Over 30 million students in our country rely on school meals every day, making the seemingly-humble school lunch an important meal - and an opportunity for us as farmers. With farm-to-school efforts taking off around the country, school lunches provide an important access point to these kids, not only nourishing future generations and fostering healthy diets, but also introducing students to food system, in general. Last week, JBG and AISD kicked off a HUGE project, one that has been in the works for months. We couldn't be prouder to announce that all 130 schools in the Austin Independent School District will be serving a healthy dose of JBG's organic carrots at school lunches for the next month (or longer!). We have so many people to thank for the successful launch of Farm Fresh Fridays and wanted to share the great news with you this week.

JBG Carrots glazed with Herbs de Provence - Chef Louis Ortiz did not disappoint!

Scores of people have worked so incredibly hard to bring these carrots from our farm to the lunchroom table. It's hard to believe that the seeds for this project started way back in July! Our rock star wholesale manager Mike Mosley took on the project and has been guiding our farm through the process ever since. Though farm-to-school initiatives have been on the upswing for a number of years, we've learned over the past few months that getting local produce into school cafeterias can be quite a challenge! Why a challenge, you might wonder? Here's what AISD has to say about the hurdles: "The biggest challenges AISD has regarding farm-to-school are volume and delivery. Serving over 45,000 lunch meals each day at 130 campuses, most local farms are not able to accommodate the quantity and effectively distribute the products to each school. It is imperative that across the district, all students have access to the same healthy options."

Buying directly from local farms simply takes significantly more effort compared to usual district procurement processes. While some AISD distributors offer local options, the district went above and beyond when they decided to take us up on our offer to work directly with us - a local Austin farm. AISD Food Service Procurement worked with Mike Mosley, learning about seasonality, yields, and crop cycles along the way. After countless phone calls, emails, meetings, and visits, the team ultimately decided that carrots would be a great fit for Farm Fresh Fridays across the district - JBG loves to grow them, kids love to eat them, and they got the approval of AISD chefs and dietitians as well. Speaking of those chefs and dietitians: we were thrilled to learn about the meticulous process and forethought that goes into planning each school meal; AISD students are so lucky to have such a dedicated team making sure their meals are a power-punch of energy and nutrients to feed their growing minds and bodies.

Big thanks to the magnificent team who made Farm Fresh Fridays a reality! Celebrating with a healthy portion of school lunch at Govalle Elementary.

So, way back in July, we decided to plant a field of carrots in October, destined for lunchrooms around the city (in February!). When it came time for the carrots to be harvested just a few weeks ago, we nailed down the final number from the district - 3,000 lbs for each week of lunch service! Mike Mosely said he was floored. "When I saw the number, my jaw dropped. This has been such a huge effort for us, so I can't even begin to imagine how AISD is able to do this 5 days a week!" His coordination with the JBG crews was fantastic - we had to give our harvest crew a good warning, since each of these carrots (nearly 45,000) was pulled by hand at our farm! We also brought in two incredible volunteers to help wash and bag the carrots with our usual crew, working late on a Friday night to make it happen. The next challenge for us was getting the carrots to the lunchroom - 130 schools in a day is no easy feat for us. We're so thankful for our staff for rallying to make this happen; 4 JBG drivers came in on their day off in order to get these carrots delivered! Have we mentioned that this project is truly a labor of love for the farm?

Carrots fresh from our fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

All of the work that went into this project culminated with a Meet the Farmer event at Govalle Elementary last week for the debut of Farm Fresh Fridays. As farmers, we don't usually have time to go and meet our customers, but we had to make an exception for this case. And we had a blast! Chef Louis Ortiz at AISD really knocked it out of the park with his recipe - Winter Harvest Carrots glazed with Herbs de Provence. Wow! It sure made us wish we were eating in this lunchroom every day. The kids at Govalle were so enthusiastic about the veggies and meeting the folks who grew them, and even sent us home with a sweet thank-you letter for our field crew. After months of work, being able to share in the fruits (and veggies) of our labor was really the cherry on the cake for us.

A note from the Govalle students to our field crew.

So, to any AISD parents, we hope that your kids are enjoying their local veggies for the next 4 weeks! JBG carrots will continue to make their appearance on the menu, while some schools will also feature JBG beets and radishes on a made-to-order salad bar. You are truly lucky to be able to send your kids to school where food services is committed to "positively impacting Austin’s food system by continually incorporating more local options into their school menus." We loved to hear that this project is "helping [students] learn the benefits of locally-sourced food and gain closer community connection." We can't thank AISD enough for this commitment and what it means to us as farmers in Austin. If your child doesn't currently get a school lunch, consider switching over! According to the folks at AISD, "The more students fed each day, the more funds are available to spend on higher quality food. AISD is committed to increasing the use of local products, but needs participation to help support these initiatives." Local kids eating local veggies - who doesn't want to get behind that?



There are so many people whose work went into this farm-to-school project. Since we're getting a little long-winded and haven't begun to thank them all, we wanted to share with you a little graphic of everyone who was involved in making Farm Fresh Friday's a success. It truly takes a village - and this is one community we're looking forward to being a part of for years to come.

For more information on Farm Fresh Fridays:

TDA Farm Fresh Fridays Website

Sustainable Food Center: A Legacy of Fresh Food

KXAN: Ag Commissioner Sid Miller on Farm Fresh Fridays