More than half of the schools in St. Lawrence County have expressed interest in joining the farm-to-school program that would bring more locally produced food into school cafeterias.

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, was pleased with the turnout for a meeting Aug. 5 to discuss details of the farm-to-school pilot program that will be rolled out in North Country school cafeterias this fall.

"This meeting (held in Watertown) and the one we held late last month in Canton are among the last steps we needed to accomplish to put growers together with school food service managers so our students can eat locally grown foods in their school cafeterias this coming school year," Assemblywoman Russell said.

Russell’s 116th Assembly District includes all St. Lawrence County communities along the St. Lawrence River, plus Canton and Potsdam.

St. Lawrence County schools that have expressed an interest in participating in the program include Canton, Hammond, Hermon-Dekalb, Heuvelton, Lisbon, Madrid-Waddington, Massena, Norwood-Norfolk, Ogdensburg Free Academy and Potsdam.

Each school will get an allotment of funds ranging from $2,750 to $40,000 for the school year tied to a formula that includes the number of meals served in each school's cafeteria the previous school year.

ANCA will provide professional support and also have been tasked with data collection and compilation.

"They will be preparing a report based on that data, which will be critical as we try to increase this program in future years and grow it to other parts of the state," according to Assemblywoman Russell, chair of the Assembly Task Force on Food, Farm and Nutrition Policy.

"I didn't know what kind of turnout we would get from our producers, knowing how much time they are having to spend watering their crops during the drought this summer," she said.

"We are reaching that point in the growing season when our producers are close to knowing what products they will have to offer schools this year. That's critical because our school food service managers are ramping up for the beginning of the school year," Russell noted.

She said the discussions at the meetings have brought out issues that will need to be improved as she seeks to gain support to expand the farm-to-school program statewide.

"We've identified areas where the state can make improvements. We need to get multi-year funding for the farm-to-school program so our farmers can make plans for their crops based on schools' needs, and our school food service managers have a better feel for the availability of local foods for their planning purposes," she said.

"We need to be able to accommodate the schools' schedule, where purchasing and menu decisions are planned months and months in advance of food being placed on the lines in our school cafeterias. The state budget approval comes too late in the planning process for our farmers to prepare for the potential school market for the coming growing season," she added.

The 2016-17 state budget included $300,000 for a farm-to-school pilot program in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties. The Adirondack North Country Association has been selected to administer the pilot program.