Farm to School Program in Massena: Healthy Food Initiative Bringing Pride to Local Community
“Would you like cucumbers or cherry tomatoes?,” a staff member at the Messena Elementary School cafeteria asks two first-graders.
“I like cucumbers better!” one youthfully shouts.
“Tomatoes for me!” exclaims the other as he eagerly sticks out his tray, awaiting the fresh fruit. The two kids are lucky enough to be in a district that participates in the Farm to School program, a nationwide network that aims to bring healthy local food to kids.
Each week, the kitchen at Messena Central Schools receives 95 pounds of fresh lettuce and 45 dozen fresh eggs to distribute among the more than 2,500 students. In addition, the school district receives fresh corn, peppers, meat and many other ingredients to cook with. While due to budget and supply constraints it is impossible to make every meal with solely fresh food, a few times a week the district has “Farm to School Days”. On these days the majority of the meals are made with food from local farms.
“When I got here, we were serving chicken nuggets, corn and a roll for lunch. I felt like that was not the best we could do,” says Kristin Colarusso-Martin, food service director for Massena Central Schools. Colarusso-Martin joined the district eight years ago and says that the program took her some time to figure out. The USDA has an incredible number of rules set into place to ensure kids are getting healthy and safe meals. Because of this, the school must find vendors who fit all standards that deem food fit for student lunches. Additionally, she must find farmers who have the quantity that the school is looking for. It takes a lot of food to feed over 2,500 kids. Through Farm to School, Colarusso-Martin aims to put as much of the $1 million school district food budget back into the community as possible. She believes that the program is a way for the community to find an identity and have something to be proud of.
Since starting in the late 1990s, Farm to School has reached all fifty states, and as the program continues to grow, so does the connection between local communities, students and the food they eat. This connection not only puts good meals in front of students but also benefits homegrown economies. A 2019 USDA Farm to School census found that over 71 percent of schools in the nation have adopted Farm to School. This translates to $1.26 billion pushed back into local agriculture each year.
But why is it important for students to have access to nutritious meals? According to the CDC, the National School Lunch Program serves almost 5 billion school lunches a year. These meals are what fuel students as they learn. The healthier the food is, the more successful students will be in school. With nutrition having been linked to brain development, memory, energy, focus and even anxiety and depression, there is no denying that it is important for students to be served healthy meals at school. Additionally, kids may not be having these needs met at home. According to a study done by Tufts University, kids may be getting healthier meals at school than most adults are eating in the country. Farm to School ensures kids with the healthy meals they need to learn and grow.
One challenge that Colarusso-Martin faces is creating a menu that the students like. “I have to come up with food that the kids want to eat because we are reimbursed by meal,” she says. She tackles this problem with an interesting solution: a student advisory group that tells her and the kitchen staff what the students want to eat. So far, one of the most popular items on the menu has been fresh, crunchy vegetables. In response to this, the high school has added a permanent salad prep cook position to ensure everyone’s favorites are always available. “How long will it take you to do the eggs this week?” Colarusso-Martin asks Liz the salad prep cook.
“Being that they are fresh, they are hard to peel, and I’ve got about 50 dozen to do on Monday, that’ll take me two or three hours,” Liz says. “I also have almost 100 pounds of lettuce coming in.”
Another initiative that the school is taking on is the addition of native meals into the food program. Most recently, this has taken the form of Three Sisters Salad, a Native American dish that consists of corn, black beans and squash. The school likes to emphasize the importance of these meals, as 20 percent of students who attend Massena School District are Native American. These native dishes don’t come around once a year; instead, the school offers them to students a few times a month.
An aspect of Farm to School that is often overlooked is the educational benefit: teaching students the importance of food systems and where our food comes from. One Messena elementary teacher was conducting a unit on food systems and was pleasantly surprised to find that this was during a Farm to School Day. Happily, she walked her students to the cafeteria, where they were able to explore the wonders that local agriculture can produce. As the program continues to expand in Messena, so will the opportunities for students. On the horizon are plans for school gardens, which will teach the students more about where their food comes from and about how to practice sustainable agriculture. Additionally, the school plans to add even more local foods to meals. As the program continues to grow so will students’ knowledge and pride of their local food systems.
At Massena High School, the lunchroom sits empty as staff bustle around getting everything ready for the rush. For now, the salad bar—which is full of fresh greens, veggies, eggs and other toppings—is tidy, but this won’t last long. A tremendous ring resonates through the halls, and hungry high school students begin to stampede toward the idle lunchroom. Today’s lunch is pizza and salad bar, a favorite among the students. While they aren’t required to take a salad, almost every tray that passes the register has a large helping of fresh veggies alongside the pizza.