The Michigan Land Use Institute is leading such an effort in northwest Michigan as part of its Taste the Local Difference program. Inspired by nearly 400 farm-to-school programs in 22 states, the Michigan Land Use Institute launched its work in the fall of 2004 at Traverse City’s Central Grade School. The success of that ongoing initiative is spurring the Institute to raise funds needed to help other schools in Traverse City and the broader northwest Michigan region establish healthy and profitable linkages between local farms and local kids.

The 2004 pilot program at Central Grade School provides a strong start. It began with just two farms and two days of local farm foods. But kids loved the project’s fresh-picked potatoes and apples so much that the district decided to purchase local potatoes and apples for the entire fall semester. Inspired by meeting the farmers who grew the potatoes and apples, as well as by the great taste of such fresh food, the young students doubled the amount of potatoes and quadrupled the number of apples they ate that fall. The school district, pleased by such an enthusiastic response, then asked the local apple farmer to supply more of the community’s public schools. So students at 14 schools enjoyed local apples; collectively, they tripled apple consumption at their schools.

Here’s why this is such a promising development for local farmers: Capturing even a fraction of schools’ food dollars will improve the incomes of the greater Grand Traverse region’s 2,229 farms. The Traverse City Area Public Schools district alone spends $1.7 million each year on food. Statewide, schools spend $200 million.

And there’s an even bigger market waiting in the wings: Nursing homes, hospitals, and other institutions. The Institute is already working on connecting local farm foods to some of these other local markets. The program’s benefits will only increase as more purchasers learn of its results, as more farms get involved, and as this growing market draws more investments in the storage, processing, and distribution facilities needed to move beyond our farm-to-cafeteria initiative’s first stages.

Two of the strongest driving forces behind this new market for farm foods are concern for the well being of children and for the public health costs of the growing epidemic of obesity in children. Michigan is second only to Mississippi in rates of obesity among its entire population; it is facing an estimated $12.3 billion economic burden for direct and indirect costs related to cardiovascular disease. Getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, in fact, is a primary goal of a related Traverse City Area Public Schools initiative to improve health and fitness. We are proud and happy to be contributing to that effort by connecting local farmers to local school children.

For more information on the Taste the Local Difference farm-to-cafeteria program, contact coordinator Diane Conners at diane@mlui.org.