Farm to School 2012: Re-cap!
Update: The numbers are in!
Things are always bustling at the warehouse in the fall months, but when Virginia Farm to School Week rolls around in November, we really shift into high gear! With 52 schools now on our delivery route (hello Albemarle, Charlottesville, Greene, Nelson, and Waynesboro!) we are busy bees, moving boxes, mapping delivery routes, and making drops. But you know what makes the craziness worth it? Knowing that more than 25,000 students in Central Virginia now have access to fresh, local, delicious fruits, vegetables, and meat at lunchtime. Awesome!
In case you missed our updates, here’s a little recap of what we’ve been up to this week:
Welcoming Visitors: Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Matt Lohr, joined us at the warehouse on Tuesday morning. In addition enjoying some fresh Carpe Donuts, he also toured the warehouse and learned about our operations — and then we put him to work loading the truck! We’re grateful to the good folks at VDACS for heading up the state-wide Farm to School program.
Crowd-Sourcing: One of our favorite Farm to School week projects is our Farm to School Fund. For the second year in a row now, we’ve crowd-sourced funding from our community in order to get fresh, grass-fed ground beef into schools (and ensure a proper price for our farmers). This year, thanks to support from the Albemarle County Rotary Club and 20 individuals (see the full list here!) we raised more than $1,000 for this fund and served 982 pounds of fresh, ground beef! We think one of our Farm to School heroes said it best:
“It is just all-around good! Good for the children, good for our cattle (not having to stand in crowded trucks being trucked across the country to inhumane feed lots), good for the environment and the list goes on and on!
Thank you for doing this! It truly shows what a community can do for itself!”
Spreading the Word: Everyone loves a good Farm to School story! NBC 29 covered this program for their daily news, and on Tuesday, the infamous Sandy Hausman from WVTF zipped from warehouse to school in order to capture the action for radio. Her story is worth a listen — not only is it a good piece, but the kids she interviewed are gems.
Crunching Numbers: Now we’re off to pull reports, check the results, and add it all up. Check back next week for a Farm to School By the Numbers!
Our Farm to School Heroes
Thank you to the following individuals, community members, business owners, and farmers who contributed to our Farm to School Fund this year!
Albemarle County Rotary Club
Best of What’s Around
Kate Bird
Stephanie Blanch
Amy Brown
Nancy Carpenter
Foods for Thought
John Higgins, Woodridge MicroFarm
Janaki Lessard
Mike Lund, Mike Lund Food
Emily Manley
Sally Moore
Jen Oppenheimer
Prospect Farm
Lisa Reeder
Kurt Schweitzer, Keystone Fruit
Sherwood Farm
Adrianna & Steve Vargo
Anonymous (8)
Image credit: whirledkid/Creative Commons