Local farmers partner in ‘wheat-to-school’ project By Ching Lee
money also allowed the wheat commis- sion to provide training to school staff so that they can make their own flour and recipes that use 100% whole grain. Federal school meal nutrition standards call for at least 80% of the weekly grains in school lunches and breakfast items to contain 50% or more whole grains. Citing research that finds less than 1% of U.S. children eat the recommended amount of whole grains in their diet, Carter said she wanted to help schools reach 100% whole grains in the wheat products they serve. Now that she operates her own mill, Gelene Coelho, food service director for the Shandon school district, said she can use the entire grain, not just the starchy middle part that goes into refined flour. By using 100% of the wheat kernel, her baked goods are more nutrient dense, and “the kids haven’t complained at all,” she added. “The taste is amazing,” Coelho said. “I wish we had taste-a-vision or something, so people can understand what this is, what it’s really about.” The goal, she said, is to purchase about 6,000 to 8,000 pounds of grain a year. She mills 150 to 300 pounds a week, an amount shared between the two school districts. The wheat purchases allow the districts to make some baked goods from scratch, but items such as sandwich bread and hamburger buns come from a local
Considering the agricultural mecca that is the Golden State, it may come as no surprise that many school cafeterias take advantage of the bounty by serving fresh, California-grown foods as part of the state farm-to-school program. For years, schools have been bulking up their salad bars with fruits and vegetables from local farms and using more locally grown ingredients in student meals. Now, some school districts are taking “farm to school” to a new level by adding a major food staple to the menu: local wheat. The endeavor has proved lofty because unlike fresh produce, which is ready to eat, wheat must be turned into flour before it can be used to make bread, pasta and oth- er baked goods. “With a carrot or lettuce or whatever, you can take that into the kitchen, wash it and serve it,” said Merced County farmer Jon Eck. With grains such as wheat, “the need for a processing step in between the field and the mill that makes the finished prod- uct makes it difficult.” The challenge did not deter two school districts in San Luis Obispo County from taking the plunge. The idea for the so- called “wheat 2 school” project came from Claudia Carter, executive director of the California Wheat Commission, who said she wanted to convince school food au- thorities that buying their own wheat and
Lauren Thomas, food and nutrition services director for the San Miguel Joint Union School District, serves students cinnamon rolls that were baked with whole grains produced by California farmers.
milling it themselves is worthwhile. Best yet—they can make kid-approved whole- grain products without compromising nutritional value. “It’s a way to prove to the world and to everybody out there: One, kids like it, they will eat it. And two, that we can increase the whole grain consumption of children through the school lunch programs,” Carter said.
Thanks to state and federal grants aimed at bolstering farm-to-school programs, Shandon Joint Unified School District and San Miguel Joint Union School District last year became the first public schools in the state to procure locally grown wheat from California farmers, including Eck. The funding allowed the districts to acquire their own stone mill—housed at Shandon, the first public school in the na- tion to have such equipment on site. The
See WHEAT, Page 19
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16 Ag Alert March 8, 2023
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