Essex High School Partners with Food Connects

When you were in school, did you know where your food was coming from? Was your cafeteria sourcing from a local farm? Were you excited about food and learning more about it? Luckily, the answer to most of these questions for students throughout the Essex Westford School District is a resounding “yes!”

Essex High School, and the district at large, started purchasing local food from Food Connects in late 2021. The school nutrition program started with products like cheese from 5 Generations Creamery (over 80 lbs already!—that’s a lot of cheese!) and sparkling beverages from Samara. As they continue to experiment with more local foods, the students are the ones who will see the real benefits.

To learn more about the program and where they are heading with local foods, we chatted with Meghan Martin, the Child Nutrition Administrative Assistant.

What made you decide to work with Food Connects?

We were looking to expand our local food purchasing. Food Connects has direct connections with farms in Vermont and it makes it easier for us to put a name to the food that we’re serving our students. We have had that direct connection to farms in the past and we are excited to be able to continue highlighting a wider variety of local food producers. Starting slow but hoping to expand the local offerings in the future.

Parfaits made with Narragansett Creamery yogurt.

What products have been successful so far?

We purchased Narragansett yogurt and beef from Boyden Farm. Because the high school is a larger kitchen they can do more cooking with different local products and try out more recipes to see what works best. Those two items worked well!

Right now, the local food we are purchasing is just going to the high school and occasionally gets sent out to other schools. We tested out yogurt at the 3rd through 5th-grade school which was successful. With the larger kitchen size and student body at our high school, we find that it’s easier to start there with our scratch cooking products with the goal of then expanding our offerings into our other schools to the roughly 4,000 students district-wide.

Why are you interested in having regionally-sourced foods in your cafeteria?

The Farm to School movement is so prevalent right now. We have dabbled in it here and there. What we really want is to bring whole fresh foods into the district while supporting the local economy. As much as we are able, we want to close the gap between our students and the local food system and create a lasting connection between the two. It’s exciting that we are able to expand their horizons with their culinary palette and teach them what types of food we have available in our area. 

Spaghetti and meat sauce made with Boyden Farm beef.

We saw that this year meals in the Essex Westford School district are free for all students 18 and under. How has this impacted your meal program?

This was through USDA waivers. With the help of these waivers, we have been able to put more focus and resources back into our meal program and we’ve seen that on average 67% more students are choosing school meals. That’s significantly more engagement and more bellies full with high quality and nutritious foods.

Additionally, Scott Fay, Senior Child Nutrition Manager, and Andrew Peet, Child Nutrition Site Manager, really wanted to work with Food Connects because of the Vermont Local Purchasing Incentive. Both this incentive and the USDA waiver put more funds back into the program and the food we provide, which allows us to get higher quality products.

How has this benefitted your students?

The students are able to access more food through the school. The more nutritious food the kids eat, the more they are ready to learn and be active throughout the day. There is already lots of positive feedback about the meals we serve—the students and staff are excited about the fresh, local food they are getting each day.

Anything else that you would like to share?

This year we have tried to revamp the menu, with the hope that it will bring in more participation and therefore revenue for the program. This includes more scratch cooking with fresh, whole produce and ingredients and so far, we are getting lots of positive feedback from changes especially when we can serve foods like Shepherd’s pie using beef from Boyden Farm. It has definitely been a process doing it on a large scale and district-wide but we have an amazing team and we’ve been working out all the details with staff over the years. We’re very excited about all the new menu changes.

Additionally, we have a Farm to School program and have done cooking activities with students and taste tests in the past. Most of that has put that on hold due to COVID-19 but we have started small again by doing more school-wide taste tests with the younger students. Our hope is that we can do these taste tests to gather feedback from students and update our menu with their input. We are also looking forward to the possibility of incorporating more Farm to School and nutrition content into the curriculum.

Producer Spotlight: Milkweed Farm

At Food Connects, we’re fortunate to work with both small-scale and large-scale producers. This allows us to not only have diversity in our products, but also in the producers we support. One farm we are proud to support is Milkweed Farm.

Jonah Mossberg owns and operates Milkweed Farm, a diversified vegetable and flower farm in Guilford, Vermont. Milkweed Farm is also a queer owned and operated business—which is core to how Jonah farms and how his farm business engages with the community. He is committed to using low and no-till practices on the farm both as a way to support soil biology and health and to reduce the farm's carbon footprint.

Jonah grows over 40 varieties of vegetables on the farm. He produces value-added fermented vegetables for sale at local farmers’ markets such as kimchi and loves growing ingredients for those—“nothing makes me happier than a good patch of Napa Cabbage and Daikon radish.” He is also an aspiring flower farmer and love growing blooms—the queen red lime Zinnia and broom corn are some of his favorites.

For Jonah farming is about more than just growing food. Agriculture is a way to engage with the people in his direct community.

“Food and farming are lenses that we can all put on to look at our world and to see how we might make things a little better. As a farmer, I choose to use my farm as a way to collaborate with other local businesses as a way to keep our local economy strong. Keeping food that I grow in my community also means that I get to feed people that I know, and feed them well. I wouldn't have it any other way.”

The farm also donates to local food shelves regularly, as well as local organizations working across many social justice issues, hosts educational groups, and stands strongly in solidarity with justice based movements across Vermont.

“Selling through the Food Connects Food Hub allows my farm to connect with local businesses that I otherwise wouldn't have access to. As a new farmer, this has been elemental in growing my business. Because Food Connects takes care of the marketing, invoicing, and transportation of my products I get to spend more time doing what I love, growing food, and less time out of the field finding buyers for my food. It is a win-win."

Milkweed Farm has multiple CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) options, including a growing Fermentation CSA where members get value-added fermented goods. You can also purchase Jonah’s products at the Saturday Brattleboro Farmers’ Market or the Sunday Putney Farmer's’ Market.

Want to lend a hand to Milkweed Farm? Currently Jonah farms on leased land and is searching for a permanent land base for his farm operation in Windham County—ideally 3-5 acres (or more!) of flat, farmable ground, with good southerly exposure and water access. Outbuildings and a house are a bonus. If you know of any land or information that could help Jonah, please send him an e-mail!

Producer Spotlight: Harlow Farm

One of our strongest partnerships is with Harlow Farm located in Westminster, Vermont. Harlow Farm is a family owned operation, owned by the Harlow family since 1917. Paul Harlow owns Harlow Farm while his brother Dan owns Harlow Farmstand. Food Connects work closely with Evan Harlow, Paul’s son, and Cory Walker who manage the day-to-day operations of the farm.

Harlow Farms became certified organic in 1985. Paul recognized the benefits of organic farming early in the movement. They are now the largest organic vegetable operation in Vermont. They grow a wide variety of vegetables including lettuce, kales, collards, cabbage, broccoli, chard, sweet corn, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, and winter squash. Evan’s favorite product they grow is kale because the plant continues to grow new leaves throughout the season and they get many harvests from each planting.

They distribute their produce locally through Food Connects along with other distributors but also sell to grocery store chains like Whole Foods and Price Chopper. In the summer it’s too hot to grow greens in places like Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida, so they ship produce to those regions through a broker. But selling locally is most important to them. They see it as an important part of strengthening their community.

“We like to provide quality produce to the people who live near us. Food Connects has been a valuable partner since we started working with them,” said Evan. In fact, Harlow Farm is a founding member of the Food Connects Food Hub. “It is useful for us to sell to many smaller outlets without having to deal with them all directly.”

Want to visit Harlow farm? Join them on July 24 for a pizza social in conjunction with NOFA-VT. They event is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm and all are welcome! You can RSVP to the event here. Harlow Farm is a member of NOFA-VT and planted an apple try this season as part of an orchard to honor former executive director Enid Wonnocott.  

Producer Spotlight: Free Verse Farm & Apothecary

Meet Misha and Taylor—the newest producers to join the Food Connects family. They are two artist/farmers with a passion for growing, eating, and sharing delicious and nourishing food and herbs, who created Free Verse Farm in 2012 after traveling the world and studying art. Taylor is a poet and Misha is a photographer, and they love creating farm-related giveaways that combine both of these talents.

Their vision is one that combines their love of farming with their natural impulses to create art and connect with the earth. It is their dream to grow a wide variety of herbs, to grow food for themselves and their neighbors, and to cultivate a meaningful relationship with their community and with the land from which they both derive nourishment, pleasure, and peace.

They are a small herb farm and apothecary in Chelsea, Vermont specializing in naturally-grown tisanes (herbal teas), culinary herbs, medicinals, and herbal remedies. What makes their products unique is that they design their recipes around what they can grow on their farm. This means that all of their products contain a majority of their own, farm-grown ingredients. This makes their products place-based, sustainable, and high-quality, as they have very high standards for they herbal ingredients. You can notice the freshness of the herbs when you open up a tin of their tea, which is bursting with color, scent, body, and flavor!

Taylor continues to be enamored with their culinary blend, Dress It Up, a sweetly herbaceous vinaigrette blend. It's amazing on potato salad, in a slaw, and even as a marinade on fish. Her favorite of their teas is Ode to Vermont, a delicious blend that tastes like nothing else you've had before, made with herbs that love to grow in Vermont: lemon balm, catnip, anise-hyssop, and red clover blossoms. It's bold but floral; it's complex but smooth. You can drink it hot or iced and is perfect served any time of day!

Want to visit them farm? This will be the fifth year Free Verse Farm will participate in Vermont's Open Farm Week. This year, they will be holding their annual "Farm Tour and Tea Party," where they walk guests around the farm and explain their growing practices, methods, ethos, and then end the afternoon with a tasting of a wide variety of their teas, plus delicious snacks.

The will also be hosting two great workshops: one is a natural dye workshop (also during Open Farm Week), and one is a basket weaving workshop. They love having events on their farm and hope to see you there!