Page 31 - Valley Table- Winter 2025

are manufacturers involved or
the state agencies that oversee
all of this.”
Anthony sees what
Sheehan-Lopez does a little
bit differently: “And then
the Godsend came, Katie
Sheehan-Lopez from Cornell.”
He quickly cited her ability
to connect him to local beef
and chicken—protein had
been pretty scarce for him
to find, and chicken is the
universally loved and needed
protein for school lunches.
She also connected him to
lightly processed products like
New York State pizza dough
and no-nitrates local hot dogs
from Slate Foods. (Julia Van
Loon, who runs Slate Foods,
was a food service director for
decades before becoming a
meat processor and distributor,
so she is particularly lauded
and loved by school food
service directors.)
Sheehan-Lopez’s presence as
a connector made it possible
for Anthony—and the other
food service directors she
works with—to easily clear
the 30 percent local New
York state-grown and -made
threshold. “And it’s not just
about chasing that 19 cents,”
says Anthony, though the math
is always on his mind. “It’s also
to keep the money within
the local farms—and for the
kids to see that it’s all from
here.” He cited a child who,
reading the sign that noted
where that day’s cauliflower
had come from—Hearty
Roots Farm—said, “Hey! My
dad works there!” Those
are the connections that
bind communities together.
Apostolides from Cornell is
invested in growing respect
for farmers. “In reality, they are
integral to our being here.”
Collica from Pawling, who
just closed out her first year
serving lunches that met the 30
percent New York threshold,
feels the community bond
deeply as well. “We’ll never
serve an apple here that’s not
grown locally. It would be so
foolish for us to even consider
it.” She knows, also, that the
kids are attached to some of
the local produce by name, like
Dykeman’s corn. “Our students
know that farm,” she says.
“They go there for class visits.
And every September, they
know they’re going to have
Dykeman’s corn at school with
their lunch. Mandy Dykeman
drops it off to us directly, and
it’s wonderful.
“And when you’re in a small
district like Pawling, you’re
very close to the community.
And the Board of Ed and our
superintendents are really
committed to serving local
and healthy food options in
our district,” she says. “Having
those champions makes all
the difference. Food service
director jobs, with staffing
and meeting all our financial
responsibilities, and just getting
the food in the door, no matter
what level of buy it is… it’s a
lot. So for the bigger districts
who aren’t participating, I’m
not knocking them, because
it’s just hard. But if the bigger
districts in our region get on
board [with farm-to-school]
then the distribution will just
really open up.”
Creativity is Key
It is a slow process to undo
100 years of building up
“efficiencies,” which is what
led to the large, national
distribution chains where
food was being produced to
travel long distances—not
for flavor or nutrition. And in
many districts, particularly in
the lower Hudson Valley and
Westchester, the cafeterias
are operated by food service
management companies,
“which have been much
more difficult to get [farm-
to-school] into, for sure,” says
Apostolides. But in Rockland
County, Apostolides is
working with two private
yeshiva schools, which have
the added complication of
a strict kosher certification.
“One of those schools is
making really interesting
efforts and making great
new connections between
communities.”
“It’s often the last mile of the
distribution piece that is the
hardest to solve,” says Sheehan-
Lopez, who has delivered eggs
to schools once as a last-mile
solution of her own making.
The Ellenville Central
School District, in Ulster
County, has a strong
partnership with its food
service management company,
Whitsons Culinary Group,
says Vince Napoli, Assistant
Superintendent for Business
for Ellenville Schools. He
proudly names a half-dozen
top meals, including the
strawberry-and-asparagus
salad, and credits Debra Fisher,
Whitsons General Manager for
Ellenville, for the creativity and
programming she’s brought to
the school.
“The goal is to get the kids
to try new things,” he says,
“and for them to be excited
about it.” Even beet brownies—
brownies partially sweetened
by ground beets—were a big
hit, Fisher reports.
Her favorite dish this year was
ground goat served with sweet
potatoes. “I infused local honey
with hot peppers to make a hot-
pepper-honey sweet potato,”
she says. “That was a meal I was
most proud of. ”
It’s the excitement of
planning “the next great
meal” that keeps all of
these food service directors
plowing ahead and doing
the complicated math and
procurement that makes these
memorable farm-to-school
meals. At the end of the 2024
school year, Larry Anthony
got his hands on a sample of
steelhead trout from Hudson
Valley Fisheries. “That really
had me stoked,” he said, quickly
reeling off some high-grade
food service director math:
“Price point comes in at $7 a
pound, which isn’t horrible, so
44 cents an ounce, a two-
ounce serving for the middle
and high schools. I can boost
the protein with some quinoa….”
He ran the samples to his
head cook at Pine Plains high
school, JoAnn Fennelly, “I just
said ‘Do your magic.’ Tomatoes.
Olives. Garlic butter. Local
asparagus from Red Barn
Produce. This was just a sample
to taste test with the kids, so
she could let her talent fly
unhindered by procurement
math. “When she sent me the
picture of what she’d made, I
almost cried,” Anthony says. “I
was so proud of that.”
And it will definitely be on
the menu in all the Red Hook,
Rhinebeck, and Pine Plains
schools this year.
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