New Brunswick School Cafeterias Cooking With Local Food
Posted: September 25, 2013
Categories: Edible Education Network / Food in the News / Good Food Ideas for Kids
Image via Farm Credit Canada.
A success story from the East Coast of Canada sees students in New Brunswick getting a bigger taste of healthy local food while also learning more about how food is prepared, where it comes from, and the realities of farming. This inspiring story is the product of a partnership between Réseau des cafétérias communautaires and 20 of the 35 schools in the province’s Francophone School District. The program began last year with five schools and has now grown to its current size with 20 schools coming on board. Farm Credit Canada has the full story.
The project connects students to a dozen farmers belonging to the Really Local Harvest Co-Op, whose Director Matthieu D’Astous lauds the benefits for both farmers and students. In total, the project feeds about 8,000 students each day. Excerpt from the full story:
“Our mandate is to promote our members’ products and the co-op as a whole and to increase our members’ viability,” says Mathieu D’Astous, executive director of Really Local Harvest Co-op. “This is a great opportunity for them to sell more products.”
He says another important benefit is the educational aspect. The project actually started three years ago in one school that wanted to bring students into the kitchen to do some projects — something D’Astous says wasn’t permitted with a private company providing cafeteria services. D’Astous adds the new partnership lets students see how food is prepared, where it comes from and the realities of farming.