When Ray Hetnar was approached by a member of the Office of Sustainability Programs about his family's orchard supplying apples for an initiative involving local schools, he said he was open to anything.
It turns out Hetnar made a wise business decision.
The program, called Farm to School, took off like wildfire throughout the state of New Hampshire, exceeding the expectations of all involved.
Last July, the UNH Office of Sustainability Programs (OSP), in partnership with the N.H. Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, received a three-year, $76,000 Sustainable Agriculture Research Education Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
The result was New Hampshire's introduction to the Farm to School Program, whose goal is to support the local economy through an increase in access to local markets for local farmers and build a closer connection to the agricultural community by encouraging students to "Eat Local" through classroom and cafeteria education, according to Julie Newman, the education director for the OSP.
"That way students begin to enjoy their food while connecting with local farms," she said. "And the farmers get to expand their market."
Seventy-two schools participated during the 2003-04 school year, in 23 school districts, purchasing 785 cases of apples and 1,331 cases of cider (24 pints/case).
"The response was fantastic," said Mark Saunders, the program's distributor. Saunders, a 3rd-generation farmer himself, serves as a liaison between the schools and the farms, bringing the apples and cider to the cafeterias.
This year, all those products came from one orchard, owned by Ray and Sandy Hetnar, in Epping.
Ray Hetnar, a 2nd-generation farmer, is very happy with the outcome: His orchard saw 10 to 12 cases per week of his Rudy's Blend cider distributed to cafeterias from the Seacoast to the Lakes Region and even as far as Dartmouth College.
This is a welcome boost, as over the years farm acreage has been dwindling and more and more of America's produce has been shipped overseas as cash crops, according to Hetnar.
"It's been tough the last 10 years," said Hetnar, who refers to agriculture as a "dying breed." "But if the people support the farmers, they'll keep the farms going."
Buying locally-grown produce is also beneficial to the consumer, according to Hetnar, because growers cannot hide anything. Even though the chemical DDT is banned in the United States, it is still made and used on foreign produce, which is sold back to America's supermarkets, unlabeled.
"Native product is safe, and it's easy to know what you're getting," he said. "And it always tastes better, too."
Another Farm to School Program goal is to increase students' knowledge about these issues of food sources and healthy eating. The OSP ran a teacher training on March 27 to help teachers incorporate the values of the program into their curriculum.
Jen Wilhelm, a UNH graduate student involved with the program, has helped send posters and flyers to all involved cafeterias, giving students and teachers the information necessary to continue with the program after the three-year OSP grant expires.
"The ultimate goal is to institutionalize the program into school districts so they can run the program themselves," she said. "We want it to be long-term."
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