Anne Arundel County Public Schools, MD Food 4 Thought, 1 Sep 2015

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From YouTube: Food 4 Thought - Coastal Sunbelt & Fifer Orchards

Description

Host Jodi Risse, MS, RD, LDN, along with featured guests, discuss topics promoting healthy lifestyles, communities of wellness, and the school meals program in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. This month Jodi talks with Katie Baehr, a Buyer with Coastal Sunbelt Produce and Curt Fifer, owner of Fifer Orchards, Inc. Original air date September 1, 2015.

A

See who's harvesting fruits and vegetables for Anne, Arundel, County, Public Schools next on food for thought,.

A

Hi I'm Jodie Russi, the host for food for thought, and thanks for watching today, I'm joined by Katie bear from the coastal sun belt produce company, one of our vendors right here in Anne Arundel County Public Schools we're going to talk a lot about fruits, vegetables and particularly local, produce welcome Katie to food for thought. Can you tell the viewers a little bit about yourself before we start the show sure.

B

Produce is actually a second career for me. I spent 10 years in the Navy as a helicopter pilot that adventure actually started here in Anne Arundel County at the Naval Academy and then I spend most of my time in San Diego out. There I fell in love with farmers, markets and local food and when it was time to decide whether to leave the military, not I ended up deciding to start a mobile grocery delivery business out there I worked with for local organic farms about eight other local businesses.

B

So when my fiance got military orders, who's still active duty military out here to Annapolis to teach the Naval Academy, we decided to close that venture up out there and that brought me out here to Annapolis and through some networking through some farm conferences, the cost of conference I met the vice president of purchasing at coastal and that's how I ended up here, told him what I was up to and they said they were looking for someone to really build their local produce and am buying and Here. I am good.

A

Well, we for viewers watching interval did County Public Schools. We serve about thirty to thirty one thousand lunches a day, and we do a large variety of fruits and vegetables. I. Think seeing is believing when you see what our lines look like. It really looks like the grocery store, the colors pop our students are going through the lines and they're just really filling half of their plates with fruits and vegetables. Just like USD I would encourage all of us to do when we eat at our different meals, so with coastal you're, one of our vendors.

A

So what that means to somebody watching is you provide an arundel county public schools in our 120 locations, all of our fruits and vegetables? What is your role so when you say you're going to buy a coastal, so I think everybody knows that. Obviously we do business with you weekly all year, long, how you know what is your role or or how to use secure local farmers at coastal, Sun, Belt, yep.

B

So coastal is a full line of produce, so we get stuff. You know stuff from Thailand. We get stuff right here from Anne Arundel County from farmers, so we source from all over the globe, but my role is as local buyer is to find those farmers that we can have partnerships with and link them with our customers, such as internal County, Public Schools.

B

So when the growing season really gets going, which is starting to kick off right about now and through the fall things get really busy for local produce and a lot more options become available in the winter months we have some hydro growers and around the area that keep us going and some produce will store pretty well squashes apples. Things like that. That can keep us eating locally year-round and.

A

I think that's what we're seeing more and more in Anne Arundel County, so we've wrote language in our bid and it says that we would source local produce within 150 miles till the viewers. You know just I guess so somebody watching what would that mean to them? What's a hundred and fifty mile radius for us- and you know how far out are you looking at those farmers? You know particularly for Anne Arundel County, because we think you do a great job for us here at what's.

B

So neat about this part of the country is you have so many different political boundaries and states and areas around the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but that also gives us a lot of access to a lot of farms. So when you talk to you, Jia graphically have southern Pennsylvania all the way down to southern Virginia. We even do some stuff in North Carolina as well. West Virginia, all the way to the coastline, and each customer is different on what they define as local. There is an industry standard so for you guys, 150 miles.

B

That gives you a really large breath of a lot of different farmers and really opens your options produce dairy. All sorts of local farming is going around within that radius. I.

A

Think the the joy that we have is that we're able to work with somebody like you but then really connect to the farmer. I think that's been so important, the more we can showcase. You know know where your food comes from and know your farmer I think it really just gives such credibility to the program and we hope the excitement that our students have when they're coming through the lines with us goes home to the moms and dads, and we hope they say you know today.

A

I tried asparagus for the first time or today, I had roasted brussel sprouts. When we see the excitement on the serving line, we know that excitements going home and we're really. We feel we cultivate communities of wellness. We could do it each and every day and every single child that comes through our line. We can make a difference for them when you buy local and you know we receive reports and it's by pounds and what not? How would you?

A

How do you suggest, if there's a farmer that wants to sell, say to Anne Arundel County, you know how do we make the connection or how do you start for our viewer watching? Looking at what our volume is, you know, for instance, 31,000 servings we need Montgomery. County might need X amount. You know. How do you look at that, especially when you throw all the retail side of it into it, because you're buying for restaurants as well? Yes,.

B

Our customers range from I started off with a lot of restaurants and we're all high-end hotels. We do a lot of food service. We also do food retail with some grocery stores and institutions like yourselves and hospital, so we have a large breadth of customer. So, as you can imagine, a restaurant takes a lot smaller volume than Anne Arundel County Public Schools do what's neat about us. Is we can aggregate a lot of stuff from a lot of farmers? So, for instance, you have a really high large volume.

B

Well, maybe there's a great farmer that we work with I can't provide it all, but we can aggregate from maybe two or three local farmers in order to get you, your local spinach per se, so out, basically using different strategies to make sure that we are supporting the farmers and their capacity and allowing them to grow. If that is in fact what they want to do and also meeting the customers needs large customers. As yourselves- and you know, smaller customers like a restaurant, DC or something.

A

And I think it's it's nice when you look at the the different sizes of volumes, because sometimes we would say if there was a local farmer and it was very small- it was very hard for us to figure out how to make that how to make both of our parties meet in the middle, and it really was through coastal sunbelt.

A

On that you've done that I know it's a few years back, but we had coastal Sun Belt and my team from Anne Arundel County Public Schools meet at a farm and we sat at the kitchen table and we talked about what items we could procure. How often we can use them and kind of what our volume would be, so it actually gave that far more to a sense of okay.

A

If I grow, X amount of pounds of this I know that it has a home and I know it's going to go to the students right here in the county. The movement is also changing. So do you have a lot more requests from? Maybe customers that didn't use it before to buy more local? Yes,.

B

It's definitely trending, you can say the local food movement, so that is one of the reasons why we have a dedicated local buyer myself and also dedicated local program at Coastal, that we're really trying to ramp up and build is to fill that need because we do find customers are requesting it. It is trendy, but we also see it as the right thing to do as well.

A

We we like the fact that you're, ultimately responsible for the produce that we received two so I know that sounds like maybe we're pushing the burden off. But if we have farmers try to deliver to our schools, it would be very it'd, be very challenging. It'd, be very hard for a farmer to deliver 246 locations or 120 locations and I.

A

Think that's something that some some of our viewers may not understand that we don't have a warehouse, so there's not a warehouse in and around the county public schools that would hold our fruits and vegetables you're. Basically, our warehouse and it's amazing when we go to your warehouse we visited before and just to see the volume and the size and the way it's even stored. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I mean it's.

A

It's amazing, seeing the cases of it- and I don't know it's just like a giant catalogue that you you could visually walk through and see it all yeah.

B

It's really a fast-paced, really neat operation to see. When you go downstairs in the warehouse you try not to get hit by a forklift because literally produce is flying up and down aisles going. You know three tiers high to be stacked. We try to get it out as soon as we get it in. You know, freshness, that's what sue me about produce is it's very dynamic and the fact it's perishable product, so certain things last longer than others, and we have to balance all that to make sure that we deliver really high quality.

B

Like you said, we can be that distribution network for transportation to help you guys, you know get all of your locations met. It's also very beneficial to certain farmer is who perhaps they're serving six restaurants in DC and they have a really awesome niche product. You know some cool microgreen that everybody wants at some point: they're spending so much time off the farm, making those deliveries and they need to grow and they want to be on the farm. So that's where they can come to us and we can step in because we can go.

B

Do the delivering for them and allow them to really concentrate on their product and do what they love to do, which is farm. It's.

A

Funny that you say that way, because I think we have our each of us have our specialty. So we know how to do a lot of meals really fast. As a registered dietitian and a mom of two girls in Anne, Arundel, County, Public, Schools I still do the menu so I'm looking at it nutritionally first, obviously what kids eat it right. It has to look great. It has to be great quality. The farmer needs to grow right.

A

The focus really should be there and I think you're, the conduit that keeps both of us together and all of the pieces that we can do independently. You could piece together for us. When do farmers come out to you know the warehouse even there? Yes, they do.

B

Is we open doors to anyone who wants to come and check it out? Farmers come all the time and they're amazed by to see the operation that goes down and they can see immediately. The benefits of you know if that is what they're looking to do to you know, distribute more to find more customers without having to do all the marketing and the transportation themselves they see like well, these these people have the logistics and and all that stuff down.

B

So when they bring their stuff to us, it's you know they can sell a lot to one thing and also serve maybe 10 20 customers, just by through one delivery to coastal yeah.

C

B

Could take their product and maybe go serve 10 20. You know 30,000, kids and.

A

I think we talked a little bit before the show about it, what better way to showcase the farmer and the products and in both companies right so really a ACPs and coastal sunbelt. We feel we need to do a better job in and around the county of really saying this came from phifer orchards. This came from Arnold farms. We need to showcase that we bought it local and it's right there on the line and, like you said, I, think the timeliness of it is is quite incredible that it could be harvested.

A

You pick it up right, costal, picks it up its back to the warehouse and shipped up to us very quickly. Russian.

B

Get lost in the supply chain with the end user and the farmer and as we've seen, a lot of that connection has been lost our food system and that's why this local food program is so important. So we need to do our job as the middleman to be educating and communicating on both ends. So we don't lose that connection between the end. Consumers eaten some awesome asparagus in the farmer. That's growing it out on his farm that they still make that connection. I.

A

Agree, we definitely support it. Our tagline in Anne, Arundel County, is that we have healthy students. We have healthy schools and we cultivate communities of wellness in each and every time we do. One of these shows I laugh because I always talk about it and it just all goes back to what could we do to really? You know make a difference for the students some of our favorite items.

A

We only have a few minutes left before we're going to break for this segment, but some of our items in the favorite items that I see are are the roasted butternut squash. We do roasted brussel sprouts and we do roasted acorn squash now, for somebody watching they're wondering if do I really get these butternut squash and how do I prepare those in a school coastal sunbelt takes care of that for us.

A

Can you just share a little bit about that process and what coastal does just to receive the product in this whole forum and be able to serve it to all of our schools in an easy fashion, for us to prepare cook or roast for the students? Absolutely.

B

Coastal has a partnership sister companies with East Coast fresh, and we have a processing plant right there. Next to the warehouse, it's all on the same location, so we can take that raw product chop slice do whatever needs to be done to meet a customer's needs, especially for someone like you guys that are trying to push out meals, fast, quick, conveniently and I. Don't have the time to sit there chopped up butternut squash. We do a salsa lines. We we do all sorts of things with our processing facility for a food, retail and food service.

B

So it's an added benefit to working with us.

A

And I think it's a benefit that we really need in Anne, Arundel County. It's not that the staff can't it's just the volume is so great and it's difficult to peel and chop a butternut squash I mean it's just a very solid, hard vegetables. So it really makes our end easier and we love that it's a consistent dice. We receive it and were able to roast it and know that every child who comes through it has the capability of taking that and absolutely loving it.

A

We are going to be adding some of the new items we're looking at or even roasted pumpkin, so we thought what better way to have pumpkins and hopefully harvested local and receive those diced as well to really showcase the the different colors of the rainbow. So, as you can see, it's really alive and well. We thank you for your partnership. We thank you for coming in and spending time with us today and we're going to hear from a farmer.

A

Next, don't go away we're going to be right back with pfeiffer orchards right here from Delaware, one of our local farmers and somebody who provides fresh fruits and vegetables to us every day.

D

Hi I'm Wiley Baker sports abound here in Anne Arundel County join me for another edition of athletes in action later today, right here on a a CPS TV.

E

This is Amanda your typical high school athlete specializing in one sport. Can you guess which one correct soccer? Let's take a look at her diet. She is active six to seven days per week and has allowed 2,400 calories per day for breakfast. Amanda enjoys a peanut butter and banana smoothie, two scrambled eggs and an English muffin for lunch. Amanda enjoys a pasta salad with chicken breast and to finish off a hard day. Amanda has salmon brown rice and a baked potato. She has a salad on the side and to fig cookies for dessert.

E

However, not everyone can eat that much without consequences. Andreia sits at a desk all day doing schoolwork. If she wants to maintain a constant weight, she should consume 1,700 calories a day for breakfast. She would have an omelette with the side of cottage cheese for lunch, a romaine salad with chicken breasts and fresh fruit, aundrea would round off dinner with grilled salmon brown, rice and asparagus.

E

This is Erica as a vegetarian. She enjoys nuts beans, soy, eggs and dairy products as proper substitutions for the protein she would receive by eating meat. Erica is also a big fans of healthy snacks like berries that tide her over until Meal Time. As you can see, individual diets vary greatly from person to person visit choosemyplate.gov to find a meal plan that best fits you, based on your age, height, weight, gender and activity level.

A

Welcome back and thanks for staying tuned to food for thought. My next guest is Kurt Pfeiffer from phifer orchards in Wyoming. Delaware he's going to really showcase all the great work that he does on the farm as well as all the local produce that he serves. Many many customers welcome Kurt of food for thought. Can you tell the viewers a little bit about yourself who you are and exactly what is Pfeiffer orchards, sure.

C

I'm, a fourth-generation farmer grew up on the farm and in Delaware it's located in central Delaware. Our forum was established in 1919 Wow.

B

C

I went away to college after growing up on the farm, I went to the University of Delaware and then went to work somewhere else for about three years to get some experience elsewhere and then I came back to the farm and now I have a family with four children and I've been at the farm for about 15 years. Well,.

A

I think we we were able to visit the farm and I know we're going to talk about it, but definitely the sense of family on the farm. You could feel it. The second you drove on the property yeah.

C

It's a great place to raise children. You.

A

Could you could see it, you can sense it? You could feel it. Anybody who would visit you'd say to yourself how do I not live out on a farm and just enjoy the great benefit of the earth right.

C

A

So having having been in farming and it's a fourth-generation like I said often, you know folks that might live on this side of the Chesapeake Bay or in an area. That's pretty populated or pretty dense. I'll say like what does a farmer do and I think it's amazing being able to be at the farm? Can you just kind of share with the viewers?

A

What's a typical day like like, what's a typical day, maybe for you and what's a typical day, you know for one of the hands or one of the the stuff that you have, that you know is out in a field or is you know, doing, storing or harvesting or compiling the products? At the end of the day, sure.

C

Yeah well in the wintertime it's slow, but in when it's warm out the warmer it is, it seems the busier it gets and we have a lot of family on the farm. I have a couple brothers, a cousin and aunt, and my father is still there as well. So there's a lot of us Pfeiffer's run around managing, but it's a long day. We all have our specialized things.

C

We do, for instance, I am kind of the liaison between the farm and our customers and communicate what we have and what's going on on the farm and making sure we sell the right amount of product and don't sell too much or not enough, but we usually come in around six or seven. In the morning we meet as managers and determine what all the employees are going to do and talk with the employees and make sure that they're going the right direction, communicate as much as possible, which is important and then my day.

C

A lot of times is communicating with customers or the phone and email and then I usually go out to the fields. I, do a lot of scouting to make sure the produce is coming on to make sure it looks good in the field make sure we're doing the right things that ensure a quality product, and then we have two packing houses where we bring the produce in and pack it in two cases. So I go there quite often to several times a day to check the product.

C

We have and make sure it's good quality and make sure the trucks are being loaded correctly. So putting all that together and there's many other things that go on, but it makes for a busy day is.

A

This a you start very early and I'm sure you go very late.

C

Yeah it's, they can be easily a 12 hour day. Well,.

A

I think it's so valuable what you do and I think again being on the farm. How about what changes? Have you seen and I know with it being? You know fourth generation I'm sure over the years you know probably talking to your dad or his dad right. I guess, maybe is where it would have started. The changes must be immense right, just how, if we look around in our own environment, all the changes that happen in technology right has changed. So many things.

A

What things have you seen change and maybe even what are some of the things that you Institute or you implemented on the farm just coming back a fresh set of eyes. You know you having the college behind you and the impact you could make to. You know for the greater good for the farm, as well as for the community sure.

C

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun just to see with the onslaught of computers. My generation was really the first one to just bring that on and it's been fun to see it happen, but there's a long list of things but out in the field, we have tractors that use GPS, which help us to put on a less chemical and fertilizer. It makes gives us straight rows and it's it's pretty interesting. My kids love it because the we have about four tractors that steer themselves.

C

They use GPS and you just get in the row and push a button. Then the the tractor goes in a straight line until you get the other side. That's.

A

Fantastic, so are the kids able to I'm sure they go, they could read, they could look they catch at. They can do yeah.

C

They really find it interesting they. You know it's a. They really bug me about going as much as possible on the tractor and it's it's a lot of fun. It's it's really neat I'm sure it's coming in car soon, so so.

A

Do you think you know newer generation and loving the technology? Like you said it was a you know of your air. You do some of the older family members kind of look at it like I, don't know Kurt I, don't know if this is going to work or do they embrace it once they see it as well. Oh yeah.

C

I think they they certainly embrace it. We have a great third generation, that's supportive, and they they want to see the farm succeed and really it's just smart. Some of the things we're doing like environmentally a lot of the engines were purchasing now or called what are a fourth-tier. They don't omit hardly any carbon emissions, they use less fuel, it's just smart to do it and, as far as irrigation we're using its emitting less water per acre. So we're still watering the crop properly. But there's not as much evaporation going on is.

A

That is that computer sensed as well or no is that just your than tanaaz.

C

Oh yeah, the tips that.

A

C

Retyped a lot of irrigation equipment and also the new equipment that comes along is retyped, so there's a lot of new technology that we use. We also have grass waterways as well that helped to stop the nutrients from going in streams and into the bay it's things like that, so that a lot of that has happened in the last 10 years, as we can track with computers, what's happening and kind of keep track of what we're doing.

C

What we're in putting on the acre that has come along to where we can conserve and use less outputs right.

A

I guess: do you track what grows more favorably in your region versus a different item? That's not growing as well and I. Don't know, I, probably saying it wrong, but write something obviously produces more fruits or vegetables than a different plant. Yeah.

C

There are certain things, of course: we can't grow in our area and we try to focus on the local crops that grow well in our region, but on the Delmarva Peninsula, a lot of things grow well, so we have such great soil there too sandy loam soil. It it drains very well. So if we get a heavy rain, we can still get back on the ground a day or two later and it's flat, there's not a lot of rocks and soil.

C

So it's it's a great place to farm, because you know you don't have the hills to deal with, and it's just a wonderful soil and the most important thing is. We have water there. So we have wells and surface water that we can pump from and make sure that if you don't have water, you can't really grow fruits and vegetables. I. Think.

A

In the back of the farm, there was a there is a lake or a pond or something that was in the back. I. Remember because I think that your property butts against a property of somebody that I know from Delaware, so I thought it was pretty neat when I went there, that I felt part of the family in directly from knowing family that lives next to the farm. So I found it very special being on that trip as well I think when we talk about you know the different things you shared with us.

A

When we were on the farm I think there was different apple trees that you have no to correct. So there was I'm going to call it the traditional looking apple tree, but then wasn't there a longer skinnier apple tree, that's not as not as tall so easier to pick yeah.

C

It's a good memory. We all of the new Apple waters planted by farmers. These days are smaller, so workers can reach the fruit easier and you and again outputs. You don't need to spray a tree five times the size of these so they're. What they're called high-density planning so there's a lot more trees per acre, they're a little more expensive to put the orchard in up front because you're purchasing more trees and a lot of times, they're all wires and trellis.

C

But in the long run that produces more fruit- and you don't have to put as many outputs out and the big thing is for our labors. They don't have to climb ladders.

A

They just stand on the ground, correct.

C

They can reach most of the fruit on them and.

A

They know you mentioned the trellis I. Remember seeing like the wire, the trellis is that so do the do the branches veer off onto that? So then that's holding up the branch a little bit and very.

E

A

No, what like well I, don't even know the purpose of that, but I found it very interesting. It's.

C

Called training you, you tie the tree to the to the water and trellis, and it just the the tree forms to that and without it it needs that for support without it, with the Hurricanes that come and in the high winds we, you know they have potential to uproot okay.

A

So that would keep it in. Thankfully, where we are right. We don't have too much of that, but there are high winds off and right and then um probably even in the winter time, do you have to worry about Nor'easters coming in and that could even damage, probably some of the trees in offseason. That's.

C

Right, that's right and that's always a concern and that's the big thing in our industry is the weather and that's the big wild card and and the thing we're looking at all the time. I.

A

Always have to keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best right. That's.

C

A

About your you pick business I know when we were there, I think there's blueberry crops where they blueberry I. Think um can you talk a little bit about that and I know? If you go to your website and maybe even share your website or we could, you know we'll put it up on the screen. It's just a great way, I think for somebody watching have a field trip and come out to the farm and see it and actually be able to pick some of your own fruits or vegetables. Yes,.

C

We my cousin runs are too, we have two stores, and then the big one is is that on the form- and we have a lot of activities for kids to come out- we have a lot of Delaware and Maryland schools come out to the farm.

C

During the week we have educational fun activities for them to do like a corn maze with educational type things, and we have, of course, just fun stuff too, but they do learn about the farm and they get to come out on the farm and usually when they come with the school they bring their parents during the weekend because they enjoy it so much, but we wait along with those activities. We have you pick throughout the year in.

D

E

Have strawberries.

D

C

We go to blueberries and we have peaches and then apples and then pumpkins so that yeah.

A

C

Just gives the family of a thing to do. Instead of you know, being at home, they can get out on the farm and enjoy the farm the nature of it. It's.

A

Interesting because I think exactly what we do in the schoolhouse you're doing on the farm, so we feel when they come through our service line and we provide all the great fruits and vegetables that we do. They get excited about it. We know they consume more fruits and vegetables and we know they're healthier for it and really they're fueled and ready to learn and that's our goal. In the schoolhouse same thing: they go to the farm. They get to see where it's grown.

A

They get to know you they get to see the farm they get to see the land they get to see. The stand.

D

A

Know the fruit and vegetable stands beautiful. If that's under your watch to it's beautiful, it looks great, it's so appetizing just to go there and see all the different colors with your eyes. You really want to you want to try all of it. Yeah.

C

A

Only have a short minute left, or so what are other things that you do harvest on the farm that we could just showcase real quickly. Our.

C

Main products in the spring we have asparagus and strawberries that we grow. Those are our two big crops and then in the summer we go to peaches and sweet corn and then, if all we have pumpkins apples, Brussels sprouts and kale is what we do so a little bit for each season that helps our labor. Keep our labor busy throughout the seasons. I think.

A

The great part for that Kurt is that we serve almost all of those things in Anne, Arundel, County, Public Schools. So it's nice that we know we can purchase local and I know. Strawberries often come from you I think asparagus we're going to try for the first time coming from you. So it's really great to have the partnership in the connection that we have that we were able to know our farm farmer and know the great work that pfeiffer orchards does. So.

A

Thank you so much for coming in today and really sharing with our audience the great work that you do on the farm. Thank.

C

You for having me as.

A

You can see eating healthy, is really important to us in Anne, Arundel, County, healthy students, healthy schools and we always cultivate communities of wellness. We have many partnerships, not only with our vendors, but with our farmers, we're able to go and work on the farm or see what their farmers are doing and select the perfect foods and fruits and vegetables for your children each and every day.

A

If you have any questions about the school meals program, please call me at 410 22 to 5,900, keep watching food for thought and we'll see the next farmer coming to you.