Maine farm co-op set to bid against foodservice corporations

 What is reportedly the first farm-to-institution food service cooperative in the country accepted its first members on Wednesday at Broadturn Farm.

Organizers hope to win the bid for food service provider to six of the University of Maine’s seven campuses.

The Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative is set to bid against multi-million-dollar food-service corporations for a five-year service contract with the university, which issued request for proposals earlier this month.

The request includes a goal of offering 20 percent local food to the university system by 2020, according to the Food for the UMaine System Facebook page.

The cooperative’s goal, however, is to offer 20 percent local food in its first year of operations, increasing to 30 percent during the five-year contract.

Ron Adams, former food service director for Portland Public Schools and a board member of the cooperative, said on Wednesday that he is “thrilled to bring Maine agriculture back into the food stream.”

“Good food” is the “key” to many things, Adams said, including “reducing the impact on the environment” and “reducing obesity.”

Providing local food, especially on an institutional scale, is an “entry point to sustainability,” he said.

Marada Cook, president of Crown O’Maine Organic Cooperative and board member of the new cooperative, said the Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative will hopefully shift thinking on how to incorporate food services at a basic level.

There’s not enough support within the institutional system for local food offerings, or the system wasn’t designed in the first place to effectively integrate this type of food system, she said.

Cook said “our proposal is to fundamentally change” how food service is provided.