A recent program funded through the Leopold Center at Iowa State University proved successful in increased local food use at four northeast Iowa school districts.
By creating a five-week cycle menu that changed depending on the season, the program was able to increase the usage of Iowa-grown foods in the four schools by 158 percent.
“By purchasing directly from local farmers, the schools help support the community,” said lead investigator for the program Teresa Wiemerslage.
The four participating schools were Allamakee, Postville, Turkey Valley and Decorah. Wiemerslage said the school menus incorporated lots of locally grown fruits and vegetables, mostly during August through October. The schools were also able to use Iowa products such as yogurt, eggs, meat and frozen products during the entire school year.
Although this model was only tested in northeast Iowa, Wiemerslage said she believes it could be effective across all of Iowa.
Currently, Ames School District’s food services are provided by Chartwells. Terry Lowe, assistant food service director with Ames School District, said Chartwells has been working with the Ames School District for 10 years and that currently less than 5 percent of food served in the school district is grown in Iowa.
Lowe said they are working with the garden club to hopefully incorporate more local food into the coming school year’s menu. He said this fall they plan to add locally grown cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes into the school breakfasts and lunches.
Wiemerslage said the ISU program was tested on different sized schools, but none as large as the Ames School District. Although she said it would be possible to adapt the cycle menu at schools of any size, a larger district may run into the problem of finding large enough quantities of locally grown food.
This past school year, the Ames School District spent $588,000 on food alone, serving on average 425 breakfasts and 1,900 lunches each day.