Eating Local in the Lunch Line: Sullivan Students Get Special Fresh Food Treat

Yellow tomatoes, nectarines, green beans and watermelon.

Yes, they're all foods found at your local farmer's market. But they're also what was served for lunch at Sullivan School on Thursday.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are fed to the students there daily, but Thursday was a special meal, as all of the produce came from Rhode Island farms and businesses. It was part of "All Local Lunch Day," a statewide initiative sponsored by Sodexo and Kids First that brought farmers and their foods into the schools for a day of educational eating. Over 50,000 students in 91 Rhode Island schools participated.

According to Solange Morrisette, the Sodexo coordinator for Newport, the program was piloted last year in Jamestown after a farmer there approached Kids First and said it would be fun to serve an all-local meal to school children.

"It was such a huge hit that we thought it was a great idea to take it statewide," she said.

As Sullivan's first and second grade students passed through the lunch line Thursday morning, they grabbed a carton of Rhody Fresh milk, then took their pick of peaches, nectarines and apples, tossed salad, green beans, yellow tomatoes and squash. Hot dogs and baked pasta rounded out the meal.

Jessica Williams of Kids First also offered up yellow or red watermelon, then handed the children a trading card highlighting the farmers who grew their food.

"See, this is Jesse, he grew this for you," she told one young child as she handed him a slice of yellow watermelon.

Jesse is Jesse Rodrigues of Middletown's Rhode Island Nurseries. He met Morrisette at a farmer's market over the summer when she asked him if he'd be interested in helping provide produce to area schools.

"This is the third time we've provided something," he said as he overlooked the green beans and yellow tomatoes he'd brought along. Right now, Rodrigues said his partnership with Sodexo is starting out small, but he said it could grow as his nursery gets involved with their normal food choices.

Morrisette said that the "All Local Lunch Day" isn't exactly a one-time event, but rather is part of Sodexo's larger initiative to buy locally as much as possible. She said they've been working to grow their efforts for the past four years.

"It's just blossoming," she said. "We've developed distribution channels over that time, working closely with Kids First and farmers. Knowing what farmers have is part of the learning process, what they have and when we can get it."

Of course, buying locally doesn't come without its challenges. Morrisette admitted that it is pricier, but said that Sodexo factors in the cost when proposing its budget to school districts. The Newport food budget for this year, she said, is roughly $325,000. She said another big help in making local possible is the United States Department of Agriculture's commodity grant program, which allocated $10,000 to Newport this year and is used for purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables.

Another challenge is training staff to get back to the basics, using whole foods to make meals from scratch.

"This is probably our hardest year," Morrisette admitted. "It's more time consuming doing manual things, but we're getting it done."

According to Sullivan Principal Maria Mare Schulz, having the opportunity to serve her students fresh, local foods is integral to their success.

"These foods are the best food they get all day," she said. "With our kind of free and reduced lunch rate, these children don't get this opportunity at home."

In 2009, 91 percent of Sullivan's kindergarten through fourth grade students received free or reduced lunch.

"I'm virtually feeding everybody," Schulz noted.

Lunch isn't the only prime eating opportunity at Sullivan. The school is also the test site this year for the district's Universal Breakfast program, which offers every child the opportunity to eat something before class in the morning. They're also getting a fresh fruit snack in the classroom mid-morning, thanks to a $13,000 USDA grant. Coggeshall and Cranston-Calvert schools are also participating. At Sullivan on Wednesday, it was kiwi for the kids. On Thursday, they got bananas.

"This is a big eye-opener for them," Schulz said.

While eating healthy may be a good idea in theory, the lingering question, of course, is whether kids actually enjoy it. Sodexo's Kerry Kunze, who was on hand Thursday, said they work with custodial and kitchen staff to monitor how much is ending up in the trash cans. While selling students on the idea has been difficult in a few districts, she said the children are largely catching onto the idea.

"At first they were like no way, but they're seeing this now every single day," she said, noting that students are offered three fruits and three vegetables daily, along with a tossed salad.

"Some of these kids have probably never seen a yellow tomato before, but it's neat because it's right here from Middletown," she said.

Watching Sullivan's first and second graders beg for more vegetables was certainly a sight to behold. As Kids First's Jessica Williams went around to their tables offering more helpings of the produce, the children threw their hands up in the air trying to catch her attention.

"Can I have more of those?" one little girl asked her as she pointed to the yellow tomatoes.

"Sure, we love these little poppers," Williams responded.

Meanwhile, 6-year-old George Ardrey reached out his hand for another vegetable.

"I like the green beans," he said. "They're my favorite."