On March 4, 2024 four graduate students from the University of Guelph’s Arrel Food Institute’s Graduate Research program brought together 13 Ontario farmers to discuss local food procurement and logistics in Ontario schools. The event was hosted by Farm to Cafeteria Canada as part of an 8-month student and community-partnership project. This post has been developed by the student team and provides a summary of the event including barriers and opportunities discussed and suggested next steps to bridge the gap between Ontario farmers and schools.
Serving local food in schools is a shared goal amongst many school food providers, farmers and other community members. However, the majority of school food programs in Ontario and across Canada do not intentionally procure or serve locally produced food. With this event, the project team wanted to hear from Ontario farmers about the barriers and opportunities they experience or envision working with schools. F2CC and the project partners have heard a lot from schools when it comes to local procurement and distribution, but this was the first event dedicated to hearing from producers.
The aim was to bring together 10-12 farmers from different locations in Ontario, representing different farm sizes and a variety of farm types for an initial, 75-minute conversation that could spark future dialogue and action.
We asked participants to share what they hoped to contribute and why they felt this was an important conversation. Here’s some of what we heard:
“This is super important, and can even open the way for schools becoming local food hubs…Food in schools can catalyze the market, the culture, the education, and the infrastructure needed to get local food going.”
“I am interested in bringing my perspective, creativity and innovative ideas of how to connect students to food, leveraging school food programs and leveraging curriculum links to provide education on various topics through a lens of agriculture.”
“Our farm has donated to the Student Nutrition Program for the past couple of years, with success but not without challenges. I would love to share these learnings to inform opportunities for other farms to build similar relationships with schools and school-based organizations like SNP”
To kick things off, we heard from two attendees who briefly shared their experience providing local food to schools.
The first, a spokesperson from Trent University Vegetable Garden, shared a short presentation with highlights and challenges based on her experience providing for K-12 schools since April 2023. She mentioned biweekly drop-offs for deliveries with Student Nutrition Program (SNP) distribution and the use of bulk packaging. Some of the challenges she experienced included:
One of the points that she emphasized was the importance of school storage and the necessity to grow things that can store well, such as root crops.
It was noted that while Trent University uses a large food provider for its main cafeterias, the Trent Vegetable Garden is independent and provides produce to the Seasoned Spoon Café, which is a student-run vegan/vegetarian café that is now also on the student meal plan.
Next, we heard from an apple grower from Belleville, ON, who has been providing her food to schools for 25 years. With the help of Cherie Hardie, the region’s SNP Food & Logistics Coordinator (FLC), they are able to collaborate with Findlay Foods, a local food service distributor on a weekly basis for deliveries. One interesting example shared was that schools provide a market for small apples that are the perfect size for kids, but may not otherwise be marketable.
The conversation was subsequently split up after the main address. Three breakout rooms were led by the students to understand barriers and opportunities to working with school. These conversations are outlined in the next sections.
“Once, I had a ton of cabbage and wanted to give it to a school to make kimchi, but no one was interested. They didn’t know how to work with it…there is a missing education piece”
“I only grow half of what I could because I can’t sell it anywhere.”
Following the breakout sessions, each group shared a brief report back and follow-up actions were identified. The meeting ended with positive energy to continue having more conversations like this one and to bring farmers and schools together to build a bridge between them. It was agreed that to facilitate this, and to begin to address barriers raised and opportunities identified, dedicated regional leadership and coordination will be necessary.
As immediate next steps:
