Making connections: Workshop helps to get local food in school lunchrooms

Posted Thursday, August 26, 2010 5:56 am

PUTNEY -- During the next week, teachers from all over Windham County will be in their classrooms getting ready for the first day of school.

Parents will be doing their last minute back-to-school shopping while students will be counting down the last days of summer.

And at the Putney School, Tuesday, cafeteria workers from the region met to talk about ways to increase the amount of local food students will be served this school year.

The Windham Farm Chef workshop, hosted by the Windham Farm Food Network, brought together chefs and farmers to share recipes and ideas and to strengthen the regional food network, which has been spreading deeper into the school food system.

"As we've been getting this going, it has hit me that making connections is the most important thing to do," said Hans Estrin, director of the food network. "The people who are doing this are the priceless commodities that are making it happen."

Estrin started the Windham Farm Food Network two seasons ago, after he heard more and more food service managers say that they would order more local food if it was easier to do.

He worked with Paul Harlow, a Westminster organic farmer who was sending a truck out twice a week anyway, and developed an online ordering system that was easy to use and up-to-date.

As the first day of school approaches, Estrin invited food service workers and managers to the Putney School kitchen to make connections, share recipes and deepen their commitment to the local food movement.

"Some of these chefs will be stepping out on a limb as they try to integrate more local food onto their menus," Estrin said. "It helps when you talk to other people who have been through it."

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At the workshop Tuesday, the chefs spent the morning harvesting green beans from the Putney School garden.

They then moved into the kitchen to prepare a full meal using mostly local produce.

In one corner of the kitchen, a chef worked on a quinoa salad recipe she had just found, while two other chefs worked at a stove, cooking a pot of carrot-ginger soup.

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In the back of the kitchen, a few others were putting together trays of apple crisp featuring freshly harvested Green Mountain Orchard apples, which were picked just across the street.

"Really, one of the main reasons we are doing this is because our community is demanding it," explained Brandon Lesmerises, who works at Brattleboro Union High School and was preparing a Thai salad dressing with local herbs and hot peppers. "People realize this is important. It's important for wellness and for the local economy, and we want to give them what they want."

One of the ways he has been able to help the chefs is by talking to a large group of local farmers, finding out what is available and then making it convenient for the schools to order the produce and pay for it.

As the program has grown, Estrin has been able to bring the prices down, which has been a barrier in the past to bringing more local food into the kitchens.

Marty Brennan Sawyer, who has been managing the Putney School kitchen for more than 20 years, said Estrin's food network has made it easier to get more local food onto the daily menu.

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"It's been exciting. And as it it grows, more food is available," he said. "In just the past 18 months, we have seen a big change. Things are changing rapidly and there are really fewer and fewer barriers."

Jennifer Dusenbery, a regional food service manager for Abbey Group, works with schools in Hinsdale, N.H., and Guilford.

She said the company has made a commitment to serving more local food and has begun to work the economics of including more local food into their annual budgets.

This summer, Brittany Baudoin cooked for a summer camp in Hinsdale and spent part of the summer loading the school freezer with local food. When school starts, Baudoin will have frozen, local strawberries and carrots and beets to work with.

At the workshop Tuesday, Baudoin and Dusenbery worked on a new quinoa salad with summer squash and tomatoes which Baudoin said will probably end up in the school's salad bar this year.

"We can't wait to start serving this," said Baudoin. "When it tastes this good, everyone gets excited about it."

Last year, the University of Vermont Extension funded Estrin's work as he developed the program. However, that funding will be ending soon and Estrin is trying to figure out how to make the program sustainable.

Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reform-er.com or 802-254-2311 ext. 279.