buy local trend that we are seeing, not only in Oregon, but across the country. Roth says there is a great deal of interest in bringing local growers and processors together with interested school districts. That's why the ODA-sponsored meeting took place. ROTH: One of the reasons why everyone is so excited about having Oregon products in Oregon schools, it's not just because they are Oregon- although that's a very good reason- it's because they are fresh, they are local, and they are nutritious. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.