Running Head: Farm to School Business Proposal Business Plan Farm to School Week at Tallmadge High School Assessment

of Programmatic Needs:

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Tallmadge High School has a fairly successful and steady lunch program. Lately, the lunch participation has decreased slightly. The business manager mentioned that after talking with some of the parents and students, it was revealed that students are just getting bored with some of the lunch options. With all of the nutritional changes being made to the school lunch program, some of the kitchen staff, parents, and teachers are disgruntled about it and a farm to school program would be a fun way to showcase these changes in a positive light. Tallmadge is a town that already has a large local farming support and a program such as this would thrive at this school. Tallmadge High School has a food court type set up very similar to the Hudson Middle School where there was a successful pilot farm to school program. The food court set up gives students multiple options to choose from each day and the regular lunch line would greatly benefit from bringing in a farm to school program. Description of Program, Product, or Service: The farm to school program is a weeklong (5 days of lunches) program that features locally grown and produced foods provided by Fresh Fork Market to the students regular lunch line. The goal of the week is to provide students lunches that consist of about 90% of all locally grown and produced foods to start getting the students thinking about supporting the local economy, the nutritious value of foods, and the difference of the quality of taste. Food that is considered to hold a higher nutritional value is generally looked at as much more expensive and unaffordable. Another goal of the program is to prove that buying local foods is feasible and still affordable. Ohio is known to be one of the Farming States and USDAs farm to school census concludes that Ohio is a full 10% below in farm to school participation than the rest of the country. The local community shows a large support for this program and during the first pilot program chefs and other health and wellness professional came in to show support of the program by cooking some of the foods and talking with some of the students during lunch about the importance of the program. Below is the description of the program that was developed for Hudson Middle School. A similar description and menu will be used for the program at Tallmadge High School. A thorough nutrient analysis of this menu was completed and it was founded that it met all of the National School Lunch Program guidelines.

Running Head: Farm to School Business Proposal

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Concept: To have one course include ~90% locally produced food to the meal each day of the week th from November 18 thru November 22nd at Hudson Middle School. The goal is to spread health awareness and to pilot a farm-to-school program for future use and development. About Fresh Fork Market: Fresh Fork Market is a local Farm Buying Club. FFM produces a weekly "grab bag" of local ingredients for its customers. Working with local farmers, each bag contains produce, meats, and dairy from producers within 75 miles of Cleveland. The bags are developed with a meal plan in mind to bring the highest quality ingredients from the farmer to the customer. Each week the components of the bag are planned to work together based on what is fresh and local that given week. Why this week: Food is traditionally a large component of the Thanksgiving holiday and piloting this program the week before Thanksgiving gives us a tangible opportunity to connect farms to schools. History has shown that school lunch participation during the week prior to Thanksgiving is marginally larger than average, so by piloting the program this week, it gives us the opportunity to market the farm-to-school program to more children and increase school lunch participation overall. Menu and Plan: Monday: Burger Bar w/ visiting Chef Parker Bosley Concept: Students will be able to put together their own customized burger. Being served: Grassfed beef sliders with aioli (oil mixture) Topping bar: including fresh greens, tomato jam (not catsup), house made BBQ, onion, etc. A vegetarian burger will also be available on demand featuring a locally produced vegan burger made with Ohio kale, black beans, spelt, and beets. Tuesday: Tex-Mex Bar w/ Chef Brandt Evans from Pura Vida and Blue Canyon Concept: Students will be able to create and put together their own Mexican style meal Being served: Protein options: smoked chicken and taco beef Grain: whole corn crackers Vegetable: onion, lettuce, fresh salsa, herbs, black beans, corn Dairy: shredded cheese Condiments: homemade hot sauce Wednesday: "Pasta" Bar w/ Marisa Pelser, Vegan, Raw Trainer, and Cook Concept: The point of this meal is to give the students a meatless variety and to show them that a balanced meal is possible even without including meats. Being served: Protein (optional to kids): Meat sauce incorporating smoked chicken as well as taco meat. Vegetables: Spaghetti squash "pasta", tomato sauce, steamed vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, fresh chopped onion and herbs, and sauted greens Dairy: Pick of cheese Thursday: Thanksgiving Dinner Day w/ Chef Parker Bosley Concept: This is the highlight of the week and it will be a Thanksgiving themed meal. This meal has such a variety of different items included in it, so it shows that even large meals, such as Thanksgiving dinner, are feasible to make using farm fresh goods. Many of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner items can be mixed and/or paired with vegetables and/or legumes to make the meal more nutritious.

Running Head: Farm to School Business Proposal

Being Served: Roasted Turkey House made gravy with whole wheat flour in the roux Stuffing using carrots, onion, celery, whole wheat bread, turnips, and turkey stock Mashed potatoes and turnips Squash and sweet potatoes Corn Pudding Apple crisp with stone rolled oats and honey

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Friday: Local Apple Bar Concept: This lunch will feature fresh local apples in a variety of different ways. Apples are a very versatile fruit that can be eaten many different ways. There are 7,500 different varieties of apples, so getting students to start trying some of the different types might help them realize that they like one apple type over another. Being served: A variety of fresh and local apples

Plan for Implementation: Previously, the farm to school program was piloted the week before Thanksgiving, a holiday in which food is a large component, and it was found to be very successful. It would be in Tallmadge High Schools best interest to follow along with that format and pilot the farm to school program in a week prior to the Easter holiday. During this week, there would be featured locally produced farm fresh foods incorporated into the meal. The first four days of the week would be leading up to the main feast on Friday that will be made entirely of the local farm fresh foods. The reason for this format would to slowly incorporate the idea of farm to school throughout the rest of the week to get the students and teachers more willing to buy the large feast meal on Friday. Estimated Budget: The lunch price for students right now is $3.00. If the school follows the 50/50 rule closely (50% of school lunch price should go to food price, 50% should go to staff wages), the goal would be to keep the food cost around $1.50 per plate. During the farm to school pilot at Hudson Middle School, 37 overtime staffing hours were required by both the head cook and assistant cook and should be taken in to consideration when budgeting for the farm to school week. In this case, the goal would be to keep food cost at about $1.40 per plate and wages at $1.60 per plate. An estimated average of daily school lunch participation in the regular lunch line is about 200 students/teachers. The feast will be estimated at 300 students/teachers. Trevor Clatterbuck, the founder of Fresh Fork Market, is very supportive and helpful when it comes to the farm to school program. During the Hudson Middle School pilot, Trevor was given the price point that was budgeted for and was able to stay under that price and is confident that will be the case for Tallmadge High School. Below is a chart of an estimated budget for the farm to school program at Tallmadge High School.

Running Head: Farm to School Business Proposal

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Daily Food Budget (Monday- Thursday): Week Food Budget (Monday- Thursday): Feast Food Budget (Friday): Overtime Staff Budget: Total Budget for the week:
Staffing Needs:

$280.00 $1,120.00 $420.00 $620.00 $2,160.00

As previously mentioned, it was necessary to have 37 overtime hours from the head cook and assistant cook over a period of two weeks during the pilot at Hudson Middle School. There were other members that volunteered in the kitchen that totaled 90 hours over a two week period. The volunteers included interns, employees of Fresh Fork Market, and chefs from local restaurants. The head cook and assistant chef from the Hudson Middle School were the only two kitchen staff employees that helped prep the farm to school food. The remainder of the staff continued on with the normal daily tasks. It is imperative to ensure that volunteers are willing to come in during the week to help with some of the food prep. Communication with Fresh Fork Market and Pisanick Partners staff are great resources to ensure that the volunteers are accounted for. Facility Requirements & Equipment: A fully functioning school kitchen that includes at least 3 ovens, large stove top, industrial sized mixer, and a steamer are the main facility requirements. After thorough evaluation of the Tallmadge High School kitchen, all of the items listed above are available for use. Supplies: The supplies that are needs to run this program include: General kitchen supplies that are already stocked in the Tallmadge High School Kitchen The local farm fresh food that will provided by Fresh Fork Market Paper, printer, laminate, & tape to create and display the posters Description of the 5 Ps of Marketing as Pertinent to this Project: Price School lunches at Tallmadge High School are priced at $3.00. Promotion - Promotion for the farm to school program includes videos, different flyers, emails sent out to teachers, and announcements made over the loud speaker in schools. If possible, a newspaper article in either the local newspaper or school newsletter would be beneficial. People - Students: 900 students attend Tallmadge High School and about 180 participate in the regular school lunch line. Parents: Parents are usually the ones supplying the money for their child to eat lunch. It is important to appeal to not only the students, but to make sure that the parents are in support of the program, too. Teachers and Staff: Teachers and staff of the school can have a large influence on the students in the school. If the teachers are in support of the farm to school program, it might help with the

Running Head: Farm to School Business Proposal

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promotion of eating healthful farm fresh foods. The students are also not the only ones that eat the lunch from the cafeteria, the teachers are a small percentage of the lunch participation number, too. Place - Tallmadge High School is a school that would be an ideal location to implement a farm to school week. The kitchen equipment is appropriate for the project, the kitchen staff is supportive of the idea, and the students are generally willing to try new foods. Tallmadge is a location that is similar to that of Hudson (where the original farm to school week was piloted and successful). Product - The product(s) consist of a week of school lunches that are 90% comprised of locally produced foods from farms that are within 75 miles of the surrounding area. The point of this week is to prove that local farm fresh foods that are generally more nutritious and that taste great are feasible for schools to buy and sell during lunch. This kind of lunch greatly appeals to parents and when a parent gets support of the product being sold to their children, the more likely they will be willing to spend the money for their children to buy lunches, which provides Tallmadge schools the opportunity to increase school lunch participation, in turn increasing revenue.

Justification/Feasibility: Two of the largest issues that America is battling right now are obesity and economic woes and by supporting the farm to school program it encourages students, parents, and teachers to support the local economy and a more healthful and delicious diet. The pilot at Hudson Middle School ended up breaking even in the profit and loss statement. This will be the second time piloting this program and there is a better understanding of the feasibility of the program and are confident that there will be a profit that comes in at Tallmadge High School. Customer Satisfaction Survey: (attached) Attached are two separate surveys; one for the students and one for the teachers/staff.