Healthy Meals in Action

Press Release

On Thursday, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree visited Longfellow Elementary School in Portland to get a first-hand look at the school's efforts to feed students healthier meals with locally produced food.

"I've talked to a lot of Maine schools about the innovative things they're doing to get students to eat healthier meals, and it's great to have a chance to see them in action," said Pingree. "They're making headway on the age-old question: how do you get kids to eat their vegetables? Well, Maine schools are finding out that buying them from local farms or teaching students to grow them behind the school is a good start. The question is how can we do a better job of supporting their efforts and encouraging more schools to do the same."

At Longfellow, students gave Pingree a tour of the school gardens and she visited the cafeteria to see kindergarteners eating from the school's new salad bar, purchased with a stimulus-funded Putting Prevention to Work Grant.

Pingree also met with Portland Food Services Director Ron Adams, Principal Dawn Carrigan, Bonny Eagle Food Services Director Barbara Rose, and other administrators to talk about federal school lunch programs and legislation she is proposing to help them buy vegetables from local farms.

Pingree will soon reintroduce the Eat Local Foods Act, which would give schools the option of using 10 percent of the federal commodity funding they receive to pay for local food.

Currently, about 80 percent of the federal funds schools receive for free-and-reduced-lunch programs are through unrestricted reimbursements. But about 20 percent of federal funding is given to schools to purchase commodity food from the USDA.

"We have a great opportunity here to meet two important needs in our communities. As schools are trying to battle childhood obesity with more nutritious meals for students, local Maine farms are looking for steady markets to grow their business," said Pingree. "Connecting these two just makes sense for local economies and the health of our children."

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