A partnership between area farmers and the Brainerd School District is providing locally grown fruits and vegetables for students’ lunches.

It’s a win-win situation for all, especially Brainerd students who, whether they realize it or not, are eating healthier lunches.

Since school began, food service staff have been working with The Farm at St. Mathias, which has a retailer’s license and has been gathering produce grown at theirs and other area farms to provide enough fresh products to serve to students. It takes quite a bit of food to feed Brainerd students, who eat 2,000 hot breakfasts and 5,000 hot lunches each day. 

On Monday Forestview Middle School students were served 30 dozen ears of locally grown corn. Forestview recently needed 1,800 servings of fresh watermelon. The cooks at Brainerd High School and Forestview, the district’s largest schools, usually ask for 80 pounds of vegetables to serve on the salad bar at each school and local farmers have come through for them, offering a variety of produce, including cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and more. 

“The kids are loving it,” said Colette Pohlkamp, director of food service for the district.

Pohlkamp said last March she met with Arlene Jones from The Farm at St. Mathias and other local farmers to create a plan to make a Farm to School program work. She showed them the district’s menus and its food use and, in turn, farmers planted extra heavy last spring to supply food to the district this fall. The farms that are providing food to the district also include Brambling Rows and Natural Spring Farm, both of Brainerd; and Great River Gardens, of Aitkin. 

The district received a statewide health improvement program grant, or SHIP grant, last year to start a pilot program at Brainerd High School South Campus, Riverside and Baxter elementary schools. This year BHS North, Forestview and Nisswa Elementary were added to the list of schools that receive fresh locally grown foods. However, many of the other schools, including all elementaries that the school district provides food services for, have lunches prepared by cooks at BHS, which means they often benefit, too, said Pohlkamp.

Pohlkamp said students are sometimes hesitant to try new things, like yellow tomatoes or kohlrabi. But the staff have found that if they present it in an appealing way, students will often try it. 

September is Farm to School Month in Minnesota. Brainerd students will hopefully benefit from area produce long after the month is over, as long as the local food is available.

New federal mandates this past summer are requiring the district to make its offerings healthier. While districts have a few years to meet several new requirements, Brainerd Schools are trying to get ahead of the game, she said.

The district already serves 100 percent whole wheat breads and bread products, including pizza crusts. Starting this fall, the district no longer serves 2 percent or whole milk, due to those federal mandates. Instead, students may choose to drink skim, 1 percent or skim chocolate milk. 

Pohlkamp said schools are also being encouraged to serve more fish. On the menu in the near future is fish cod nuggets served with baked potatoes. The potatoes will be provided by area farmers. Soon students will be enjoying locally grown squash and apples. 

The federal government also wants districts to lower the sodium content on its food within the next 10 years. Pohlkamp said local chef Tom Kavanaugh is already working at BHS to develop healthy lunch offerings, including pastas and wraps, using herbs and seasonings instead of salt. Chef Matt Annand also will work with the district on healthier offerings this year. Their work with food service staff is paid for through a SHIP grant. 

Another 3-5 year plan is to reduce the number of starches offered to one starch per week. Pohlkamp said her staff had already begun reducing the number of starches served. 

Pohlkamp said she sends her menus to Arlene Jones at The Farm and she looks them over and works with other farmers to find the quantities needed.

This has been a big undertaking for food service staff. When they served fresh corn Monday, it was the food service staff who had to shuck the 30 dozen ears. In addition to corn, students had a cheese-filled whole wheat breadstick, salad and applesauce.

“I just commend my food service staff for their willingness to take this on,” said Pohlkamp. “It’s a totally different way of cooking and there’s a lot of work involved.”

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.