With 77 million breakfasts and lunches served to Oregon students each year, introducing local foods to schools could equal big business for Oregon farmers.
STATEWIDE With 77 million breakfasts and lunches served to Oregon students each year, introducing local foods to schools could equal big business for Oregon farmers. Several efforts are helping bring schools and farms together. Portland-based nonprofit Ecotrust is leading the charge to get local foods into school cafeterias. The effort, dubbed Oregon Farmers Feeding Oregon Kids, successfully lobbied to add a farm-to-school position in the Oregon Department of Agriculture during the past legislative session. The Department of Agriculture also is surveying producers, processors and schools in Oregon to identify the top 10 foods that schools want, and will work with the Portland-based Food Innovation Center to create, test and package school food using local ingredients.
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