Get to know your local fruits and vegetables
If you want to see the “seasonal and regional” food mantra in action you don’t have to look any further than Portland Public Schools.
Under the Local Lunch program, district schools offer one lunch menu each month made entirely of locally-grown and processed food (except for condiments). They define local as Oregon, Washington and California counties north of San Francisco.
This Wednesday, March 18, the schools are serving grilled cheese sandwiches made with Tillamook cheese and Shepherd’s Grain flour (Shepherd’s Grain is an alliance of Northwest family wheat farmers). Other local lunches include Draper Valley chicken (Mount Vernon, Washington), Truitt Bros. chili (Salem, Oregon), and hot dogs from Zenner's Quality Sausages and Smoked Meats (Portland, Oregon).
Portland Public School’s local lunch program is tied to the district’s Farm-to-School Harvest of the Month program, in which all of the school cafeterias feature a locally-grown seasonal fruit or vegetable. The aim of these programs is to introduce students to more fruits and vegetables, and help them make connections with local farmers and food producers.
But you don’t have to be a student to benefit from these programs. You can look for special promotions of the featured seasonal foods in local stores. Participating businesses include Alberta Cooperative Grocery, Bales Marketplace, Food Front Cooperative Grocery, Kaiser Permanent Interstate Campus Cafeteria, New Seasons Market, People’s Food Co-op, Safeway, Whole Foods Market, and Zupan’s Markets.
In addition, you can search the Oregon State University Extension Service recipe database for healthy, kid-tested meals to make the most of seasonal ingredients. The service also provides tip sheets on stretching your food dollars, as well as a guide to food resources in your community.
The Local Lunch program is funded through a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at the Northwest Health Foundation. Ecotrust, the Western Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm-to-School network, submitted the grant proposal and is managing the project.
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