Current Initiatives

New Hampshire Farm to School Conference

NHFTS is working with partners to host a statewide farm to school conference! The conference, "Sow, Reap, Prepare, Eat!" will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2011 in Lebanon, NH and will feature a keynote presentation by the inspiring Tony Geraci and a dozen informative, motivating workshops! Click here to learn more.

 

Matchmaking events

Several times each year, school food service directors and farmers are given the chance to meet and form connections during our NHFTS matchmaking events. These meetings give those interested in participating in the Farm to School Program an opportunity to determine if working together is feasible and mutually beneficial.

Farmers give short presentations about their farms, including their history, size and what they produce. School officials will have a chance to see which farms will be good matches when it's time to set up food contracts in September. Stacey Purslow, NHFTS Coordinator, organizes these events. Event dates and times are listed on the homepage of the website as they come up.

Educational Posters

For the 2011-2012 school year, we will be sending out NH Farm to School posters to all participating schools. These are to be posted in cafeterias, informing the students that their school is taking part in a program that uses food from local farms in their lunches.

"Cooking Up Change" Contest

The "Cooking Up Change" culinary competition challenges high school culinary arts students to create a healthy school lunch that meets current nutrition guidelines for school meals, is affordable to prepare, and utilizes some local ingredients. The NH Farm to School program will be organizing a similar competition here in New Hampshire in the spring of 2012 that will coincide with the School Nutrition Association meeting.

Past initiatives

Apples & Cider Project

The NH Farm to School Program was established in 2003 as a pilot program funded by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) to introduce local apples and cider into NH K-12 schools. Within three years, over half the K-12 schools in the state were purchasing them for their cafeterias! This program continues successfully today in many schools across the state. Most schools order local apples and/or cider directly through their distributors. Others purchase directly from farmers. Orchards selling to schools directly or through a distributor include:

  • Apple Annie grows a variety of low-spray apples in Brentwood. The farm also sells cider, fall vegetables, jams and jelliies, and baked goods. Contact the farm at 603-778-8881.
  • Applecrest Farm Orchard in Hampton Falls grows more than 40 different varieties of apples. The farm offers school tours. Contact the farm at 603-926-3721.
  • Brookdale Fruit Farm grows apples, berries, pumpkins and more. You can visit the farm's store and pick-your-own when fruit is in season! Contact the farm at 603-465-2240 or e-mail.
  • Carter Hill Orchard grows a number of different varities of apples, and presses the apples for their preservative-free cider right on the farm. They also host school field trips and tours for "kids of all ages." Contact the farm at 603-225-2625.
  • Mack's Apples in grows a variety of apples in Londonderry. Contact the farm at 603-434-7619.
  • Windy Ridge Orchard and Christmas Tree Farm in North Haverhill is a NH Farm of Distinction. The farm offers school tours and posts lesson plans on their website. Contact the farm at 603-787-6377.

A list of schools that purchase local apples and/or cider can be found by clicking here.

To make a local apple/cider connection at your school, please contact your distributor, talk to one of the farms on list above, or contact us to learn more.

"Get Smart Eat Local" 10-District Project

In 2006, NHFTS initiated a new, one-year pilot program -- the Get Smart Eat Local 10-District project -- to work with school districts and farms in the seacoast region of the state to work help build and strenghten direct farm-to-cafeteria relationships and introduce new local foods in the schools. In contrast to the statewide model established by NHFTS to bring NH apples and cider to as many NH schools as possible, the Get Smart Eat Local 10-District project focused on making a connection between a wholesale grower and ten school districts — 27 schools with over 15,000 students — in Rockingham and Strafford counties to add fresh New Hampshire-grown products to school menus. Funding for this project of the NH Farm to School program was provided by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's Josephine A. Lamprey, Otto, and Thanksgiving funds and is a collaboration of the University of New Hampshire's Office of Sustainability and UNH Cooperative Extension. This program continues today through direct sales of farm products to schools in the 10-District area.

Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program (FFVP)

In collaboration with partners in the NH Department of Education, UNH Cooperative Extension, and others, NHFTS is building on its previous work to develop new connections between schools, produce distributors, and NH wholesale vegetable growers. Target schools for the initial connections are those receiving grants from the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). A USDA initiative, FFVP grants awards to schools to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. Recipients of FFVP funds are schools whose student body has at least 50% eligibility for the free and reduced lunch program. Each school receives funding based on the total number of students in the school. The NH Department of Education (DOE) is overseeing the distribution of the funds, and NHFTS is working to help participating schools purchase some of their fresh fruit and vegetables from local farms. The NH Dietetic Internship programs at Keene State and UNH, along with Cooperative Extension, are working with the DOE to provide the educational component of the grant. Learn more...

Farm to School Hubs

During the 2011-2012 academic year, NHFTS piloted a new project to help increase farm-to-school activity in different regions of the state that are sometimes difficult for us to reach given our small staff and location on the Seacoast. Working with partners in three areas -- the Monadnock region, the Upper Valley region, and the North Country region -- NHFTS established NH Farm to School Hubs to advance projects specifically focused in those areas. NHFTS staff continued to serve the state, with a particular focus on the Seacoast region. NHFTS is presently reviewing evaluations from this pilot to determine next steps.