An effort that began 15 years ago to help farmers get more of their products into northern Michigan schools has expanded into a state-wide program serving fresh produce to an estimated 95,000 students across 29 Michigan counties. At a press conference Monday, the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities released a report summarizing the program’s growth and possible future expansion. The update coincides with a series of Traverse City events this week celebrating visiting farm-to-school advocate and celebrity chef Alice Waters.

The Groundwork Center first began writing about putting local food products into school cafeterias in 2002. Writer Patty Cantrell noted that despite an abundance of farms surrounding Michigan schools, food service directors often relied on national distributors to deliver Washington apples, Texas strawberries and other “large quantities of food, often in preprocessed form, to their doorsteps on a weekly basis.” While cold storage and hydroponics made it possible for even mid-winter school menus to feature Michigan products, Cantrell wrote, the challenge was building connections between farmers and schools to facilitate local sales and distribution.

For the next several years, Groundwork Center worked to connect farmers with school food service directors. The 2008 launch of Traverse City foods distributor Cherry Capital Foods solved a major missing piece of the distribution puzzle, while grant funding boosted efforts by the MI Farm Cooperative to purchase equipment to process and bag farm products for schools. But it was a 2013 Groundwork Center pilot called "10 Cents a Meal" that took the farm-to-school movement to the next level.

Funded by grants and local business sponsorships, Groundwork Center offered 10 cents per meal in funding to Glen Lakes Community Schools and elementary schools in Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) and Suttons Bay Public Schools for purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables. Districts were required to match the 10 cents out of the estimated $1-$1.25 they were spending per student lunch. Prior to the pilot launch, the three participating school districts spent $30,000 on local food products; after two years of 10 Cents A Meal, they spent nearly $150,000, an average increase of 142 percent per year. After four additional districts joined the program, the seven participants started purchasing 25 different food products from 36 local farms.

The pilot’s success caught the attention of State Senator Darwin Booher, who introduced legislation to bring 10 Cents a Meal to other school districts across Michigan. In 2016, Michigan legislators agreed to provide $210,000 to 16 schools districts in northwest and west Michigan with a required school match, bringing total spending to $420,000 supporting 86 farms in 26 counties. The program served 48,000 students last year. This year, an approved expansion of 10 Cents a Meal raised funding to $375,000, serving approximately 95,000 students in 29 counties.

Both state and local officials are now eyeing expanding 10 Cents a Meal to every county in Michigan. In the Groundwork Center's report, Networks Northwest CEO Matt McCauley states the program "has the potential to touch a lot of people’s lives in many ways. It addresses a variety of different issues, including education, agriculture, nutrition and logistics – pieces that are important to every community, urban and rural, in Michigan.” Interim State Nutrition Director Diane Golzynski at the Michigan Department of Education adds that boosting educational achievement in the state depends on providing reliable access to healthy food, so students “don’t have to think about where their next meal will come from and can focus on being good students.”

At Monday’s press conference, TCAPS Food Service Director Tom Freitas said 10 Cents A Meal organizers dream that “one day all the schools in Michigan are going to be getting that 10 cents. Demand will drive the supply, and before long Congress and everybody will see how much money this has created in our economy.” Freitas highlighted how having students meet with farmers, grow school gardens, and eat locally sourced produce has expanded their palates and boosted demand for healthy food.

“Our hope is that we are successful enough that the kids are taking the parents to the fruit and vegetable section,” Freitas said. 

The release of Groundwork Center’s farm-to-school report this week comes ahead of October’s national Farm to School month, as well as a visit to Traverse City this week from farm-to-school pioneer and acclaimed chef Alice Waters. A sold-out National Writers Series event with Waters will take place Sunday (Sept. 24) at the City Opera House, including a benefit reception for the Edible Schoolyard Project and Groundwork’s farm-to-school program. Waters will also meet with groups including Front Street Writers and Cordia Senior Living at Grand Traverse Commons, introduce a 7pm screening Wednesday of The Baker’s Wife at the State Theatre, and dine at local restaurants throughout the week.

Cherry Capital Foods and Taste the Local Difference, meanwhile, will host a Local Harvest Restaurant Series this week through Sunday, with more than 15 restaurants and bars offering a “Harvest Week Special” menu item that is 100 percent locally sourced and/or inspired by one of Waters’ cookbooks. Ten percent of the proceeds from the restaurant series will go to The Edible Schoolyard Project and Groundwork Center’s farm-to-school program.

Read the Groundwork Center's new report on its farm-to-school program, "Healthy Kids, Thriving Farms," online here.