Feast Box: From Farmer to School

Welcome to Farm to School Northeast, a podcast where we explore the creative ways that local food is getting into school cafeterias and how food system education is playing out in classrooms and school gardens across the northeast. Meghan Arquin is a Western Massachusetts farmer who works with Farm Lab and runs the Feast Box program. Farm Lab is part of Momentum Ag, a grant-funded nonprofit coordinating environmentally conscious agriculture across 20 Northeast farms. Feast Box provides free weekly boxes of local vegetables to all students and staff at participating schools. Each box contains seasonal produce from Farm Lab and partner farms, plus simple recipes and farm notes to help families cook, try new foods, and connect with local agriculture.

Transcript

Dinah: Welcome to Farm to School Northeast, a podcast where we explore the creative ways that local food is getting into school cafeterias and how food system education is playing out in classrooms and school gardens across the northeast. Today, we have a chance to talk with Meghan Arquin, a farmer in Western Massachusetts who works with FarmLab and runs the Feastbox program. The Farm Lab is a project of Momentum Ag, which is a grant-funded nonprofit organization that coordinates environmentally aware agricultural systems on 20 farms throughout the Northeast. Feastbox is a school-based food access program that provides every student and staff at participating schools with a weekly box of free locally grown vegetables. Each box is packed with seasonal produce grown at the farm lab and partner farms, along with simple recipes and farm notes that help families cook together, try new vegetables, and learn where their food comes from. Meghan works closely with Molly Powers, the Farm Lab's field manager, whose growing and harvesting work makes Feastbox possible. Unfortunately, Molly could not join us today, but her role is central to the program that we'll be discussing. But we are very happy to get to talk with Meghan. Welcome, Meghan.

Meghan: Hi, Dinah. How are you?

Dinah: Great. Meghan, can you introduce yourself to the listeners and in particular share how your work and interests are connected to the topic of farm to school?

Meghan: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for inviting me to come and talk today. I feel grateful to be here and so appreciative of all the work that you do with the Mass Farm to School. So I love to be a part of this. My name is Meghan Arquin. I currently am the farm manager at The Farm Lab, which is housed under Momentum Ag. And I do research-driven farming and get to donate that produce to local schools. I've been a farmer for- I was just thinking about this in reflection for this podcast, nearing 28 years of farming and began mostly in production farming. And then about two years ago, actually exactly, stepped into the research world and the nonprofit grant funded world of farming and research farming. And so it's been really exciting to put on a different style of farming hat and focus a little bit more on farming practices. But the joyful part is where I get to just donate the food. I get to give the food away instead of that normal relationship of having to sell vegetables, which I have done for a very long time. So this was a fun, creative way to start to think about farming and vegetables in our community.

Dinah: That's really exciting. So could you walk us through the work that FarmLab does to get the fresh food into schools? How do you structure the program? How does Feast Box actually work?

Meghan: Yeah. So it can be interesting sometimes because Momentum Ag is sort of this parent or umbrella over the Farm Lab. And what Momentum is doing is trying to do research driven farming that's climate smart practices–we do place-based research farming, and as a result of that, we have vegetables that are being produced. So in these research trials, if you want to imagine the Farm Lab, it looks like a farm field, maybe a pasture field that is mostly, if not all, clover. So a field of clover, if you can imagine. And then we have cut these strips into that field that are about 30 to 32 inches wide. And there's a whole series of  them, there's actually 30 beds in this one field of these 30 beds by 300 feet. And what we're doing in that is planting different varieties of vegetables and seeing how they tolerate those different environments. And what we're hoping is that we're sequestering carbon, we're allowing beneficials to be more involved in the fields and not taking away their habitat. We're looking at how water maybe is flowing differently, or not, creating erosions that a lot of farmers are facing, obviously down here in the valley with the flooding and heavier rains. And that's where we do a lot of our data collection. But as a result of that, we have vegetables that come from that. And what we've done is geared that towards the school calendar.

So we try to grow things through the summer because we like to eat the food that we grow. So we want to make sure we're eating from spring until fall. But much of the crop plan has crops that you'll see in the fall, like broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, greens that are cold tolerant. And starting in about the beginning of school, maybe the second week of September, we've been doing for the last two years, about a 10 to 12 week distribution, depending on when we can actually get things going in the schools and do that all the way up until Thanksgiving. And so each week, what we're doing is packing boxes and bringing them into the schools that we're partnered with and delivering them. We try to make it very easy where we bring in the boxes, we leave them for the students to take with them and on the buses or with their caregivers and bring them home very easily.

Actually, I have ... I don't know if the listeners will ever be able to see this, but I have a box with me, so you can see it. It's very sweet. We worked with a local artist to help design the box so that it would be something that was really fun for students to see and get excited about, and then be able to easily bring them home. As in our thinking and development of this idea, I kept thinking about students having a bag of vegetables on the bus, and I just imagined them all swinging them all around. And so I really wanted to try to make this something that wasn't disastrous for the school to handle, for the bus drivers to handle, and easy for students to bring home.

Dinah: And for listeners who couldn't see the box, it's a really cute box that folds up and it has a really cool paper handle, some really nice illustrations, it says Feast Box, and there are some breathing holes for the crops to breathe. And it is fun and it will be kind of a fun box to reuse. It's interesting to hear that the vegetables that you're producing to give away are actually a byproduct of your Farm Lab of actually just wanting to study some different ways to grow. Could you speak a little bit more about the ways that you are trying to grow– in sustainable ways and environmentally friendly ways?

Meghan: A big part of that is in the system I was talking about with the clover field. So we call that a clover living mulch. And there are many different farmers– that's the cool thing about Momentum Ag– is that they are incentivizing in ways they're paying farmers to do the research of these trials, sort of taking what extension services do at one step further and putting it in the hands of farmers and having them trial different things and in many ways problem solving. Farmers are great problem solvers. So they'll think of ways to create tools that'll work for these new systems. If you imagine that clover living mulch, obviously it's going to grow like your yard and there's going to be timing for when you need to trim, or the edges around those beds sometimes can get a little bit, you know, plants want to grow, and so they want to creep into that nice fertile soil area that you've created for the vegetables.

So you got to try to figure out the best ways to manage that. And so we come out with weed whackers, we come out with our tractors that have little tooling situation set ups so that they can just keep those pathways clean. As a production farmer, it can sometimes, for me, look a little bit messy. I like a nice clean, weed-free field. And so this kind of pushes back against that thinking a little bit and allows us to try to see really if we can save time. If we can in fact, throughout these processes, we're measuring soil temperatures, we're measuring the nutrient exchanges. We're looking at how the water may flow differently. We're trying to use less fertilizer. We're trying to see if what we're mowing from these lanes of clover, and it's very hard to get a pure stand of clover, so there are other plant species in there, I don't want to call them weeds, but plant species in there that might be beneficial to the crops. And so there's some thinking around if you mow and utilize that in the bed, could that be thought of as fertilizer? And so those are all really cool ways in which different research trials are happening and farmers are getting reimbursed for taking the risk of trialing the research so that we can take it to that next step where we see it on larger scales and see if they are in fact sustainable and useful.

Dinah: Well, it's exciting that you have this outcome of crops that you need to give away in this study, and Feast Box sounds like such a great use of that. What are some of the biggest challenges of this Feast Box program for you and how do you overcome them?

Meghan: Well, like I said, we are a nonprofit and grant funded. So this year, obviously we took some big hits with funding. The first year that we operated, we were excited to be able to use the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Grant, and that one we were not able to get for the second year. So we did some fundraising through Zephy campaigns and GoFundMe campaigns and just tried to put the word out that way. But being a young, small farm, sometimes it's hard to grab the attention and share the story in the right way to secure that funding. We did get a grant from Berkshire Taconic Community Fund because one of the schools that we are working with is in Pittsfield, and they really wanted to see us not only continue that program, but to see if we could expand upon it with their funding. And so funding, I would say, is the biggest challenge.

It's interesting, as I say that, because I went from selling vegetables to just giving vegetables away. And I think that there's always this has to be this, I call it a money hustle, for lack of a better word, but there's always got to be the funding there in order to make that work and that mission happen. So being a young farm, some of the challenges we also are facing is we have a really beautiful piece of property, but it hasn't had a farm operating on it regularly. So we have a lot of barn space and we have a greenhouse that's beautiful, but we don't necessarily have all the trucks that we might need to move things around or especially covered for if it's a rainy delivery day or something like that. So we've been getting really creative around problem solving those small things. And Molly and I are so invested and so excited about this program that we're willing to kind of use our own vehicles at times to do those things. So yeah, I'd say funding is the biggest hurdle. And with that, we would be able to solve some of these smaller problems and scale up pretty quickly, I think.

Dinah: Are there challenges you could speak to around working within a school and getting the infrastructure of getting these vegetables into the hands of students and into the school, or is that just a really easy process?

Meghan: We've tried to make it a really easy process. I think initially when we were thinking about the Feast Box or where these vegetables would go, we thought about senior centers and food access points, and we're still doing some of that also, but we kept, coming from CSA background and experience, I've always loved that personal connection with the farmer to the consumer, I guess, or the vegetable eater. And so I really liked the idea of thinking about a CSA, and we're very close. The farm is very close to New Hingham Elementary up in Chesterfield. And so it was sort of a natural step to reach out to them and try to navigate this idea. And I think at first it was a little bit confusing or challenging to visualize food for students, you're just going to give them to the kids, actually what does that mean? It's hard to visualize. And so it wasn't that there was any pushback, but I think it was hard to really get the wheel moving until we did our first real distribution. New Hingham has been a really great school to pilot all this in, they were very open to figuring it out. And I think having the relationship with the principal, with the administrator in the office that could help us, she would be the one around all the classrooms, putting the number of students that were in each class. So we knew how many boxes to distribute. And then we had a very excited, energetic teacher that was more the liaison that would handle all my emails and questions, so I wasn't harassing the Principal too much because they're obviously very busy. So in that, what we were hoping to do was just really make it easy for families to get the food. I wanted to see the food go into the schools and the school lunches, but it's challenging to work through some of those procurement avenues that schools have to deal with. And I feel really excited to tackle understanding that because I am newly a part of Farm to School and what it really means for schools to pull local produce in house to use in their lunches. And there's a lot that I don't know, but I feel as a farmer sometimes frustrated that that connection can't be stronger and deeper. And I in no way minimize the work that's being done around that and has been done. There's a lot of really beautiful stories around those connections. So for me, I really wanted to just get food into the kids' hands and how could I do that easily? And really all the schools needed to do, all the schools that we're working with needed to do was tell me how many kids.

And we would show up, drop the boxes, try to make sure that those were all exiting the schools and not being left around if somebody wasn't there or anything like that. And we would take all the boxes if anybody wanted to recycle them and get rid of them or anything like that. So we just really wanted to make that easy for the school. They don't have to do really anything except tell me when, tell me how many and yeah, just leave it, keep it simple, make it fun.

Dinah: That sounds like a dream for schools to have something easy and simple. So for you, I mean, this might sound like an obvious question, but what are the biggest rewards of your work with Feast Box?

Meghan: Seeing that kids are actually interested in getting vegetables. I think that it's easy to think that kids will be picky and not want to eat that, or like, "Ew, they're vegetables. I don't like them." I think that that's often an easy answer for kids and kids and vegetables. It's super fun to be in the garden. It's super fun to get your hands dirty. And that's a very beautiful experience where kids are learning and even tasting. But for this, I felt really excited about the kids having the responsibility to like, or even the responsibility and ownership of bringing something to their family and that empowering their excitement for how they might eat it or what's even in the box. It's like a present, and what that would create as far as school culture, everybody in the school, principals, teachers, bus drivers, kitchen staff are all getting a box.

We really wanted it to be a one for all. And so some of the stories that came out that were so great were that the kids would open up the boxes and be like, "I don't really like this. " And they would start to trade amongst themselves, "I like that, but I'll take this. " So they were really getting excited about what was in there. And some tomatoes, like pints of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes were not making it all the way home. The kids were eating them before they got there. They were learning about vegetables they hadn't seen before. You go to the grocery store and you're not necessarily going to buy fresh turnips or fennel or things like that. We really try to put things in the box that people are familiar with and then sneak in something that is new and different that maybe they haven't seen before.

So that was really cool to create culture around food in the schoolhouse so that everybody was sharing like, "What did you do with it? How did you use it? Did you try the recipe?" Those kinds of conversations I felt like were really beautiful and really sweet and the excitement of the kids when they get the box every week. I felt Molly and I would be like, "I feel like we're low key famous a little bit here." We'd come into the schools and they'd be like, "Hi, hi Farmer Megan. Hi Farmer Molly." So that was a really lovely piece to see that it was actually working.

Dinah: Yeah. As a farmer, you probably don't always get that opportunity to see the people and connect with the people who are eating the labor, your labor. And so to actually get to see that and have it be youth and see how excited they are must feel very rewarding.

Meghan: It does. It really does. And this is follow up for me for this season is to reach out again to the schools to just get those stories and get that feedback. That's what I use the winters for is sort of gathering all that exciting information.

Dinah: So how do you connect with the local community to make this program so successful? And what are some important partnerships that you've had?

Meghan: Well, I had said in the schoolhouse, obviously the administrators in the school and that one excited teacher or staff member that wants to help continue those conversations so that we're making sure we're being respectful, being in the school and not disruptive when we come to deliver those vegetables. We obviously appreciate all the funders that have offered us monies to do what we're doing and carry that out. Other farms that we connect with to help fill the boxes. We have been very successful in what we've grown, but we have reached out to other farms for certain crops that we can't grow well up in that climate or haven't grown them well. They maybe weren't so successful or we needed more because we didn't grow enough, that kind of thing. We've reached out to other farms to help us grow some of our starts. Families that are invested in this and see the program as valuable and giving us that feedback is really helpful for us in telling our story and creating the momentum behind all that we're doing.

Dinah: So looking into the future, what is the vision for Feastbox down the road? What are you thinking of for the next season and beyond?

Meghan: Well, we want to expand. We want to reach as many students as possible. So figuring out those funding avenues will be really useful to that so that we can work out our infrastructure and efficiencies and we can hire more people to pack more boxes to deliver to more schools. I'd love to develop the relationship to be more educational, invite students to the farm that are able to get there. I know that that can be challenging, but with the school that we're working with up there, I think that we want to bring them to the farm so that they can have a hands-on experience at the school, or excuse me, at the farm. We also work with Conte Community School in Pittsfield and they have garden space and do some of their own programming. And so this year we did some work in growing starts for them and planting them and helping them maintain the garden space. I think that's one of the biggest challenges of garden spaces at schools is who's going to take care of them in the summertime. So we put in a lot of effort there, but really in the future, I'd love to expand on that educational piece and whether that's us going to the schools and working in their gardens or creating programming in the schools or inviting students to come and families to come to the farm to see what we're doing and participate in some of the work if they want to.

Dinah: If someone who's listening would like to start a program like Feastbox where students are taking crops home from farms, what kind of advice would you give to them?

Meghan: I would say start small. As much as I want to grow, I want to grow thoughtfully. Being the size that we are now, which is we're growing on two acres. We've this year delivered 2,400 feast boxes this year, which feels really great. And we feel like we can double that for next year if we can secure the funding. But what's been really nice about being small and growing is that we've been able to make these really interesting and creative pivots at moments. So if the school is having an event, for instance, this year, Conte Community School had a fall fest in which all the students are invited to the school in their costumes and they get to have a Halloween experience at the school. And we came and we hadn't planned to do this, but we came with like 200 feast boxes and we were like, "This is our Halloween treat." And it was our way of sort of introducing ourselves to the community in the case that we are able to grow that program, we wanted to make sure families were kind of like, "Who are these guys and what is this Feast Box and what is this all about? 

People that are interested in starting this, I think that what's important is connecting with the school and having those conversations first so that they can participate in helping shape the program and what's going to work. Thinking, my farmer brain always thinks from A to B. So how do you get the vegetables that you want into the hands of the students and make that easy for them to bring home? Having fun with it. Something that we experienced in the box size that we chose is that vegetables don't always grow the same size and they need to be able to fit in the box and some things will and some things won't. So understanding timing is really important in your harvest and your crop plan is really important. And of course, finding that consistency in the funding sources, and maintaining the joy in the experience.

Dinah: Maintaining the joy, words to live by. Is there anything that I didn't ask you while we were talking that you would like to share?

Meghan: This year was really fun. We tracked poundage that we donated and distributed and we on that two acres grew 17,000 pounds of vegetables, which for two people, I will say, growing that and lifting that and giving it out, it feels good. It feels like a really profound thing. Again, coming from production farming and working with a team of 20 and shrinking that down to what can two people do, what can I myself do? It feels great to think about that, I will say, as I'm getting ... I'm an aging farmer. I feel thankful that we're able to do that much on such a small piece of property and that there's room for growth even. 

Dinah: Yeah. So two people, two acres, 17,000 pounds of food donated. That's outstanding. 

Meghan: Yeah. That's the joyful feeling I get when I'm like…the day-to-day obviously feels great. I love being dirty and all that, but when we get to aggregate all that information at the end of it, it really feels valuable and unique. And obviously, thankfully, a story worth telling.

Dinah: How could listeners find you if they want to know about getting Feast Box or supporting this program or emulating it? Let us know how can we find you?

Meghan: Happily you can reach me at megan@momentumag.org or if you also go to that website, momentumag.org. There's a Farm Lab page specifically that you can go to. I want to emphasize that it's momentumag.org because there is another momentum ag out there and it's an insurance company out in the Midwest, I think, something like that. So momentumag.org, you'll find us there on the Farm Lab page. And yes, reach out. I would love to support anybody interested in creating their own program or obviously talking to us about how they can support our program and getting more food into students' hands.

Dinah: Well, thank you so much, Megan, for talking today and thanks for the work you do and feeding youth and school communities and so generously bringing those vegetables, and also for the innovative farming techniques you are invested in.

Meghan: Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about that.

This podcast is a production of the Northeast Farm to School Collaborative. For more information about this podcast or farm to school in the northeast go to northeastfarmtoschool.org