Cherry Capital Foods Meeting Demand for Local Food in Schools

Traverse City-based food distributor Cherry Capital Foods is helping Michigan schools respond to the demand for local food in school lunches. In just the first two months of this school year Cherry Capital Foods has seen an increase in orders of more than 800% over last year, totaling more than $41,000 in sales of produce from area farms to schools.

Cherry Capital Foods is delivering local produce to more than 20 school districts in northwest Lower Michigan, spanning north to Harbor Springs and Inland Lakes to Clare in the south, including Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools, Traverse City Area Public Schools, Glen Lake Community Schools and Leland Public Schools in the Grand Traverse Region

Lake City Schools is a great example of increased use of local foods in school meals. Ron Homan, the Food Service Director, uses a variety of local products in his every day lunches through purchase from Cherry Capital Foods. “It’s been a good choice for us,” Homan said. “The company has been great. They take care of all the licensing and paperwork and make sure the farms are doing everything right.”

Homan goes through “a lot of apples” each month and uses items such as onions, red peppers and zucchini for things like pizzas and wraps that call for fresh vegetables. Ron and his staff are always looking for ways to incorporate fresh produce into the school kitchen’s meals. “The kids like what we get and it helps the Michigan economy,” Homan said with a smile. “It’s a win-win situation.”

Richard Friske of Friske Orchards in Attwood has worked with Cherry Capital Foods since its inception. “We’ve always tried hard to sell as much of our product locally as possible, and have succeeded on many fronts.  Local schools however were always a challenge for us, because of their need to buy in smaller quantities that we were not able to deliver in.  This season has been marked by dramatic increases in volume of all the fruit and fruit products we supply to CCF.  I believe that the amount of our products that CCF is distributing to schools in Northern Michigan has been an area of very strong growth, which is a significant benefit to our business, to the business of CCF, and to school students in our area.  I look forward to a continually growing relationship with Cherry Capital Foods.” said Friske.

This school year TCAPS Montessori also held their first local food fundraiser in cooperation with Cherry Capital Foods, which resulted in more than $4500 worth of local farm products purchased. Local food fundraisers have also been held this year at Leland and Suttons Bay Schools as well as Bellaire and Glen Lake Schools in the past.

The uptick in school purchases is a success story for the Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network’s goal to increase the resilience and double the value of the region’s food and agricultural system by 2019. The Network is a forum for the region’s many food and farming interests to advance their work as a result of the six-county citizen-led Grand Vision process that calls for strong farms, healthy people, and abundant, fruitful farmland. The network includes representatives from farming, food service, processing, government, education, finance, public health, family and youth services – and distribution, including Cherry Capital Foods.

Cherry Capital Foods works with midsize farms that are diversified in the crops they raise, ranging from meat farmers, cheese operations, fruit growers and produce farmers as well as food businesses turning local farm raised crops into shelf stable products like jams, juices and sauces. A mission driven business, Cherry Capital Foods’ goal is to make buying local an easy, every day routine.

Schools are finding that having all sorts of local produce and other locally produced foods in one place and arriving in one delivery helps them place local on the menu daily. Food service directors are able to purchase this food with confidence as Cherry Capital Foods is third party certified as a food handler, has a track and trace system in place, holds sufficient insurance, and keeps all food in climate controlled settings. Schools are given a detailed list of the farm or producer of each item and their location to keep them connected to the farms they are supporting.

“Buying locally produced food from a locally owned distributor keeps more of our food dollars in our community, simplifies purchasing and keeps multiple trucks off the road” says Kelly Lively, Cherry Capital Foods School Liaison. “The kids benefit from Food Service Directors using local ingredients to create healthy meals, for body and mind. I hope we can all appreciate the important role our Food Service Teams play in our schools!”