Shrinking Markets in Our Own Backyard – Michigan Department of Education Limiting Purchase of Michigan Grown Product in Schools?

Wednesday March 12th at the Hagerty Center at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan, Michigan Land Use Institute hosted a sold out conference called Farm to School: Healthy Kids, Thriving Farms. Over 330 attendees from Northwest Michigan and districts further afield were on hand.

The fact that MLUI had to turn away folks who wanted to be there is a testament to the interest in bringing our local farmer’s products into our schools dining rooms.

Many strategies for change were discussed yesterday from hands-on education through gardening to marketing strategies teaching kids about the glorious flavors of products grown nearby, and how investing in our own backyard enriches minds, bodies – and the local and state economy.

In our strategic sessions the fact that the Michigan Board of Education caps the small purchase procurement threshold at just under $20,000 for a district became a hot topic of conversation.

Here we were, 330 of the region’s professionals in school education, nutrition and health at the table trying to figure out how to nudge our regional food onto the center of the plate in our schools’ dining rooms (a gargantuan task in the commodity driven low bid atmosphere of school food) and we find out our own state isn’t setting a stage to help itself in this effort.

Why is this important to Farm to School advocates?

Because of the regulatory constraints of the competitive bid system required by the Federal Government in school food purchasing – the Feds actually suggest to us that a way for school districts to launch a local farm to school program is to use the less restrictive bid procedure called “small purchase threshold” as a tool to introduce and encourage purchasing from our local farms.

They also suggest that most districts can follow the Federal small purchase procurement threshold of $100,000, but tell us to be sure to check with our own state’s regulations.

So we checked, and in Michigan it’s just under $20,000.

What does this threshold really mean for our local growers and the broader opportunity that could be created in Michigan?

Let’s use Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) as an example. As stated in the conference’s morning panel, TCAPS hits that small purchase threshold of just under $20,000 in purchases of local food every year, but they actually spend almost $1.8 million annually in food purchases.

TCAPS is a relatively small district, roughly 10,000 students – think of what this might look like for a Grand Rapids budget or Detroit?

In simple terms this is local investment – squandered.With the goal of boosting their own agricultural markets and capturing a piece of their state’s school districts food purchasing budgets, several states have stepped ahead despite the Federal government’s conflicting restrictions of geographic preference and competitive bid rules.

In 2002 New York passed the Farm to School Initiative as means for the state’s agriculture to tap into the $16 billion school food market.

California, the most aggressive state in the nation in Farm to School work, created California’s Code; Section 38080-38085 that actually moves so far as to allow individual school districts to set rules for bidding procedures for perishable foodstuffs and seasonal commodities truly allowing districts to tailor their priorities both on quality and source of their ingredients. What a concept -let’s consider quality, flavor and origin in addition to price! Other states have been getting on board too.

Most recently Oregon’s legislature is taking the concept further by passing Farm to School legislation to promote local purchase by districts and also creating two Farm to School positions, one in the Department of Ag and one in the Department of Ed so the two departments can forge together cooperatively and link state growers and processors with the districts.

With the current 2007 Farm Bill legislation likely to eradicate the geographic preference rule, state’s like Michigan that have been reluctant to take on the Feds within their state codes might want to consider correcting this critical error.

It’s even more unbelievable that the state’s Department of Agriculture hasn’t stepped in to slap a ruler on the Department of Education when you consider that Michigan’s agriculture industry is second only to California in its product diversity and contributes over 37 billion dollars to Michigan’s economy.

Farm to School should be a centerpiece – if not mandated.Farm to School programs are marginalized from the get-go by school district’s reliance on the federally subsidized commodity driven manufactured menus that reign nationwide. If a state with agricultural riches like Michigan can’t support growth for its food system and its children’s health (9th fattest state in the country in 2007) by promoting use of farm fresh products in its state’s schools, are we to just assume there’s no hope and throw in the towel?

Should we tell our small and medium sized farms who don’t receive a penny in federal subsidies that they should just put the tractor out to pasture to rust because even in the heartland – the Midwest – we really aren’t interested in eating what they grow?

As the sayings go – our children are our future and if we are what we eat, it’s past way past due to consider if a future of “convenience” foods is all we want to teach our children about feeding themselves as adults.

Michigan is fortunate that it still actually grows food for human consumption – how many acres of other land- rich states like Iowa or Indiana have given up their fields to subsidized commodity grain production? Michigan and every other farming state should be setting the bar, creating the best practices for the rest of the nation to follow on increasing regional reliance in their food systems.

Schools and prisons are the two largest state run agencies that handle foodstuffs. Ironically, it’s actually easier, due to lack of Federal regulation, to feed incarcerated citizens locally grown food than it is to feed it to our own children.

Beth Collins, Chef – School Food Service Consultant
Local Plates LLC
www.localplates.com
231-633-0958
2013 E. Front St. Traverse City, Michigan 49686