Purchase local food targeting purchases from small businesses and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, for distribution to schools

The maine department of education will build upon our current systems to increase both the number of farms used to supply schools and the volume of local maine foods procured by schools across the state. The partnership will focus on elevating maine's socially disadvantaged farmers and small businesses to maine schools, while building business relationships between schools and farmers, to bring locally sourced foods to the students of maine. This grant provides a strong foundation for sustained use long after the life of the local food for schools grant while simultaneously strengthening the local and regional food systems within maine. Schools will be required to OPT into the program at the beginning of the school year. Maine department of education's child nutrition team will allocate the funds to schools using student enrollment data. This will ensure equitable distribution of funds to schools and will also distribute funds throughout maine's sixteen (16) counties. Maine department of education's child nutrition team will use our current reimbursement system to provide reimbursement to schools. Quarterly performance report s will be submitted to capture the number of producers, small businesses and socially disadvantaged farmers and producers, dollar value of purchases, and type of food purchased. Annual reports will provide percentages of new marketing opportunities established by purchasing from local and regional farmers and producers, socially disadvantaged farmers and producers, and small businesses. Maine food for maine schools will fund purchases from up to 111 maine farms. All will be small businesses and 26 will socially disadvantaged producers. These purchases will improve nutrition for 174,652 maine school children by providing $776,210 to 219 maine schools. The schools in the state already purchase from 111 different farms. We expect to increase the number of farms we purchase from by 11 as well as increasing the amount of overall local food we purchase.