Sen. Vitelli introduces bill to help schools purchase more food from local farms and producers

AUGUSTA — On Wednesday, Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, introduced a bill to help public schools purchase fresh, healthy food from local farms and producers. LD 636, “An Act To Encourage the Purchase of Local Foods for Public Schools,” was the subject of a public hearing before the Legislature’s Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.

“The Local Produce Fund helps schools purchase produce and other minimally processed foods from local farmers and producers. It’s an arrangement that benefits our local farmers, our schools, our planet and our students, who are getting healthy, nutritious food grown close to home,” said Sen. Vitelli. “But our local farmers and producers not only grow delicious produce; they can help supply our schools with value-added dairy and protein sources, too, that help round out our children’s school meals. The expansions in this bill would help Maine’s farmers and food producers as well as schools and students.”

LD 636 would address barriers that exist within the existing Local Produce Fund by expanding the program to allow schools to source more local foods via other sources, instead of only directly from farms. It would increase the cap on reimbursement from DOE to encourage more local purchasing using existing funds. It would also expand beyond produce to support the purchase of other local foods including meat, fish, tofu, eggs, and value-added dairy products like yogurt.

“School districts face many challenges in sourcing local food directly from farmers, and reported that they would be more likely to purchase locally if they could also do so from their contracted food service distributor,” said Anna Korsen with Full Plates Full Potential in testimony supporting the bill. “School nutrition programs also reported that expanding the products that can be purchased and reimbursed through the fund beyond only produce to include value-added dairy and protein would make it more likely that they would use the fund, since many schools already purchase these products at great cost to their program and would benefit from the reimbursement. Additionally, having access to local produce that has been peeled, chopped, and frozen would help expand school nutrition staff’s capacity to serve local foods.”

“The challenges of increasing local food in schools include cost and logistical challenges such as

coordination with farms, staffing lunchrooms, and processing raw ingredients into school meals,” said Amy Gallant of the Good Shepherd Food Bank. “Despite these challenges, providing schools with locally procured food remains a high priority for many districts, and this bill is a step in the right direction.”

LD 636 faces further action in committee.