Crystal Besse, Carl Motsenbocker and Pamela Hodson

Farm to school in Louisiana has grown by leaps and bounds with nearly 53% of school districts offering some type of farm to school programming to more than 505,000 students, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm to School Census. Additionally, 69% of participating districts are serving local foods.

This growth did not happen on its own, however. Support from the state and federal governments and nonprofit organizations has been key to the development and expansion of Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program, with the passing of the Louisiana Farm to School Program Act in 2016. One such example, Louisiana MarketMaker, has been forging local purchasing initiatives in partnership with LSU AgCenter since 2010. The program that began as a means to help Louisiana Gulf Coast seafood producers is now utilized to access the most extensive collection of Louisiana-based food producers and distributors. Louisiana MarketMaker is directly managed by Seeds to Success, and the farm to school program promotes its use as the primary means for schools to locate local farms and producers.

This powerful partnership connects food producers, distributers and suppliers to consumers and proved especially beneficial in recent years due to weaknesses in conventional long-distance supply chains, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Services, supply chain disruptions have posed many challenges for child nutrition directors and purchasing agents since 2020. These challenges, including limited product availability, orders arriving with missing or substituted items, and labor shortages, are just a few of the many barriers cited to delivering healthy and nutritious meals to students. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to reassess where their food comes from and how to better source the ingredients they need locally to shorten the supply chain. There has been a notable increase in school districts requesting assistance to identify local producers in their communities and throughout the state to help close these gaps for a more resilient food system.

A main goal of the Seeds to Success team has always been to connect producers with potential buyers, community partners and each other, be it digitally or physically. Louisiana MarketMaker became the premier digital database and partner of Seeds to Success to connect farmers and fishermen with school districts looking for local food. It provides simple yet powerful search tools to connect with others across the production and food distribution chain. Exclusively relying on digital meetings, however, is rarely sufficient, so the Seeds to Success team developed a networking event series to encourage a clear and direct exchange of information between agricultural producers, fishers and commercial buyers. Named after its purpose, these Meet the Buyer networking events bring commercial aggregators, school districts, grocers and other greater-capacity buyers to the farms and fields of those registered on Louisiana MarketMaker and allow for a more detailed discussion beyond simple price and quantity negotiations. Other in-person events, such as the annual Louisiana Farm to School Conference, provide farmers, community partners, school personnel and child nutrition directors a chance to meet and connect on what their needs are and discover previously unknown small or minority-owned farms and operations.

According to the co-founder of the National Food MarketMaker Program, Darlene Knipe, “Louisiana Farm to School is a marquee program that MarketMaker looks to as the model for other partner states to follow and has earned three Farm Credit Innovation awards to show for it.We are thrilled to be working with this team. They lead by example.”

Louisiana agribusinesses, such as food producers and distributors, can register and set up a MarketMaker profile for free, which allows the user to enter their own business information, appear in search results for markets and post product needs and availability. The platform is freely available for the public to use in their search for fresh farm products and agritourism venues. Simple search features help to facilitate connections along the food supply chain, from farm input suppliers to wholesalers, from pumpkin patches to public institutions, and allow agribusinesses to indicate affiliations such as Certified Louisiana, Certified Cajun and Southern Shrimp Alliance to name a few.

Through these efforts, several small- to mid-size producers have successfully established relationships with local schools. From cantaloupes and watermelon to smoked sausage and sweet potatoes, local is on the plate. The Seeds to Success team continuously offers procurement training and technical assistance; the MarketReady program and the Bringing the Farm to School training for farmers includes best practices on farmer readiness for selling products to schools.

In all situations, the connections that the Seeds to Success team facilitates ultimately improves the health and well-being of Louisiana citizens on multiple fronts. Through the program’s community partnerships, education and outreach, students gain access to healthy, local foods, and producers are expanding their markets while school nutrition directors are closing supply chain gaps.

Crystal Besse is the program director of Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program. Carl Motsenbocker is the program’s executive director and a professor in the School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences; and Pamela Hodson is a program adviser.

(This article appears in the spring 2023 edition of Louisiana Agriculture magazine.)

Tyne Bankester, right, discusses the search features of Louisiana MarketMaker website at the 2022 Louisiana Farm to School Gathering. Photo by Carl Motsenbocker