Internet ‘Food Hubs’ Connect School Districts With Local Farmers

“The qual­ity and selec­tion we’re see­ing com­ing right from the farms is incred­i­ble,” said Scott Soiseth, direc­tor of child nutri­tion for the Turlock Unified School District. “Children get to eat the prod­uct that’s picked that same morning.”

The new rules require among other things that school pro­vide stu­dents at least a half cup of either a fruit or veg­etable dur­ing lunch and at least a half cup of fruit dur­ing break­fast. And they must be served a wider vari­ety of fresh pro­duce every week, includ­ing leafy greens and red-orange vegetables.

Online com­pa­nies, coop­er­a­tives and orga­ni­za­tions help­ing con­nect local farm­ers and buy­ers have cropped up in recent years. Now these so-called food hubs are facil­i­tat­ing rela­tion­ships between farm­ers and school districts.

The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, a non-profit coop­er­a­tive that trains new organic farm­ers in Salinas, Calif., is work­ing with the Santa Cruz City Schools to coor­di­nate orders and deliver pro­duce. The dis­trict, with 13,000 stu­dents, pur­chases more than half of its pro­duce from local farms.

In Vermont, a com­pany called Green Mountain Farm Direct dis­trib­utes a list of prod­ucts, coor­di­nates orders and deliv­ers pro­duce to half a dozen schools and other institutions.

And Oregon-based FoodHub, an online net­work­ing and mar­ket­ing plat­form that con­nects food pro­duc­ers, buy­ers, and sup­pli­ers in Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, has been increas­ingly work­ing with school dis­tricts look­ing to buy local, said direc­tor Amanda Oborne.

“School food direc­tors are under water in fig­ur­ing out what they have to do to keep up with the new fed­eral guide­lines,” she said.

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