MassDevelopment.com: Press Room: Students, Farmers Across Commonwealth to Celebrate 1st Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week

Students, Farmers Across Commonwealth to Celebrate 1st Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week
Massachusetts Farm to School Project, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, MassDevelopment Launch Farm-To-School Cookbook and Online Purchasing
September 21, 2007

Contacts:
Kelly Erwin, Massachusetts Farm to School Project, 413-253-3844
Adam Bickelman, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086

Governor Deval Patrick has proclaimed next week, September 24– 30, 2007, as the first Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week. Farmers, students, school food services directors and public officials will gather across the Commonwealth to mark the occasion and draw attention to the wide variety of locally produced foods Massachusetts has to offer.

The Massachusetts Farm to School Project – sponsored by MassDevelopment, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Agricultural Preservation Corporation and Project Bread – is coordinating the week-long celebration to recognize and foster a direct purchasing initiative aimed at supporting Massachusetts farmers, while providing students across the state with more nutritious meal options.

"Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week is all about healthier kids and stronger local economies," said Kelly Erwin, manager of the Massachusetts Farm to School Project. "It celebrates Bay State educational institutions that are making an effort to use locally grown foods in their menus. And for the 50 Massachusetts family farms providing their products to schools, this spike in direct investment is generating more than $700,000 in additional revenues each year."

Harvest for Students Week events include a kickoff celebration on Monday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, featuring a seasonal cooking demonstration by Chef Will Gilson of Garden at the Cellar restaurant, and a local foods lunch prepared by MIT Dining Services; a luncheon at Bocado Restaurant in Worcester on Wednesday highlighting the new farm to school cookbook, with a cooking demonstration by Chef Stephen Champagne; and a wrap-up event on Friday co-sponsored by Berkshire Grown at the historic High Lawn Dairy Farm in Lee with tours, a jazz performance and lunch featuring area farm products.

"Based on our outreach during Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week, we hope to increase the number of public school districts purchasing locally-grown foods for their school lunch programs," said Department of Agricultural Resources Acting Commissioner Scott Soares.

The Mass. Farm to School Project has worked closely with collaborators on two important new "tools" for schools. MassDevelopment officials will roll out a new farm to school online purchasing website, www.farmfresh.org, created to give farmers and school food service directors an easy-to-use mechanism for buying and selling locally grown produce.

"Since the Farm to School Project’s inception, farmers and educational leaders have relied on word of mouth to develop direct purchasing relationships," said Robert L. Culver, MassDevelopment president/CEO. "The MassDevelopment-sponsored online purchasing website will simplify this process by giving food services directors a one-stop shop for buying local."

The Department of Agricultural Resources will also announce the publication of "Fresh from the Farm: A Massachusetts Farm to School Cookbook." Written by Amy Cotler for public school food service employees, the cookbook showcases recipes tested in school kitchens. Massachusetts Department of Education officials plan to distribute the cookbook free of charge to all Bay State food services directors. To download the cookbook online visit www.massfarmtoschool.org/documents/cookbook_online.pdf.

Launched in 2004 by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, the Massachusetts Farm to School Project seeks to pair Bay State schools, kindergarten through college, with local producers of fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat. The project’s goal is to grow the Commonwealth’s agricultural sector, while providing Massachusetts students with healthier, tastier food options. Since its inception, the Project has helped match more than 60 school districts, private schools, and colleges with fruit, vegetable and dairy farmers from the Berkshires through the Pioneer and Blackstone Valleys, to northern and southeastern Massachusetts.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. Between FY 2004 and FY 2006, MassDevelopment financed or managed 589 projects statewide representing an investment of more than $4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of 5,505 housing units and more than 23,000 jobs: 12,381 permanent and 10,679 construction-related.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ mission is to support, promote and enhance the long-term viability of Massachusetts agriculture with the aim of helping this state’s agricultural businesses become as economically and environmentally sound as possible. By doing so, it is hoped that our farmers will continue to support and maintain thousands of acres of valuable open space for the benefit of the state’s economy and environment.

To learn more about Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week, including dates, times and locations for specific events, please contact the Massachusetts Farm to School Project or MassDevelopment at the contact information referenced above.