Anne Arundel County Public Schools, MD Food 4 Thought, 1 Nov 2014

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From YouTube: Food 4 Thought - Coastal Sunbelt & Arnold Farms

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 Michael Crowder from Coastal Sunbelt Produce and Bob Arnold, owner of Arnold Farms, LLC. Original air date November 1, 2014.

A

See who's harvesting vegetables for Anne, Arundel, County public school next on food for thought,.

A

Hi I'm Jody rissy, the host for food for thought, and thanks for watching today, I'm joined by michael Crowder from the coastal sun belt produce company he's one of our vendors and he's worked with us for many many years here in Anne Arundel County welcome Michael to food for thought. Thank.

B

You thank you can.

A

You tell the viewers a little bit about yourself and just what is your role at coastal Sun Belt? Well,.

B

Jodi I'm, a father father of two I, have a six-year-old daughter, daughter and my son will be two and another month.

B

Why have a wife, married I'm actually from North Carolina, and it's kind of ironic that I've gotten to the produce business growing up as a kid I grew up in a really rural area and so before attending school for a couple of years, I actually spent a lot of time with my retired grandfather, so we would go out and he had Gardens here and mainly he would produce so much that he couldn't eat it all.

B

So he would give it a way to you know neighbors and friends, and that sort of thing, so it actually built my appreciation, for you know fresh produce. Then you know, like most people do, who grew up in rural areas we go up. We go to school, then go to college move away, never go back home and I find it ironic that you know now I'm in the produce business. When you know I started out as a kid learning so much for my grandfather about raising growing, fresh fruits and vegetables. So it's.

A

Kind of funny that when you talk about that, because we always say in anne arundel county, we have a slogan and it hits home exactly with you and your grandfather, we always say the more: we can educate our students and expose them to fresh fruits and vegetables. They get excited about it.

A

So we have a healthy student and then we always take it a step further and say: there's always if there's a healthy student there's a healthy school and we can cultivate communities of wellness exactly what you did with your family and what your grandfather did for you, because the excitement around it in the appreciation is just priceless right.

B

And my daughter is six years old now so next year I told her that we would have a garden at our house so and she wants to grow pineapples and bananas, and that sort of thing that you.

A

Know it squash right, yeah.

C

Maybe squash we.

B

Can grow a watermelon here, but you know so that should be fun next year. Looking forward to that, how.

A

About your role for the viewers cuz, you know somebody watching today. If it's a mom dad, it could be a you know, just any of our community members out there, who is coastal sun belt produce and what is your role there at the company? Well,.

B

My role at kosis on that bro well, first of all, coastal some about produce is actually the leader in distributing fresh produce in this area in the mid-atlantic area, also dairy as well. So coastal summed up produce we. Our range covers from New York to North Carolina on a daily basis, but we're really trying to lead the way show other companies really how to do it.

B

We care a lot about our produce. We care a lot about our customers and we really work hard to to really provide that service. That is uncommon in this industry me personally, I really had a passion for working with the schools and I've been with coastal for over seven years now, and during that time, I kind of really targeted schools I made schools. My mission, because I felt like there were things that coastal could provide the schools and, as far as deliveries and quality produce something.

A

That we do- and maybe we could talk about that I- think together our partnership. So if you started seven years ago and I think it's roughly seven years ago that I became a supervisor I felt in Anne Arundel County, we had such a passion for educating students, but how could we really not only educate them academically but to foster good life?

A

You know healthy lifestyles and and to really produce a well-fed, a well-nourished child that will obviously succeed academically so over the years I think our relationship has definitely blossomed right and we've really cultivated a good relationship, because we can work back and forth on many things, such as local produce. You might call me and tell me you know what the peaches right now they're, you know we're out where we're not gonna have any more peaches for the season.

A

So how have you worked with us in Arundel County, because somebody watching is going to say do we really talk you know does does.

C

A

Risky really call michael Crowder on a weekly basis, and we do.

B

We do we do we talked quite often you know, I think one thing about it is over the years we've developed a really good relationship, and it really good trust between us too so I can I can make that call and say, hey Jody. You know, peaches are not good right now, and you know you trust me enough to know that you know what Michael is telling the truth.

B

So we're not going to we're going to stay away from the peaches I think that in working with the schools, that's one of the biggest biggest things that we have to overcome. It's not just sells for me, it's more so a passionate. You know, I love, doing what I'm doing I love working with the schools and I love, building those relationships with school administrators like yourself, so for me, I'm going to do everything possible to make sure that I give you the very best of my company, whether it's delivery times getting the truck there.

B

You know I, take it personal when my truck doesn't get there on time, so I take it personal. When there's you know the salads left off the truck, you know so just having that that that working partnership is making it makes things better on your in, and it also makes things better on mine. And so that's what I try to give to the school system and.

A

I think that's what you provided us here in Anne, Arundel, County, I, think for somebody watching they'll say well, how much produce do we really buy and it is hundreds of thousands of pounds each year we grow our local produce numbers. So I think I guess it was like two thousand seven, probably 2008. We really didn't serve local produce at all. We.

C

A

No connection to the farmer and that's really the person we wanted to know so I think together we have had many successful stories of how do we meet farmers and how do we make sure that our students know where their food comes from right?.

B

A

It's been those relationships and then the growth that we have. We serve almost 30,000 servings or 30,000 lunches a day, sometimes 32,000 and our potential so much higher for someone watching today, I want them to say we do so much with fruits and vegetables in Anne, Arundel County. They want their children or their grandchildren to eat lunch with us. When you're in the schools and I know you've been in Anne, Arundel County you've participated in many events with us.

A

You know what do you think that the produce looks like for somebody watching if you could be their eyes for them right now? What is you know? How does it displayed the colors? How many varieties do we do here in Anne, Arundel, County? Well,.

B

I think over the years I've really seen it grow. You guys are doing a phenomenal job with the amount of and the options that you have every day. I think you're probably wanted to only ones in the state who provide as many you know, different options.

B

One of the things that I really do love when I've gone into your schools are seeing them orange the green, the Reds, those those types of things, so I've really seen.

B

As far as me, going into the schools over the last five years that we've been working together, I really seen I really see that you guys have really made a real commitment to providing more and more every year, more and more fresh fruits and vegetables every year and I think you guys really lead the way and show can be an example for other school districts to show them how to do it and do it right. So I congratulate you in that Jody, because I think you guys are on the right track. I.

A

Mean we feel we definitely I think with the leadership of dr.

A

our lotto and just from our superintendent down we're all passionate in Anne, Arundel County, and it's when we have partners like yourself that feel that same passion and know that we can make a difference for every single child, so even maybe you're one of our students that has a bag lunch that maybe didn't have any fruits or vegetables in their bag, lunch that day for them to look over at their friend or the boy or girl across the table and see a plateful they feel half of their plates with fruits and vegetables.

A

It's really powerful and the visual is priceless. It's beautiful what they get to see each and every day in our county. Now the logistics of all this is pretty mind-boggling, I I! Think of it all the time we have 120 locations that receive well that serve food. We have about forty six locations give or take I know. We add some. Every time we get bigger participation, schools. How do you logistically make sure trucks are always in the right spot for Anne Arundel County? On top of all the other counties that your service well.

B

It's a tough job, it really is, and not only do I work with you very closely. I also have to work with my transportation department. So on a weekly basis.

B

We have several meetings and also I'm also always monitoring those trucks to see who's who we need to look out for if this truck is going to be a little later, and just communicating that back with the schools when we when we can, when we have that real-time information, but logistically it is a challenge I would say I will say that is a challenge and fortunately, for us, coastal sun belt produce. We've grown this school business to the point where we have about 10 routes going out every day.

B

Now I'm going to different school districts in the area and for me it's a dream, come true, because when I started out with coastal, I wanted to work with schools, so for me, I can see it grow and blossom to what it is now and but it's it's tough. It's tough I mean you think about the many hands that it takes to make. This whole system go from the guy who pulls the produce in the warehouse and he stages it and are loading dock and then either guy another guy.

B

He comes and put the produce on the truck, and then we have the driver and it comes and delivers the produce and then meets the food service worker in the school. And then you know so there are many people who make this thing work and is very tough to manage it, but we we try. We try, I think.

A

It's a it's very successful on your end and I think we were able to see that when we went to your warehouse, so we were able to take a team of our staff which I'm hoping to do that again. We were able to go to the warehouse and really see all the the skus of produce and just multiple multiple cases everywhere. I can't imagine you know the buyers of that. The salesman of that and just again all those folks that pic that and.

B

A

It together on a truck which, which fruit or vegetable do you see, as probably the newest item that's been introduced into school foods,.

B

Well, I think Kiwis, actually picking up right now. Kiwi is items. I know that you guys have increased. You buy a lot more Kiwi than before, but I kiwi and also butternut squash as well. Butternut squash is one of those we kind of like the world fell in love with butternut squash. Again, you know before when I parents made us eat it, we didn't really like it, but now you know, starting to figure out that butternut squash is very healthy and it tastes really good if prepared the right way.

B

So I think those are two items that really are trending upwards and.

A

I make their items that we've had in in Toronto. Countyman Kiwi has been on our produce bid for years, I'm here 20 years, so it has been on our menu for many many years, starting.

B

To catch on as well, but.

A

The butternut squash and the acorn squash and I know we talked a little bit before the show just about Brussels sprouts. It's something that I love, my children love and we started just steaming. The Brussels sprouts now we're roasting them and we're adding them with a balsamic glaze. That's really giving them some beautiful color once they're roasted. So it's fun, trying new and interesting items with our students each and every year and getting them excited about produce.

B

A

What we're going to do is Michael we're going to break because I think the important part about today's show is that we have a local farmer with us and thanks to coastal Sun, Belt I was able to with some staff here from Anne Arundel County go to the farm and actually meet him in person and see the staff on site, as well as seeing the beautiful farm that he had. So thank you for coming in to.

B

Thank you. Don't.

A

Go away we're going to be right back with Arnold farms, specifically Bob Arnold from honor farms, and he's going to talk about all the great vegetable that he provides us in Anne, Arundel County. This.

D

Year, Anna Randal county public schools will be administering a school Climate Survey district-wide called the Maryland safe and supportive Schools survey. The initiative was designed to work with your child's school to learn more about what students, parents and staff think about their school and how they can help improve the school environment. This survey replaces the previously administered bullying and community engagement surveys.

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We are particularly interested in perceptions of school climate, which include feelings about the safety relationships and the learning environment of a school schools with positive school climates are better places for students to learn and for staff to work. You will be asked to complete an online survey about your child's school. Your participation is voluntary and the Climate Survey is completely anonymous. No one will ever know your individual answers to any questions. Therefore, please be honest as possible. There are no right or wrong answers.

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We anticipate that the survey will require approximately 10 minutes for you to complete. You can take the survey at any time that is convenient for you. You can complete the online survey from any computer tablet or smartphone. We will provide you with specific instructions for accessing the survey. We will also provide opportunities for you to take the survey at your child's school hi.

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I'm Jeannie Porter and Arundel County Public Schools Department of Transportation is raising the level of awareness for the safety of your children as we transport them to and from school.

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When a school bus stops to load students as a driver, this is what you will see at 150 feet. The bus will activate hazard lights at 100 feet. The bus driver will activate the amber light. They will start slowing down at 10 feet before the bus stops. They will turn on the red bus lights. There stop sign will come out and students will begin to load once all students are on board safely. The bus driver will turn off red light and move forward at this time. It is safe for the motorists to resume movement.

A

Welcome back and thanks for staying tuned to food for thought. My next guest is Bob Arnold from Arnold farms in chestertown Maryland. He provides us many of our local vegetables during the school year right here in Anne, Arundel County welcome to Food for Thought Bob. Well, thank you I'm glad to be here. Can you tell the viewers a little bit I think a little bit about yourself and I? Think specifically just who you are, and you are a local farmer near and dear to Austin around the county. So start a little bit about.

A

You know tell us about your family and then we're going to dive deep into what it is to be a farmer. Okay,.

F

Well, I've got three boys I'm, very fortunate. Free labor I've got a lovely wife Sarah, he was a great cook and so in some sense I guess I had the ideal form life, because we have lots of fresh food and she's a great cook and we get to enjoy a lot of that now.

A

We were able to come to your farm this year and I think for somebody watching it's pretty important for the food service staff to actually know their farmer and know where their food comes and I think if I could share that and that's what we're doing today through the show with our students with our parents with our administrators, that we really have a connection and I think when you and I met on the farm we had a connection, we literally had no loss of words for us to talk and talk about the great things you do so in school food service, it's pretty busy on a day to day basis, but what I saw happen on the farm was just it web me.

A

So can you tell the viewers today just what is it like to be a farmer? What's your day like what's a typical day? Well,.

F

When everything's going well, we started about five o'clock in the morning. We harvesting will go with harvesting season in our planning season, but we'll go with harvesting season which begins for us, usually about the beginning of June, and we continued on through about end of november. It's very busy it's hard hard work. Our men frequently end up with 80 to 90 hours a week during the summers. Incredibly hot during the fall, it's usually wet rainy cool. So it's difficult work washing preparing packing loading trucks, sending it out it's a long day.

F

My day usually doesn't end until eight or nine o'clock at night and.

A

It starts at five a.m. mm-hmm.

D

A

So that's so hard I think. As a parent specifically I mean I have I'm a parent of two girls here in Anne, Arundel, County, Public, Schools and I love the fact that I can touch them through the school meals program, so I know every day that they eat a school lunch with me. I know exactly what they're getting and having the connection with you. As a local farmer. I just know all these students in Anne Arundel County are able to get zucchini that came from your farm and I'm.

F

Glad for that and I have a very similar connection, because I live very close to the packing shed, so I get to eat with my boys every day and even when we have dinner together, I still have to go back out and work frequently loading trucks but I have that same connection and it's important and.

A

I think you shared with me before the show something that I talk about all the time on this food show is that you ask your children when they come home. What do they have at school lunch right, yeah.

F

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About food right, we.

C

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The importance of eating healthy, we talked about the importance of filling half of your trag or your plate with.

C

A

And vegetables, and specifically, what we do here is fresh fruits and vegetables. um What are the dialogue? What do you ask your kids? What do you say to them? Well, at.

F

Dinner, we usually ask what you have for lunch today, because they have the option: mom will either make them lunch or if they see something good coming up in the menu she'll. Let them buy lunch mm-hmm. So would you have for lunch there guys and it's always fun to listen to what they had now. Sometimes they really like what they got and sometimes you know they'll tell me: while we had mystery meat today, not.

C

F

Mystery meat is I, guess the mystery, but yea.

C

Seaweed would have mystery meat, but we have lots of fruits and vegetables and in or the county, so I think. That's always the that's the trick. Well,.

F

You know fruits and vegetables there's no greater variety in a meal than in fruits and vegetables. Color, texture flavor. That variety comes out of fruits and vegetables. Meats me breads.

E

F

I mean I, don't mean to belittle those things they're very good too, and they had a great deal, but the variety and the spiciness, the special things as in fruits and vegetables,.

A

And I think you touched on something with texture, I think so many of our students we love to. We do tasting the rainbow here in Anne, Arundel County, so the first friday of every month we do a new fruit or vegetable and we just call it tasting of the rainbow. So it's always going to be a different color. We love for them to have the sample. Look at it with their I, see the color feel the texture of the item and we've introduced quite a few items on our menu through that tasting.

A

Brussel sprouts is one of them and I know. We talked before the show- and you said your kids really brussel, sprouts and I said honestly. They do and I love them, but we.

F

Found three people in Anne Arundel County, that, like Brussels.

A

Yeah and I think I'm going to throw my husband into so there's actually four of us, but in Anne Arundel County, there they're really starting to pick up and I think what we see is the more we expose the students to it. The more we encourage and we'd like to say we nudge them to try and just try a little piece of it. They don't have to take a half a cup just try some absolutely.

F

And I think that connection with where their food comes from and the variety of food has been lost, but what you're doing is similar to what they do in farmers markets. Now, there's people out there sampling all the time trying to vegetables. Try this as you develop markets and you're, developing taste, buds so I think that's great great.

A

Idea we love to do it. We talked about this one too, before the show and I know, Michael from coastal Sun Belt talked about it a little bit too. How do we would you really want to have a half a cup of kale? Maybe not, but would you like a tablespoon or 2 tablespoons or you know, quarter cup, just a small amount of that a little bit of peaches? Maybe we have applesauce out there and this youngster loves apple sauce, but then they also put a fresh pair on their plate.

A

I mean it's things like that that in Anne Arundel County we really encourage. We want them to take it themselves and we want them to experiment with all a variety of colors. That's.

F

Great, the kids in Anne Arundel County, a very fortunate I, think to have that ability or have that variety presented to them.

A

We feel that too. We feel that we're very unique in that matter and for everybody watching we really encourage them. Not only is it priced right, the nutritional value that they get for our skill, school meals is really priceless. How Bob did you get started to be a farmer, so someone might I mean I'm a dietician, so I when I was young, my parents always talked about eating healthy. We always had physical activity in our life, which we always say is a balance right. You need.

C

A

Well, but you have to take care of your body and be physically active as well. How did you start farming or what's the reason that that you became a local farmer for us here in a neural, the county? Well,.

F

I grew up in North Jersey and when I was ten years old, my father started me on a farming project growing a half, an acre of sweet corn. When I was 11, we grew full acre of sweet corn, which I sold on the road in front of our house.

F

Unfortunately, my father was killed in a construction accident when I was 12 so that it stopped I went through school and I went on off to college and here's my point where I tell kids stay in college because I didn't stay in college, I dropped out, I went back home and my mother said Bob there's two important things that you need. If you're going to continue on and I said really, what's that mom? She did final. One is a job and you know there's a new place to live hmm hmm so I announcer.

F

That I was going to become a farmer which he thought was very funny, but she said seeing as I become a farmer. I could stay at home and live there a little bit longer while I explored that Avenue and.

C

F

That's how I I rented land I bought machinery and, from a very small beginning I expanded and expanded down on the Eastern Shore in chestertown Maryland, which great.

A

Place to date, for you right, that's our home.

F

Now and it's a great place to grow vegetables, we got great soil great climate. Now.

A

How we were on the farm, you know like we.

F

A

Already and obviously we saw a lot of corn, we saw the harvesting of corn just the the men that we're working there very dedicated, obviously to what they they've.

F

Been coming back to the farm someone I've been working for us 15 years has.

A

It really been that long and.

F

A

See that they were definitely dedicated in, you could see the connection that you had with the staff as well as you had with a bunch of visitors, basically coming to the farm. We.

F

Enjoy visitors, we.

A

Came with video saying we love this to be able to showcase, but you know the relationships that we have.

F

Sarah and I both believe that it's important to share what we have on the farm with as many people as possible. So few people really know where their food comes from. They have so little connection and unfortunately, that breeds a lot of fear and we have a lot of people are concerned about food safety and other issues with the safest food in the world in the United States. And it's the reason that they're fearful is because they've lost that connection and Sarah and I believe that we need to do something to re-establish that connection.

F

Where you get where your food comes from right.

A

How I know we receive your food so, and I know we we printed a little list before we came today, so we get quite a few things from you. We got great peppers from you and red peppers, butternut squash, which we talked about, and that is something that is so near and dear to my heart. We do roasted butternut squash, which that's crude I know you would.

C

Have talked about and that's.

A

On our menu, we do acorn squash and you did quite a few of our acorn squash this year. So for a mom or dad or grandmother watching grandfather, aunt and uncle. They know that the food that we served their child in Anne Arundel County, came from your farm, which is.

F

Exciting thing about the squash is that we experimented last year and this year's all our squash was grown. No-Till can.

A

You tell me a little bit what is no till farming well,.

F

No till farming is the practice of planting through the cover crop. We don't do any tillage prior to planting. We take the squash plants directly from the greenhouse. We bought a special planter over from Italy and we go through the field and plan it directly into the cover crop. Wow.

A

F

Into no soil disturbance, because this has been released into the atmosphere, there's very little soil erosion running off into the bay it's great so.

A

Can you do that on all of your crops or how so again, you know I'm talking as the dietician I was enlightened when I was on the farm, but what crops Kent? Is it certain crops you can do it with certainty? Can yeah.

F

Certain of the large seated crops like squash corn, worked very well, but other crops like spinach and things like that require tillage. The seeds are very small. The planters require a very level seed bed in order for it to work successfully in the soil. Okay,.

A

If we did, you start this well.

F

We get experimenting with it for three or four years, trying.

A

F

Figure out the right process to get it to work. Well, we had a lot of failures, but we finally last year thought that we know what we're doing. Let's go whole hog on it, so to speak, and it's worked out beautifully. We've had the best squash crop, it's the cleanest squash crop, we've ever had and I'd say, probably going to be the highest yielding one. We've had and.

A

I'm happy to say that Anne Arundel County students had some of that squash because it did I know this year. We did. We purchased all those great items we do every year, but this year squash, both the green and the yellow did come from from your farm. How do you you know, as on a day to day, I know exactly what I'm going to do in school, meals and I know what my what my menu plans are and what I forecast for the future? How do you plant crops?

A

How does the farmer say I know what I'm going to plant this year? Well,.

F

We usually start in the fall and we look backwards and we say well what worked well and what didn't work well and then we look at the markets for the past year and we say: well, that's not really selling well and the trend is down or whatever or maybe it's up. In addition, every year, I plant two or three different things: I've never grown before and I experiment with them and see whether it's something that I can grow. It's more there's something I can sell this year. It was fennel and leeks Wow.

C

F

I can grow both. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can sell fennel. It doesn't seem like fennels very well received in the mid-atlantic area, but leaks pretty popular any.

A

Other new ones that came in I know I asked the same question of Michael earlier. You know, what do you see trending, or what do you see that is becoming more popular or less popular? Is it? Is it consumer demand? Is it from the retail market? Is it from the school side? Well,.

F

You mentioned butternut earlier, but kale is extremely popular right now, I think it's starting to trend down a little bit. We've seen this before vegetables will be the vegetable of the year at one time it was zucchini another time it was spinach and they'll run for a year or so, and then people will find another vegetable. The cook shows have picked up on and everybody thinks they need to have. I know.

A

We talked a little bit before the show about kale because we do offer steamed kale in the in Arundel County. Some schools love it. Some schools really do not like it and we tried to bake kale and or roast it or vacant, and do kale chips and it didn't go too well and I think you tried it at home. You.

C

Made your wife being.

F

A

You know a great chef at home.

F

We thought that the kale chips were going to be the in thing and we were going to develop that and it's going to be a great thing for us, but it didn't work out. We tried it with caller. It's also. We couldn't roast either one or make a chip out of either one they flake apart and.

A

That's what we felt that it was so sensitive to temperature that you would go from still having some of that texture and that's what we talked about earlier, just how important textures to the students and to the variety of items that we offer it lost all texture, yeah.

F

Once you grows it, it's not much but like a black and piece of notebook paper, yeah.

A

And it goes to this flake right, so even the mouthfeel is does not really work so.

F

A

Well again, you know I think we're gonna have to close the show for today we're hoping we come back to the farm again, because we at.

F

All we dropped the.

E

A

I think the viewers seeing it in the shots today will feel the same way and just the value of knowing who the farmer is personally meeting you today on the show and for us it was so important for our connection to what you do for in Toronto County Public Schools. So thank you so much. Thank.

F

A

Can see the local produce and Anne Arundel continues to rise. We served zero or or no pounds just five six years ago and now we're doing 287 thousand pounds even here to date right you could do 80 thousand in just a month or two pounds of local produce.

A

So it's so important to us fruits and vegetables on the tray every day are also important, and if you have a student in Anne, Arundel County, you know ask your child: did you fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables today, because we know we asked our children, both Bob and I, do and it's important to have that dialogue and to really set the example for your child. If you have any questions about the school meals program, please contact me at 410, 22 to 5,900 I'll, see you next time on food for thought.

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