U.S. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN laughs with Future Farmers of America members Chelsea Ofsuryk, at left, a freshman at East Granby High School, and Kaley Curtis, a junior at the same school, during a visit to the Donald F. Harris Sr. Agri-Science & Technology Center at Bloomfield High School on Tuesday. Lieberman praised students for cultivating foods in an environmentally conscientious way. (MARK MIRKO / November 27, 2007)

Hartford Courant

Food For Students From Students
Program Focuses On Home-Grown
By STEVEN GOODE
Courant Staff Writer
November 28, 2007
BLOOMFIELD —
When Timothy Cipriano became food services manager for the town's schools after years in the restaurant business, he quickly decided to make some changes.
"I [just] can't serve chicken nuggets every day," said Cipriano, who took the job about a year ago.
Cipriano found the help he needed in teacher Joe Rodrigues, just a flight of stairs away from Bloomfield High School at the Donald F. Harris Sr. Agri-Science & Technology Center. Cipriano and Rodrigues, an environmental science and biology teacher, developed a plan toproducefresh, locally grown food for students in a program that also provides new learning experiences.
On Tuesday, their collaboration merited a visit from Joe Lieberman, Connecticut's independent U.S. senator, who praised students for their efforts in cultivating vegetables and other foodstuffs in an environmentally conscientious way.
The instructional plan developed by Cipriano and Rodrigues called for students to use the 11-year-old Agri-Science & Technology Center to grow fresh vegetables for the school district's lunch tables, including kale, leeks, winter squash, parsley, oregano, onions and Scotch bonnets, a Jamaican chili pepper.
The students also worked to construct a chicken coop where they could learn to raise chickens and provide the schools with fresh eggs. A movable cage allows the chickens to feed outside.
"They're free-range, sort of," Rodrigues said during Tuesday's tour, during which Lieberman was shown several tanks filled with live tilapia, a fish native to Africa that is being raised in anticipation of being added to school menus in the spring. Rodrigues said students are learning about stocking and feeding the fish, maintaining the water quality and even using the waste that's produced to fertilize the vegetable beds.
The Cipriano-Rodrigues collaboration also involves Bloomfield High's culinary arts program, providing students with the opportunity to try new dishes, and giving them an appreciation of locally grown, environmentally friendly products.
"The more you can grow food right here, the healthier it is for you, and it helps our environment," said Lieberman, who is co-sponsoring a climate change bill that would require companies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions beginning in 2012. "The fact that you're in this program shows that you're sensitive to the environment."
Christy Taylor, a senior at Windsor High School who attends the Agri-Science program in the afternoon said there is an added bonus. It allows center students, who number about 90 and are drawn from around the region, to meet peers at Bloomfield high.
"It unites us more with the high school," she said.
Contact Steven Goode at sgoode@courant.com .
Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant

New York Times

August 19, 2007

In Pursuit of Farm Fresh Flavor
By KIM SEVERSON  

MY church is a farm. Give me a few chickens, a long row of carrots and the smell of dirt, and I’ll find the open heart and inner peace others might seek from a prayer book or a pew.

The connection between what I put in my body, the land around me and the miracle of things that grow makes me feel as if I’m part of something bigger than myself.

But before you dismiss me as some sort of patchouli-scented wacko, allow me to share my hedonistic bottom line: a perfect ear of Long Island corn or a lovely little lump of Hudson Valley goat cheese simply tastes better to me than anything I may find at the supermarket.

Of course, in the city or the suburbs, a farm is a really impractical church to have. So in a pinch, I’ll go to a farmers’ market. And on some days, a bin of local apples at the supermarket will do.

But luckily, it’s getting easier to find something local to eat. All over the tristate area, the church of local food is growing at rates that have farmers, serious cooks and even the most casual farm stand shoppers in awe.

“We have people calling every week wanting to start farmers’ markets,” said Linda Piotrowicz of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. “It’s gotten to the point where we’ve had trouble recruiting enough farmers.” That’s a bold statement, when you consider that the state has about 4,000 farms.

This year, about 90 farmers’ markets are operating across Connecticut. Twenty years ago, there were only 22. The story is the same in other areas. New Jersey has 95 farmers’ markets, almost double the number from five years ago. New York has almost 300.

And local food fever is stretching beyond farmers’ markets. Dairies in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are promoting 100 percent local milk and getting a dollar or two more a half gallon for it. Grocery stores like Whole Foods Market and the regional chain Wegmans have developed special programs to get locally produced food on store shelves.

That is not as easy as it may seem. In the Northeast, regional pride is at stake, said Jeff Turnas, vice president of purchasing for Whole Foods in the region that covers its tristate stores. “It is pretty territorial,” he said. “If they live in Connecticut, they want to see products from Connecticut. If they’re from New York, they want to see products from New York.”

Of course, in the summer, there are so many other options, who cares what’s in the produce aisle at the supermarket? On Long Island, humble roadside farm stands and more elaborate farmers’ markets are jammed with day trippers and locals who try to avoid the grocery store.

“If you live here you know that the supermarket is for winter,” said Sandra Fox, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Southampton.

Sure, shopping at a grocery store is more convenient and sometimes cheaper, conceded Lisa Tamra of Yonkers. She was at the Bronxville farmers’ market recently, picking up nectarines for $2 a pound.

“My fiancé thinks I’m a nut that I come down here,” she said. “But I go to the grocery stores and it’s not up to par.”

For some, even a trip to the farmers’ market isn’t good enough. They want to connect directly with the farm. So they sign up for community-supported agriculture projects. These nifty little pieces of commerce allow customers to buy shares in a farm for a few hundred dollars and then get boxes of whatever the farm is producing that week. Some are so popular there are waiting lists.

Jane Hutnik, who lives in Lake Shawnee in northern New Jersey, is one of 140 people who bought a share in Upper Meadow Farm this summer. Boxes of Chinese cabbage and Rose Gold potatoes help her feel more connected to her food and the people who grow it.

“You’re involved in the same gamble as the farmer,” she said. “If there’s been a bad storm and there’s no broccoli, then you don’t get broccoli.”

Gail Brussel of Larchmont, N.Y., started Farm Share in June, and already 200 people have signed up. The program delivers organic, local fruits and vegetables to chefs and home cooks in Westchester and parts of Connecticut. In May, Maryanne Hedrick of Peekskill, N.Y., started mypersonalfarmers.com, which allows people in Westchester to shop online and eat the best of Hudson Valley farms without having to leave home. The food comes from farms within 150 miles of New York City.

“We’re losing the equivalent of seven acres of farmland a day in the Hudson Valley,” Ms. Hedrick said. “I’m using new technology to support an old idea: that there is great bounty in this region that we should all be enjoying.”

Of course, even the most ardent supporters of local food draw the line. Merilyn Rovira, who lives in Princeton, N.J., has been a member of the Honey Brook Organic Farm, a community-supported agriculture project in Pennington, N.J., for a dozen years. She loves the farm, but she has her limits.

“We’re not going to be 100 percent local,” she said. “I’m not convinced enough to buy New Jersey wine and I’m not giving up olive oil, but from May to November eating locally is an important thing.”

So why is local fever gripping the region? The trend is a case study in cultural and environmental changes.

Let’s start with the runaway train called organics. In 2000 when the federal Department of Agriculture announced a set of standards, the spirit of the organic food movement was changed forever. You would think people who wanted to eat food from small, well-run, pesticide-free farms would have welcomed a national set of rules. But it unleashed a monster.

Now, the market is more than $15 billion a year and draws players like Wal-Mart and General Mills. Somehow, organic garlic from China doesn’t have quite the same appeal as some hard-neck variety from the Hudson Valley.

For small farmers, the paperwork can be expensive and cumbersome so they don’t apply for organic certification, even though their practices are in line with organic principles. And the organic label doesn’t mean a product is from a farm that uses sustainable practices.

So local has become the new organic, helped in large part by a growing concern over the environmental impact of transporting food thousands of miles. A few years ago, the term food miles moved into the lexicon. Dedicated people calling themselves locavores began limiting their diets to food that came from a radius of a couple hundred miles.

The author Barbara Kingsolver became a locavore and in May published “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” (HarperCollins Publishers), which chronicles her family’s yearlong adventure trying to eat locally. That book and Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” (Penguin Press) have become the bibles of the church of local food. Laura Singer, a resident of Trumbull, Conn., who shops at the Westport Farmers’ Market, has read both.

“I’m on this total guilt trip about buying food and having it shipped halfway across the world,” she said. “My consciousness has really been raised about supporting local farmers and the amount of fossil fuel it takes to get food from long distances.”

The desire to save shrinking farmland in densely populated areas also figures into the equation. There is no better way to save a small farm than to buy the farmer’s food. And buying directly at a farmers’ market or through a community-supported agriculture project brings in more money for farmers than the wholesale market, said Tim Warner of Orient, N.Y., who helps run his family’s 120-acre farm. “The farmers’ markets are our only outlet,” he said. “That’s what keeps us going. We couldn’t wholesale anymore. It was just really hard.”

The last two threads of the local food trend come from concerns over food safety and the talent of area chefs.

Mix a little mad cow disease, bags of spinach infected with E. coli and an obesity epidemic and people begin to question what is happening to the food supply. A bunch of kale from Hepworth Farms in Milton, N.Y., may not solve those problems, but it is one sure, small step toward a healthier family dinner table.

The modern notion that food grown organically and close to home tasted better might have been pioneered in the 1970s by people like Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., but chefs like Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills in Westchester County and Michel Nischan at the Dressing Room in Westport, Conn., are perfecting what Adam Platt from New York Magazine calls haute barnyard cuisine.

Of course, trying to buy more local meat and produce isn’t without its problems. Finding what you want isn’t convenient, and it can be more expensive. And food coming directly from the farm means washing your own lettuce and learning how to cook beets.

But there is value beyond the price per pound. Mr. Pollan points out that the American food system is devoted to increasing quantities and reducing prices. The average American spends less than 10 percent of his or her income on food. In 1947, the figure was 24 percent. Mr. Pollan believes people who can afford to pay more for better food should.

Still, we all become misers at the supermarket. There are those of us — and I certainly have done this — who will happily spend $4 for a cup of warm milk and coffee but balk if organic tomatoes cost 40 cents a pound more than something shipped from Mexico.

The farmers know customers are price- sensitive.

“Getting people to understand why things are more expensive is a challenge,” said John Ramsey, who runs a four-acre family farm in the heart of Scarsdale, N.Y. “For years we’ve had the same prices. A bunch of basil was always 50 cents.”

Now, with fuel prices up and a year of tough weather, he is going to have to raise it to 75 cents. But imagine what that brings. You get the basil, and you get to be part of a community and help save some farmland.

Earlier this month, I visited Cindy Burke, an old friend who created the recipes for a book I wrote on trans fat. She lives in a Seattle suburb and recently published her book, “To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What You Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-Friendly Food” (Marlowe & Company). She knows more about the dynamics of buying local than most people I know. And like me, farms are her church.

I asked her about why people were so interested in buying local as we drove with her young daughter to a farm about a half-hour from her West Seattle home. We were picking up a pig. Half a pig, actually. She had bought a share in a Berkshire-Duroc mix. It had been cut into chops and roasts and was ready for her freezer. In all, the meat cost a little more than $4 a pound.

Local food is more delicious, true. But buying it does more than fill our bellies, she said. It keeps us connected. Technology, the mass media, long commutes and the never-ending pressure to earn more money keeps us separate from our neighbors and families, she said. And these days, people are so mobile that they don’t necessarily live in the place where they grew up.

“Eating locally ties us to a place,” she said. “It give us roots in the local community where we live. It makes us think about other people, and how we’re connected. It puts us in touch with a life force we can’t find anywhere else.”

To which I say, amen.

Jan Ellen Spiegel contributed reporting from Connecticut, Susan M. Novick from Long Island, Karla Cook and Kelly Feeney from New Jersey, and Emily DeNitto and Susan Stewart from Westchester.

Waterbury Republican-American

Lawmakers pass bill for eateries to sell food from farmers’ markets
HARTFORD — The legislature has approved a bill that would make it possible for the restaurants in the state to serve food bought at the state’s farmers’ markets.
The bill passed the House at 11:30 Wednesday night, the last day of the 2007 legislative session. It awaits final approval from Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
Existing state law permits the state’s farmers’ markets to sell directly to consumers, but not to es­tablishments that sell food. Sen. Andrew W. Roraback, R-Goshen, and Rep. Craig A. Miner, R­Litchfield, who proposed the legislation, said in a joint statement they were pleased with the news. They said the bill represented an expansion of the state’s ongoing efforts to assist Connecticut’s farm­ers and promote locally grown products.

Hartford Courant

Global Warming Fighters Honored
Awards Coincide With Rell, Schwarzenegger EPA Threat
By JOEL LANG
Courant Staff Writer
May 22 2007

Connecticut's version of the Oscar awards for best performance in fighting global warming were handed out Monday to six individuals, including the food services director of Bloomfield schools and the owner of an organic juice bar in Hartford.

The emcee of the ceremony at Department of Environmental Protection headquarters, Commissioner Gina McCarthy, said it was a sign of Connecticut's leadership on climate change.

The awards were presented on the same day that Gov. M. Jodi Rell and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had an op-ed article in the Washington Post, threatening legal action if the federal government continues to block state efforts to set emissions standards for passenger vehicles.

Among those cited for their efforts, Tim Cipriano, the Bloomfield food services director, was recognized for using locally grown produce that does not need to be transported long distances.

Imini Zito, the owner of the Alchemy Juice Bar Café, runs a business that achieves a low "carbon footprint" partly by using biodegradable take-out containers and making deliveries in a vehicle that runs on bio-diesel fuel.

Other individual winners of the Climate Change Leadership awards were:

Andy Bauer, a middle school teacher in Glastonbury, who made his hometown of Portland the first municipality to purchase electricity through a state clean energy program.

Charles Button, an assistant professor at Central Connecticut State University who created a new course in energy management and helped develop a schoolwide sustainability plan.

Lynn Plant of Fairfield, a marketing strategist who created a climate change page on her town's website.

And Bryan Garcia, who helped develop Connecticut's Climate Change Action Plan that calls for steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and is now program director of the Yale University Center for Business and Environment.

Yale University also received an award for instituting measures that, as of last year, cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 41,000 metric tons.

In their op-ed article Rell and Schwarzenegger faulted the federal Environmental Protection Agency for delaying action on California's request for a waiver to set tailpipe standards for vehicles that Connecticut and 10 other states have also adopted.

The EPA is scheduled to hold hearings on the waiver today.

If it does not grant the waiver, Rell and Schwarzenegger wrote, "we have an obligation to take legal action and settle this issue once and for all."

Contact Joel Lang at jlang@courant.com.

 

ReminderNews
Schools buy from local farmers
BY C.L. KELLY

More and more Connecticut schools are offering students fresh local foods. Since February of 2007, more than 100 public and private schools from across the state have chosen to participate in the Connecticut Farm-to-School Program. More schools continue to join this environmentally- and economically-conscious initiative.
The farm products are not necessarily confined to produce, since some school districts also buy Connecticutraised beef.
“We used Wright’s Orchard for all apples served in our cafeterias the entire time they were available to us, September through January,” said Abby Kassman-Harned, food service director in the Department of Food Service for Tolland public schools.
So far, schools in Andover, Canterbury, Colchester, Coventry, East Hartford, Ellington, Glastonbury, Killingly, Lebanon, Manchester, Mansfield, Norwich, Plainfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, South Windsor, Thompson, Tolland, Vernon, Windham and Windsor all participate. Other towns, including Woodstock and Granby, have schools that will soon be joining the program.
Connecticut’s Farm-to-School Program began in the mid 1990s and is coordinated through the State Department of Agriculture and the State Department of Education.
Encouraging school systems – some of which serve more than 1,000 meals daily – to buy locally helps sustain local agriculture. “Twenty-five years ago, South Windsor was primarily a farming community, but since then, farmers have sold off a lot of land,” said Mary Ann Lopez, director of South Windsor public schools’ food services and incoming president-elect for the School Nutrition Association of Connecticut.
The food service director for Bloomfield public schools and incoming vice president-elect of SNACT, Timothy J. Cipriano, believes in supporting the local economy. “I feel these grassroots efforts are saving farmland because it is opening up a whole new market for the farmers,” he said. “We can almost guarantee how much product we will purchase because we know the number of meals that we serve on a daily basis, 180 days a year. The school market, up to a couple years ago, was basically untouched. Now, through the efforts of the Department of Agriculture’s Farm-to-School Program, the farmers have a broader audience.”
South Windsor schools, for example, utilize Groszyk Farms in Enfield for vegetables and strawberries from Dzen Farms, among others.
Because the Farm-to-School’s initiative has increased demand for more fresh produce, some local farmers have been planting more acreage for schoolspecific products.
“Some other Connecticut farmers are constructing greenhouses with the goal of extending Connecticut’s growing season further into the autumn months,” states a Connecticut Farm-To-School brochure.
Sometimes Mother Nature’s unpredictability affects availability. “Our products this season were smaller in number due to the weather last spring and early summer,” said Lopez. “Overall, pricing has been very competitive, and the farmers hold it steady for the growing season.”
In addition, from February 2006 through June 2007, the Connecticut Department of Education received a $1 million federal grant that 25 schools across the state were awarded for the purpose of purchasing fresh produce. The grant was provided through the United States Department of Agriculture fresh fruits and vegetable program.
“We have found great success with the program,” said Lopez. “We provide produce free of charge to all the students.”
Farmers, schools, organizations and community members may contact Mary Ragno, coordinator of the Farm-to-School Program, at (860) 456-2002 for more information. 





More than 100 schools take part in the state’s Farm-to-School Program.

 

 

 

New England Grown.com

The Local Food Dude

By Kathleen Weldon, 3/12/2007
Back when I went to school, the lunch ladies were quiet, older women in hair nets who heated frozen meals in huge steam trays and served them up to students who complained loudly about the unchanging rotation of soggy breaded chicken, pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers. Some school cafeterias may not have changed much since those days, but the schools in Bloomfield, Connecticut have a decidedly different feel. For one thing, the lunchtime offerings might include roasted root vegetables from local farms or fresh fruit straight from the tree. And, instead of the lunch ladies, they have Timothy Cipriano: The Local Food Dude.
As part of the Connecticut Farms-to-Schools program, Tim has brought farm-fresh food into the school system. His approach to convincing students that local and fresh vegetables are better than steam-tray hotdogs has been one of deep education. In his former position at the Dodd Middle School, Tim incorporated his food into the curriculum. Students learned to prepare dishes, to do nutritional and cost analysis of recipes, and to “market” new recipes to the school community. And commitment to good eating didn’t stop there – through a grant from the USDA Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program, fruit and vegetable trays were made available to students during after school activities, in homeroom, even in the guidance counselor’s office, a program that continues at Dodd today. Tim has now brought his commitment to local, fresh food to the Bloomfield School system, where he is working with the local 4-H program, the Culinary Arts Department, Vo-Ag Program and the Food Services Department to develop a comprehensive food program.
Tim has shown that kids will eat vegetables and fruit – if they are prepared in ways that bright and appealing. Green beans from the can and watery squash are a no-go, but glazed carrots, strawberry soup, Italian vegetable soup, and raspberry coleslaw get great reviews for both nutrition and taste.
We asked Tim a few questions:

How did students respond to your first attempts to replace the usual cafeteria food with locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables?
Both school communities I worked in were also farming communities at one time, more recently they are now bedroom communities. The students were perplexed, but the parents were very happy that I was incorporating locally grown products into their students’ lunches.

You’ve involved students in learning about their food, in addition to offering them better choices. To what extent do you believe that this involvement accounts for the success of your program?
Getting the students involved with more than just eating is huge. The students see me as Chef Tim, a cool bald guy in school rather than a “Lunch Lady”. The students that I worked with were more receptive to try new foods.

Do you work with teachers to integrate your programs into what students are learning in their science classes? Do the teachers support your work?
Teachers definitely support the program. I am currently working on tying the Vo-Ag and Culinary Arts departments together to work with the food service in my high school.

How do parents convince their children to eat real food, rather than junk and fast food?
I feel the best way is to have a family meal and incorporate fun foods into the meal; instead of having baked squash, try Squapple, Roasted Butternut Squash & Apple Crisp with a crunchy cornflake topping. Let the kids go shopping with you; let them choose which fruits and vegetables they want to try.

How do parents get their schools to support them in their efforts to improve their children’s diets?
Get the facts, go to the Board of Education meetings and speak up. Call the food service director and ask what can be done to get a program in place. Volunteer to do some of the legwork to get the program up and running.

Do you think a program like yours could work in every school district, or does your area have unusual resources that allow for a progressive program?
It could definitely work in every district in the country, all that is needed is a group of dedicated individuals who want it to happen.

Do you think poor, city schools could afford to develop a program like yours?
Yes, where there’s a will there’s a way!

Does your food cost significantly more than most school lunches?
$.14 for a local apple vs. $.22 for a Washington State Apple. Local apple traveled 10 miles and was picked that morning, WA apple traveled 1600 miles and was picked weeks ago.

How many programs like yours do you know of in the U.S.?
There are many farm-to-school programs happening around the country. CT alone has a large number of participating districts, see www.ctgrown.gov, then look for the Farm-to-School link for more information.

What role do local farms play in improving children’s diets?
The support of local farms is vital for this program to function, without their help and support we would not be able to operate.

What are the most popular dishes in your schools?
Steamed Calaloo, Collard Greens, Squapple, Warm Cinnamon Apples, Glazed Carrots & Swiss Chard, Roasted Beets.
Once you’ve done reading, start talking: to the food services director at the local school, to other parents, to the principal, to local farmers. The more people who become excited about the possibility of healthy, locally-grown school lunches, the better the chance of changing the school lunch program. Good luck!

 

FoodManagement News

LocalFoodDude

2/23/2007
Bloomfield, CT, School District FSD Tim Cipriano has started a website for New England area school nutrition professionals that supports locally grown food sources
Bloomfield, CT, School District FSD Tim Cipriano has started a website for school nutrition professionals that supports locally grown fruits, vegetables and other food sources. The site, www.localfooddude.com, emphasizes sustainable food sources in the New England region, and includes information ranging from recipes to a list of local farms.

 

Bloomfield Journal

'Food Dude' opens home-grown food website
By: Brian Woodman Jr., Staff Writer, 02/22/2007
Tim Cipriano has been the director of Food Services for the Bloomfield school district since July 1, 2006, described himself as a self-taught chef.
His 15 years of experience in the culinary arts, which includes working at several restaurants in the Northeast, has resulted in a website for school nutrition professionals - www.localfooddude.com .
The purpose of the site, which he started last month, is to support locally grown fruits, vegetables and other food sources. The site emphasizes sustainable food sources in the New England region, and includes information ranging from recipes to a list of local farms.
About 40 staff members working under Cipriano, who previously worked as the chef for Dodd Middle School in Cheshire. He has three children and his wife Maura is a teacher.
He discussed recipes he introduced to the district as part of a pilot program, such as "Squapple Crisp." The treat, which combines a winter squash and an apple crisp topped with cornflakes, is considered the most popular.
"There's something different," he said. "That makes it more exciting. We want to try different things than the kids are used to eating."
He also works in cooperation with the Connecticut Farm to School Program, which operates under the auspices of the departments of agriculture. It has been in place for a few years and supports local farmers, he said.
"Instead of apples that were picked in (the state of) Washington and shipped here, you have apples from Connecticut that were picked a few days ago," said Cipriano regarding the program. He said the reduction of emissions from delivery trucks traveling across the country to deliver food could be reduced by local deliveries, he said.
"It is healthier for the environment, for the economic climate and for the consumers," he said.
The program has been discussed by the Department of Environmental Protection because of the effect that climate changes can have on certain foods.
He has also worked with the program "Fresh Fruits and Vegetables," which serves 25 school districts, and will participate in a forthcoming NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) discussion panel at Windsor High School.