Food Processes

Can the "farm-to-school" movement gain traction in Philly?

by Tom Namako

nutrition

WHAT'S AT STEAK: "There were too many cheese pizzas, too many burgers," says parent Aissia Richardson, about her daughter's school lunches. : Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

About two years ago, Aissia Richardson began a new after-school tradition with her third-grade daughter, Yasmina: She'd be sure to load provisions like blueberry muffins and vegetable sticks into the car, and Yasmina would devour them moments after being picked up.

"She was famished," Aissia recalls, something that didn't happen in previous grades.

That year, it turned out, Yasmina started to pay more attention to the lunch choices in the cafeteria. She wasn't happy.

"There were too many cheese pizzas, there were hamburgers that were 'mystery meat,' there was overcooked pasta," Aissia says. "She was being loaded with empty carbs."

That was two grades ago. Now, Aissia packs her daughter's lunch, and the $10 a week she spent on school meals now costs her about $50 a week at the grocery store.

In 2005, the district hired Aramark, the Philadelphia-based food service company, to run the 115 full-service cafeterias with the hopes that they would erase a yearly $3.5 million deficit in the school's lunchrooms. The lunches usually come frozen or chilled in prepackaged trays — think airplane food — and are heated up before serving. The district handled the food service before Aramark.

A separate contractor, Maramount Corp., provides prepackaged boxed sandwiches, drinks, and chips for the other 210 schools.

Most of Aramark's food — besides some local contracts — comes from vendors around the nation, says spokeswoman Karen Cutler, who otherwise wouldn't comment on the contract. But food quality wasn't mentioned when the district decided to cancel the firm's five-year, $120 million contract in September. Instead of reducing the bills, Aramark actually cost the schools at least $4 million more, according to Unite Here Local 634, a union that represents 2,300 workers in Philadelphia school cafeterias. The company, however, disputes that.

Last week, the union asked Gov. Ed Rendell to authorize an independent auditor to look into the ordeal. "We need an independent audit to get to the bottom of this and ensure parents, taxpayers and workers aren't left holding the bag for Aramark's financial mismanagement,"says Lynne Fox, manager of the UNITE HERE Philadelphia Joint Board.

The district saw severing the contract as a way to save money — but many others see it as an opportunity to revolutionize the way lunch is served in the district and a chance to bring in healthier, local food that's almost direct from a Pennsylvania farm.

The same day news about the severed contract appeared in the Inquirer, a post on the Young Philly Politics message board asked if more local farms could be added to the district's shopping list. It's an idea that's been planted in the mind of several other local groups, such as Greensgrow, an urban farm initiative based on Cumberland Street.

"No one's asked about that before," says Cecilia Cummings, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia School District.

Although Aramark didn't produce the food that ended up in students' trays, they did purchase it, she says. All of those contracts that were canceled with Aramark are now up for grabs, although, "We cannot make names of companies formal yet. They will come in the form of public [School Reform Commission] resolutions. I can't even tell you if they're local." The contracts will be made public before the SRC this month.

The "farm to school" idea isn't new. There are districts across the country — including the Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley, Calif., and the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch in Madison — that have begun buying either all or parts of student lunches from local growers. The effects, proponents say, are better-tasting lunches, since locally grown products are in season and spend less time in transit; a student population that sees firsthand why a fresh baked potato is better than a french fry; and a method of combating childhood obesity, especially in urban areas. (The district has taken some steps in that direction, like banning soda from the cafeterias.)

The Edible Schoolyard program, for example, has been around for 10 years and got its start in Berkeley. All the food is "either from local vendors or is grown by the school district, and is 100 percent sustainable," according to Carina Wong, executive director of the Chez Panisse Foundation, the organization that piloted the program. "For a district to do this, they first have to ask what the real goal is. In Philly, it may be different from other places. Maybe the goal is to serve healthier food, or more freshly cooked food."

The school district does have some gardening programs, but they're nowhere close to the scope of having all-local vegetables for lunch. "Before something like this could get started, we'd have to talk about the limitations and the challenges we have operationally," says Richardson, who also belongs to Parents United for Public Education, an independent budget watchdog. "It would have to be a collaboration between parents, the community and the private sector."

One limitation is the district's "kitchens." About 115 facilities have full-service cafeterias, while about 155 other schools just have ovens that heat up prepackaged food, according to the district. It's a common hurdle, one that Wong says the Edible Schoolyard program had to overcome in Berkeley.

The first step was starting a large garden in every school. "Then, we had to get the district to sign on to the idea of hiring a full-time chef," she says. "We batch-cooked things and then served food buffet-style." Last, the program contracted with local outlets to prepare foods before being served to students: Several Mexican restaurants that bought local would fill a large order for burritos, for example. "We knew we couldn't prepare it all," Wong says.

Berkeley's district, though, is still on a much smaller scale than Philadelphia's. And there's no getting around the idea that the local system has to buy some processed food; the question, according to Mary Seton Corboy, chief farmhand at Greensgrow Farm, is where to get it from.

"My understanding is that the schools use Washington state apples as main fruit in winter months — so what's in season in this area is an issue," Corboy says. "But the idea that we couldn't freeze local corn and cabbage and onions and give it to the students — I find it hard to believe. It's not like we don't produce enough food in this state."

Companies like Aramark, Corboy says, "instead put something else between producer and processor. They're radiating it and fryolating it and refrigerating it."

One step for the district would be ensuring that all purchases come from state food processors who buy local produce.

"There are plenty of processors in this state," she says. "I really think there are some hurdles to doing it, but is it impossible to do? We sent a man to the moon. Just buy corn from Pennsylvania processors who buy Pennsylvania corn."

(tom.namako@citypaper.net)