You are what you eat

Schools struggle to get students to eat their (local) vegetables

By Lindsay Berrigan

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Last Thursday, Tufts University's Medford campus hosted a meeting where local growers, distributors and school dining representatives discussed concerns about buying and serving locally grown produce.

Much talk focused on the definition of "local" produce, meat and dairy products. While Vermont law requires "local" produce to originate within 30 miles of the sale, Massachusetts has no such law. Distributors decide for themselves what local means. Many buyers said that "local" produce often comes packed in generic boxes with no indication of where it was actually grown.

Costs are also an issue, as buying from small farms can be pricier than buying wholesale.

Parkhurst Dining Services, based in Pennsylvania, is one of the companies trying to ease these worries while fusing conventional distribution with local products and ecological responsibility. Jamie Moore, director of sourcing and sustainability at Parkhurst said the company distributes to 36 universities and businesses, mostly in Pennsylvania, but is looking to expand to Massachusetts colleges, and bid (but lost) for a contract with Clark University in Worcester.

Parkhurst buys about 20 percent of its produce locally (within 125 miles of the distributor), while keeping costs close to those of distributing giants like Aramark and Sodexo. To resolve traceability issues, Moore requires some distributors to print the farm name and pack date on the outside of the box and place a business card inside.

Mark Curran, co-owner of Black River Produce Co., said local food politics are a relatively new phenomenon, led by students. "When I was in college, it wasn't one of my concerns where my food came from," Curran said. "But students today seem to care about that."

Massachusetts colleges are rife with student organizations pushing for localization. The Real Food Challenge is a national campaign of students trying to redirect at least 20 percent of all food purchased by colleges toward "real food," meaning ethically produced and sustainable goods, within 10 years. Most schools involved are from the Northeast; Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Tufts, and three of the UMass campuses have already signed on. Siv Lie, a BU student and organizer for the campus' Slow Food chapter, said much involvement came out of the Real Food Summit, a meeting of 150 students from 48 colleges, held last November at Yale. "There's a lot of schools that are on board in name," said Lie. "But obviously some are more involved than others."

Claire Kozower, nutrition outreach coordinator for Somerville public schools, says younger children are a harder sell.

"At colleges, these kids are into it and they want it, but it's hard when you're dealing with kids who don't even want to put a fresh vegetable in their mouth," said Kozower.

Massachusetts doesn't make it easy for them. Public school districts are allowed to purchase up to $25,000 worth of Massachusetts-grown produce each year. If they want more, they must bid in advance for contracts with local distributors.

Somerville public schools didn't win a bid this year, then reached their $25,000 limit in February, according to Kozower.

"Local is the new organic," said grower John Lee, a Boston farm owner. The 2007 Oxford word of the year? Locavore, meaning one who seeks out locally produced food.