Senate enacts Sen. Vitelli bill to help schools purchase more food from local farms and producers
AUGUSTA — On Friday, the Senate voted to enact and fund a bill from Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, to help public schools purchase more fresh, healthy food from local farms and producers. LD 636, “An Act To Encourage the Purchase of Local Foods for Public Schools,” received unanimous support.
“When children have access to healthy, fresh food, they have the fuel they need to learn and grow. Making sure schools can easily connect with local growers and food producers is a win-win for students and local farmers,” said Sen. Vitelli. “I’m so glad we were able to expand and improve this important program.”
LD 636 would address barriers that exist within the existing Local Produce Fund by expanding the program to allow schools to purchase 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 the program 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 now goes to Gov. Janet Mills, who has 10 days to either sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature.