GST BOCES is proud to announce our GST BOCES Food Service Department has been chosen for a Farm to School Award for our innovative, flexible, and sustainable Farm to School Program, under the leadership of Joe Kilmer.
Mr. Kilmer thanked his staff with the following words, "There is so much more to our Farm to School purpose than just hitting 30%. I want to thank the folks who have taken leadership of this initiative as well as all of you who make it happen along with every front line team member in each school building!"
Congratulations to Joe Kilmer and his team for this accomplishment.
You can read more about why our program is award winning below.
Project Summary: Please provide a summary of your farm to school project.
Our farm to school program [GST BOCES – Healthy Kid Eats Cafeteria Management Team] has been in place for five years with demonstrable success and growth. The farm to school program is curated around two core operating systems. One is to support sustainable, daily integration throughout our school meals using locally grown products from NY State. The second is to develop seasonal monthly offerings that are themed “NY Menu Days” to utilize the best and freshest NY grown foods we can access including hyper local farms located near one of our 20 school districts across our six county service area.
Question #1: Transferability: How is the project able to be replicated in other districts or areas?
This program has transferability as a core value. We have a developed a proven scalable framework deployed across a variety of service points. Our mandate in developing and deploying the program is to meet the needs of a variety of diverse school district sizes, locations, labor skill level, and equipment. In its present form we have adapted the programing to serve PK-12 schools in both rural and urban settings with enrollment from 250 to nearly 6,000 students. One example is the highly rural single building with a single kitchen and cafeteria serving a total enrollment of 250 Pk-12 students. Challenges in a small school like this might be storage, or delivery, having to buy a large portion of something they only need a little of. On the other side of the coin, we have a district with nearly 6,000 students classified as Urban by the USDA serving 11 schools, in this case a different series of challenges with regards to scale, transportation, and recipe/instruction exist. In both examples one can point to reasons why it might be easier or harder, for example in a small building you can see each meal get prepared vs. a multi-site program must rely on training more. Over the course of five years we have learned and adapted to make it a common point of success.
Question #2: Impact/Measurability: who and how did the submission impact the children, schools, farms and/or communities?
Impact by the numbers
Across our six county region we service about 50 diverse school buildings and nearly 30,000 students. These building are in 20 different school districts, 3 separate BOCES Campuses across two counties.
Five (5) years and $6.5 million dollars of demonstrable results purchasing and service local NY food
In terms of actual dollars spent we have gone from a low of $690,000 of certified NY food to a projected $2.1 million for the school year 2023-24 over the five years (200% growth)
GST BOCES manages 20 districts out of 59 in the entire state that have achieved the NY 30
We believe we are the largest group of districts that have achieved it for five (5) consecutive years
Question #3: Innovation: How does the project show improved and creative ways to use local farm products?
At the core of what we try to provide as part of the GST BOCES – Healthy Kid Eats cafeteria program is something students crave, parents approve of, and that meets regulations. Across our program we like to find “kid friendly” food that is approachable, next we upscale the nutrition to fit school meal program needs.
To do this our program goes beyond just serving NY milk and basic cheese. One successful example of how we upscale nutrition is our Super Bowl Themed Buffalo Chicken Dip. In the 2023-2024 school year we combined local chicken and NY dairy products to align with the big game in February. Our NY menu day program sourced chicken grown in NY state to combine with a combination of cottage cheese and cheddar cheese to make a regional favorite, Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip Nachos. We also innovated by upscaling the nutrition, removing the cream cheese typically used in these recipes and adding in cottage cheese. In the NSLP cream cheese does not credit as a component, rather it is just added fat and calories. By upscaling the nutrition with cottage cheese we were able to credit this menu item in the NSLP more effectively. We tested the recipe multiple times adjusting it for success and then deployed it out to our 50 buildings. This is of course combined with the logistical challenges of working with a new local chicken producer, coordinating quantities, and taking some of the last mile deliveries on ourselves.
Throughout Covid service we were able to continue serving NY foods and still achieve the NY30
Opportunities for hyper local exist like getting a farm in Hornell NY to grow squash specifically for that district. Also doing several corn days where farmers in district will plant special corn for us to harvest the first week of school. Students then participate in husking the corn and we cook it to eat for lunch.
Training and planning to take on dirty carrots for roasting, learning from it, and partnering with farmers and suppliers who can assist with the barriers to success by filling in the gaps we have with equipment and skilled labor.
Question #4: Sustainability: Explain how activity is something that can be completed every year or demonstrate growth from one year to the next
When the question about sustainability comes up, I’m happy to say it was one of our guiding principles. Without putting sustainability as a core ingredient to the program we would not have served $6.5 million dollars of NY grown food to our 30,000 students. As mentioned above we went from a low of $690,000 of certified NY food to a projected $2.1 million, that is a 200% increase at the macro level. This is produced through integrated and sustainable daily menu options as well has hyper local growth in 20 individual school districts.
One example of hyper local grown food is a farmer in Prattsburgh NY that Superitendent Joe Rumsey had recommended to us. We started out the first year engaging with corn for our corn day mentioned above. Then the following year we purchased corn and maple syrup. Now as we prepare for the 2024-2025 school year the farmer is asking us what they can plant to supply our students!