From the youngest students through high schoolers, young adults, boomers and seniors, Orcas Islanders are enjoying the produce and harvests of local agriculture.

Farm-to-Cafeteria

The island Farm-to-Cafeteria program focuses on all grades K-12 in the public school by providing fresh local food to the cafeteria.

It teaches healthy food and nutrition to the elementary students and “when it finally matures, it will permeate all grades by including nutrition in the curriculum, field trips to farms, actually growing healthy organic food on campus, and inviting visiting chefs and nutritionists into the classroom,” said Farm-to Cafeteria advocate Madie Murray. “Until recently, our [school] cafeteria could not actively purchase all types of locally grown, organic foods so conveniently available to us through our farmers. Last year, those restrictions were lifted because of national pressure to provide more healthy food in schools across the country.”

While the Orcas Island School District is no longer required to purchase only government provided and regulated foods, the cost for island farmers to provide their products directly to the school (at cost) is more expensive than the government – subsidized foods previously purchased, said Murray. “Our cafeteria, even when purchasing cheap subsidized foods, still loses money every year. And, like so many government decisions, it tells a public school it can now buy local, but it provides no funding to support it. It’s like other Orcas school programs…the funding and efforts put forth by the community it serves decides whether or not it will happen.”

Murray says that the local program is more popularly known nationally and statewide as Farm to School. “Farm-to-Cafeteria is the result of a movement that started earnestly here on Orcas about five years ago. The most sophisticated program here in the islands is the LIFE (Lopez Island Farm Education) program on Lopez which is about eight or nine9 years old.”

“The only funding that has kept it alive has been from individuals who supported the program through donations at the past two Food for Thought Fundraisers, and by proceeds raised at the past two Library Fairs by selling fresh organic salads and jams. Since the Farm-to-Cafeteria is not yet a 501(c)3, its only funding source is through donations made to OIEF, designating the Farm-to-Cafeteria program as the recipient of those funds,” said Murray.

FEAST offered through school and Orcas Rec

Owen Cheevers, who assisted in the LIFE program on Lopez, was also instrumental in the recent Farm Education and Sustainability for Teens (FEAST) program, taught to Orcas high-schoolers through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, under the supervision of CTE Director, Kari Schuh.

Cheevers, and FEAST organizers Whitney Hartzell and Rusty Diggs, were supported by the Orcas Island Recreation Program. FEAST funding is not commingled with the Farm-to-Cafeteria program at all, says Murray. The Orcas Island Community Foundation also suports the FEAST program.

This summer, the FEAST program taught permaculture design, bee keeping, soil science, food preparation, nutrition, wild crafting, natural building and seed saving, as well as other subjects.

The FEAST kids also volunteered their help with the Farm-to-Cafeteria (F2C) community Harvest Meal at last May’s Open House at the school. The meal, prepared by local chefs Annie Sparks-Dempster and Charles Dalton of The Kitchen, sold out to a crowd estimated at over 200 people.

The high school program was written by Schuh to meet state requirements for credit, including grade-level expectations and essential academic learning requirements. The FEAST class was required to demonstrate how it related to job fields and leadership development – that component was addressed in the Farmers’ Market and end-of-season FEAST dinner, said Schuh.

While she says she was basically “a warm body” Schuh participated in all the classes (including making 200 jars of jam with fellow teacher Paula Towne), made arrangements for food, transportation and expertise, and made it possible for the students to get credit for the class.

Some of the summer FEAST students told Schuh that the program “transformed their lives,” she reports. She hopes that the for-credit program will be incorporated into the school year, so that more students can participate, and that the CTE program can offer a Culinary Arts class, in cooperation with the Farm-to-Cafeteria program. Funding for such a class was sought by Murray, Marian O’Brien and Michelle Reed, but didn’t materialize for this year.

Farm to Table at the Senior Center

The farm-to-market idea is spreading, with the monthly “Farm to Table” dinner at the Senior Center, open to the public, and to seniors at a reduced cost.

A delicious harvest meal of squash soup, vegetable quiche, green salad with heirloom tomatoes, and – for dessert – blackberries with cream and sweet biscuits, with the optional sprinkling of Chambord blackberry liquer was served on Sept. 17.

Farm products supplied for the Sept. 17 dinner came from Maple Rock farm, La Campesina and Crow Valley Farm. “The program pays because we want to support local farmers, and it’s meant to be a self-sustaining dinner,” said Mindy Kayl, a local farmer who sometimes cooks at the Senior Center, and who initiated the Farm-to-Table idea. “By paying for the meal, we can buy the food.”

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the community to gather and learn from each other, as well as for volunteers to feel the reward of service,” said Kayl.

The inspiration for the monthly program came when Kayl was substituting for the Senior Center nutrition program chef Amy Raven when she was on vacation. “So often the food is characteristic of institutional food and it would be nice to add fresh produce – which is such a great source of good nutrition – using food grown here on the island and take the shipping and mass production out of the equation,” Kayl said.

She approached the Senior Advisory Board about the idea, and said they immediately asked, “When do you want to start?”

“That helped my momentum and they were willing to go outside of the bureaucracy to make the program happen, because the sponsored, government-funded senior nutrition program is very restrictive,” Kayl said.

“So we pushed forward with the idea, and the willingness and eagerness of the farmers to get their product to the seniors gave it huge momentum.”

Kathy Morris, leader of the 4-H group on Orcas (“Fur and Feathers”) also helped prepare the dinner and supervised the youngsters – Rhys Thompson, Tika Thorson, Zachary Kostechko, Grace Thompson, Tara Dubos, Fiona Morris, and Paris Wilson – who served the dinner at the Senior Center, as they have done for about three years.

Kayl says the dinners this summer have been attended by about 30 to 40 people.

Dinner guests said, “It’s fun to have the 4-H children serve,” and “It’s lovely interaction between the old and young.”

Marylou Padbury had been asked, earlier in the day, to set the table and the menu sounded good, so she invited her friends and neighbors to come.

The October dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 15, and may be the last dinner until spring, Kayl says.