How a food hub is helping schools take the plunge with local sourcing

Show up to one of the cafeterias at Lee’s Summit R-7 School District in Lee’s Summit, Mo., and you’ll likely see students snacking on local produce. 

The district’s farm-to-school efforts have been given a boost over the past couple of years due to a partnership with The Kansas City Food Hub, a farmer-owned cooperative located in nearby Kansas City. 

The Food Hub was established in 2016. Originally, it only worked with local restaurants and individual consumers, but it always wanted to expand into the K-12 space. 

“Those who have led the food hub have always had just a great interest in getting local food out to the community period, but also in children's nutrition,” says Sales and Marketing Manager Marti Bodenhamer. 

The food hub officially began working with schools just before COVID and since then, has grown to provide fresh produce to thousands of students in the Kansas City metro area. 

Meeting schools where they're at 

Today, the hub has partnerships with several local school districts. 

“Currently, we’re working with about eight or nine school districts right now,” says Bodenhamer, adding that she’s also currently in talks with around 12 additional districts who are looking to potentially partner with the hub in the future. 

Some districts may be hesitant to incorporate local produce into their menu due to their size or because they are short-staffed, Bodenhamer says, but she stresses that the hub is happy to work to accommodate schools as best as they can, especially when it comes to the ordering process. 

“We are a small company,” she says. “So we are able to pivot.”

One district, for example, has its cafeteria managers place their own orders each week, while another district prefers to receive a list every Monday from Bodenhamer showing what’s available and then selecting the items they want from that. 

The food hub also works with districts to make last-minute produce substitutions when necessary and will send out recipes with the produce to provide menu inspiration. 

“We try to accommodate people to make it as simple as possible,” says Bodenhamer. 

Serving fresh produce 

Participating districts use the produce in a number of ways. At DeSoto Unified School District, the nutrition team features a different type of produce from the hub every Friday during the fall and spring seasons. 

Students get to try the featured ingredient and the food hub also provides farmer trading cards that tell students more about the farmer who grows whatever produce is being spotlighted that week. 

Showcasing just one type of produce each week has enabled the team to still offer farm-to-school options even though they are short-staffed.  

“We're not doing a ton of stuff but we still are incorporating some local produce,” says Food Service Director Jolyn Baldner. “And so, we still are doing farm-to-school even though not every single food item we serve is a local food item.”

At Blue Springs School District and Lee’s Summit, local produce from the hub is featured heavily at the salad bar and both districts have seen their salad bar participation increase since introducing the fresh ingredients. 

“The kids notice the difference,” says Leah Anne Luethje, supervisor for school nutrition services at Blue Springs. 

Lee’s Summit also incorporates some of the local produce into some of its menu items, including muffins, pasta salads and coleslaw. 

Students have enjoyed learning about how their food is grown, says Lori Danella, food service director for Lee’s Summit, and she feels like they can taste the difference when local ingredients are on the menu. 

“I honestly think [students] enjoy those [local] items more,” she says. “If you look at our Facebook pictures you can see the smiles and the thumbs up—they say a picture is worth a thousand words.”