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Meeting Notes

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All across our nation, Farm to School programs are emerging as communities work

together toward the common goal of connecting local sources of healthy, just, and

sustainable food to our school cafeteria plates. It is never an over-night success, but a

collaborative process requiring a great deal of communication, visioning, planning,

and implementation. The Farm-to-School Hive is one of many conversations going on

around our community which are helping shape our Farm-to-School system. Thank you

for participating in the conversation and be sure to keep it going among your friends,

neighbors and schools.

Special thanks to IDEAS FOR US for the Hive collaboration solution and some of the local

folks that fuel this conversation:

OUR SPECIAL GUESTS

Lindsey Grubbs, Florida Farm to School Lead at the Florida Department of

Agriculture and Consumer Services

Christina Walmer, Northwest Florida District Coordinator, Florida Farm to School UF-

IFAS

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS

Cathy Reed, Director of Leon County Schools Food and Nutrition Services

Reggie Glover, Student at Rickards High School

Cetta Barnhart, Project Coordinator at Seed Time Harvest Farms

Katie Harris, Certified Naturally Grown Farmer at Full Earth Farms

OUR SUPPORT TEAM

Heidi Copeland, Extension Agent of Family & Consumer Sciences at IFAS Extension

Nathan Ballentine, iGrow Youth Farm and Tallahassee Food Network

Alexandra Quintero, Masters Student at FSU Department of Urban & Regional

Planning

Justin Vandenbroeck, Graduate in Industrial Engineering at FAMU/FSU School of

Engineering

Wes Shaffer, Masters Student at FSU Department of Urban & Regional Planning

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HIVE MEETING OVERVIEW

We begin our meeting with a short

presentation about what Farm-to-School (F2S) is.

On the surface, F2S is exactly what it seems like;

connecting our local and regional farm produce

to our school cafeterias. As we explore the idea

further, we realize that the opportunities for F2S

are tremendous because healthy food not only

fuels our students’ but is a conduit for exploring

all sorts of educational opportunities in science,

technology, engineering, math,

entrepreneurship, and more.

We then speak with Lindsey Grubs via

Google Hangout. From the 7th National Farm to

Cafeteria Conference in Austin, Texas, Lindsay

shares with us all the ways that the Florida

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service

are moving F2S forward statewide. They are a

source of information, coordination support, and

of course creative ideas!

Next our panel of F2S experts paints the

local picture of some of the challenges and

opportunities for F2S. Cathy Reed describes

her aspirations for procuring the freshest food

possible however there are infrastructure

challenges in that she is not always able to

store and process fresh foods. Reggie Glover,

a fan of LCS cafeteria food, reminds us of how

important eating healthy is for academic

success and how there are many student

leaders pushing our fresh food system forward!

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Cetta Barnhart illustrates an interesting

phenomenon in which she witnesses beautiful

produce going to waste in farm fields near

Tallahassee. She exclaims that this oversupply

is a coordination issue which Seed Time Harvest

works to resolve. Katie Harris details the

complete opposite issue she experiences on

the Red Hills Online Market (rhomarket.com),

not enough food to meet demand. Many of

these issues seem to overlap and potentially

have similar solutions. We explore these and

other issues during Nathan Ballentine’s Open-

Space Technology Break-out Session.

OPEN-SPACE TECHNOLOGY BREAK-OUT SESSION

Members of our audience champion specific

topics relating to F2S by announcing their

interest – their location in the room becomes

the anchor for where people meet to discuss

that topic. The remaining audience members

then openly walk to the topic anchors and the

discussion begins. Our topics include:

Important Certification Requirements

Distribution

Farmer Interest

School Garden Network

Nutrition Education

Making fresh food appetizing and

reducing plate waste

Kitchen Staffing

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CERTIFICATIONS – REQUIREMENTS TO

DO FARM TO SCHOOL

Maybe need a list of certifications

Good Agricultural Processes (GAP)

o Cost depends on size of

farm, deems your

agricultural practices safe

for the consumer,

protection for farmer and

consumer

o Auditor: Primus – Third party,

expensive, private ($90-

$100/hour), usually 5 hours

Requirements to do Farm to School

They want GAP certification for

farmers and distribute on

Would be good to find a way for small growers with high productivity to farm to school

I want to create a Prezi on how to get GAP certification

Distributers denote GAP certification on packaging

Potential Resources: Can we get a link with F2S farmer/distributer certification info?

DISTRIBUTION

County funded study on financial viability of a new distribution center

Blue Oven incubator in Gainesville, FL

Costs that go into creating distribution center need to be established

Co-operative model farming model and need for farmers education

ECO has a model for farmer co-operative owned distribution center

How are we going to share information within this group as a whole

Food waste issues could potentially be solved with farmer planting schedules and Leon County

School System having talk about demand

How much land would we need for a distribution center? – Must be close to I-10 and other major

truck routes

Potential Resources:

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Blue Oven Kitchens main site –http://www.blueovenkitchens.org/about/

Examples from Blue Oven Kitchens’ website:

1. North Central Florida Food Safety Certification –IFAS Food Safety and Quality Program

http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/foodsafety/indexfsqp.htm#registration

2. Workshops and Training

3. For a full list of resources from Blue Oven Kitchens

http://www.blueovenkitchens.org/resources/

USDA Report on Co-op Distribution Models

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=stelprdc5097504

INTEREST FROM LOCAL GROWERS

1. Price – is it worth it?

2. Quality – can the school district pay fort the quality?

3. Community interest – we need community pressure

Potential Resources:

Co-op Distribution Models

Adam Diamond, James Barham. Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food

Distribution. USDA Marketing Service. 2012.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=stelprdc5097504

SCHOOL GARDENS

Easy to get a garden, but maintaining is tricky

o Garden coordinator – implementation plan from the get go

Schools are autonomous, so knowing who has a garden is tricky

o Kate Sullivan is balling out

o Kids sneaking away to garden

o Creating meaningful experiences

District wide infrastructure – people not food

Training students in surrounding communities to be ambassadors

NUTRITION EDUCATION (INFORMATION DISSEMINATION)

Evaluate where the strengths are for their desired involvement

o This has a number of complications:

o This program is for children (let’s not lose sight of that)

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o How important is education in this?

Ghazvini – ecological, cultural, as well as a program

Curriculum centered around food

Food can make people more interested about school

2 educating potentials

1. Agrinauts

2. Curriculum ---(Agrinaut curriculum)

Personalizing nutrition

o Consider:

o Classroom

o Garden

o Home Life

Issues

o Dealing with the political reality of education

o Teachers

Talked about F2S grant requirements

o Evaluation (SHED FSU)

o Education requirement

Potential Resources: Local Garden Links

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FOOD IS APPETIZING AND CONSUMED WITH LIMITED PLATE WASTE

Cycle menus

Appeal

Seasoning

Forced to eat – recess

Variety

Own options of what to eat instead of not being able to pick food I want choices

LABOR KITCHEN STAFF

1. More preparation involved – staff is used to heating and serving (chef in 3 schools- chili and salad

dressing)

2. Staff follows directions to a “T”

3. Creating more prep cook positions in schools might facilitate the work of the staff

4. Train to use equipment

How to instill pride in staff?

Paid approximately $8.50, baker, cook, manager, assistant

Pre-blended seasoning (eliminate room for error)

Turn kitchen into processing type plant – 60,000 big freezer, quick chill system

I want to make them step back and have more pride in cooking

I want to talk to entire staff about SML

I want kids to like the feel of the lunchroom making kids wants to eat there

o Title One schools eat more than others

CONCLUSION

This is a general overview of our conversation. In truth, this document does not capture every great

idea from this Hive event. Please feel free to make edits to this document, add value and resources

to it, share it with friends, and continue the conversation. We greatly appreciate your participation

and hope that you leave with more enthusiasm and direction than when you originally arrive. For

additional questions or comments you may contact Wes Shaffer at (239) 682-4434 or

thomaswesleyshaffer@gmail.com. Thank you again!