MACHIAS, Maine — Two Washington County schools have gotten a hand up in their efforts to bring local produce to the school lunch table.
Just before the holiday break, officials from Perry and Cherryfield elementary schools learned they each received a $1,250 Small Equipment Grant from Healthy Acadia.
“So many schools … are dealing with equipment that is old and in need of repair,” said Regina Drabrovic, Washington County food system coordinator for Healthy Acadia.
The grants are part of Healthy Acadia’s Downeast Farm to School program, which is part of the USDA Farm to School program, said Drabrovic.
The idea behind the Farm to School program is to instill lifelong healthy eating habits by having students involved in the planting, raising and harvesting of produce used in school cafeterias, she said.
Perry Elementary School is using the money to help fund the purchase of a reach-in cooler.
Dan Morang, principal of the Perry school, said the grant funds actually will represent partial reimbursement. The school purchased a cooler Dec. 15 for $1,999.
“We ended up getting a bigger one than we’ve had before,” Morang said.
“It’s exciting for us to have this storage,” he continued, adding the school is
“very grateful” to Healthy Acadia.
Cherryfield Elementary used its funds to purchase a salad bar, said Drabrovic.
“We’re very grateful,” said Principal Kathy Strout.
Eighth-grade student Mikaila Loughlin wrote the grant for the salad bar, according to Food Service Director Tricia Blanchard-Beal.
“It was a lot like writing some of the public speeches I do for 4H,” Loughlin said.
Buying a salad bar was the idea of the student council, which includes students from grades five through eight, she said.
The salad bar cost $1,661 and is on order, with Blanchard-Beal hoping for delivery by the end of February.
“Once it shows up here, it will be up and running,” she said.
The salad bar includes a refrigeration unit underneath where vegetables can be stored.
The Cherryfield school has an outdoor garden that students, parents and teachers tend during the summer, Blanchard-Beal said.
Perry has nine raised beds measuring 4-by-8 feet, said Morang. During the summer, the gardens produce carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale and cabbage.
A greenhouse also provides a growing environment year round.
“We actually just harvested carrots before break, and we have lettuce out there right now to harvest,” Morang said.
Although a local 4H club tends to the outdoor gardens in the summer, fifth- and sixth-grade students work in the greenhouse during the school year.
“They can’t wait till they get to fifth and sixth grade,” Morang said, adding that having the on-site gardens makes students more willing to try fresh vegetables because they see where they came from.
The school has a strawberry bed outside, as well as six apple trees and two peach trees that were planted three or four years ago, he said. They haven’t produced any fruit yet but they are growing well.
“Both of these schools have shown a great deal of initiative in developing their own farm to school program,” Drabrovic said.
She said the budget for the Small Equipment Grants is $5,000 and only half of that has been awarded. She said Healthy Acadia hopes to award two more $1,250 grants in February or March.