The Kenai Peninsula School District will participate in the Farm to School Conference on Jan. 13 and 14 in Anchorage which will also be open to the public.
Kenai Peninsula’s Administrator for the USDA School Meal Programs Dean Hamburg said Alaska schools have been participating in the program over the last five years.
Hamburg: “We seek to include as many of those Alaska products both agricultural and fish into school meal programs for Alaska students.”
He said since they began Alaska has gotten far better at using local resources like fresh halibut and Alaskan beef, but sometimes receiving the raw products cause a rise in labor costs.
Hamburg: “Up here it’s not quite been here yet to process things at their(schools) end to be more fitting with the minimizing the labor costs for school meal operations. And of course in Alaska, unlike the Lower 48 we have that short window of time that foods are available in that fresh state in the harvest time in August and September. We’re trying to get better as customers in the school lunch programs in how we can receive all of the products more in a raw state and work with the farmers to see what they can do at their end.”
The conference will be held 8 am to 5 pm on January 13 and 14 at the Anchorage Marriott Downtown, located at 802 W. 7th Ave and admission is free.
To see the agenda and register for the conference, go to http://dnr.alaska.gov/ag/FarmToSchool/AKFTSConfReg.pdf.