Farmers sought for school lunch provisions

Five St. Clair County School districts are looking for a few good farmers to supply produce for school lunches. Farmers that are interested in identifying new markets for their produce can look no further than St. Clair County Schools. Five local school districts (East China, Marysville, Capac, Yale and Port Huron Area Schools) are looking for local farmers to start supplying them with farm fresh produce for the fall school lunch menus. Julie Humphrey, East China Food Service Director and Karen Haase, Chartwells District Manager have been working closely with Farm to School Specialist, Colleen Matts of Michigan State University and MSUE Community Food Systems Educator, Katherine Hale, to develop the bid package for farmers to respond to. The schools are looking for bids on broccoli, Swiss chard, slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and apples to start serving to students when they come back to school next fall. To get a copy of the bid package you can call, Katherine Hale at 586.469.6088 or go to the St. Clair County MSUE website at msue.stclaircounty.org and look under current events for a copy of the bid package. Farmers can select any school or all schools to source to, but they must respond to the questionnaire by June 29, 2012. “The products we have selected to take bids on are foods we already use to provide healthy meals to students” states, Julie Humphrey of East China Schools, “we hope to also be able to support St. Clair County farmers by purchasing our produce locally.” The Farm to School movement continues to find ways to connect farmers and schools to build a more local food system.