Buying Local

Food Hubs

Food hubs offer local food aggregation and distribution with convenient online ordering and invoicing, for schools and other institutions.

Puget Sound Food Hub has two aggregation sites: One in Mt. Vernon, and Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Everson. Sign up on the website to easily purchase food on-line from local farms, and have it delivered to your school.

Using Food Hubs to Create Sustainable FTS Programs, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, 2014. A study of four regional food hubs in Vermont demonstrating how food hubs can support farm to school and build markets for local producers.

Local Food Directories

• Puget Sound Fresh App is a free mobile app offering quick and easy access a growing list of farms and farmers, farm products and activities in Washington State.
• San Juan Island County Food & Farm Map is produced by the San Juan Islands Agricultural Network, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting agriculture.
• Whatcom Food & Farm Finder is an online and printed directory of farms and food businesses in Whatcom County (and some in Skagit County) produced by Sustainable Connections. Sustainable Connections works to promote local food and connect food and farming businesses of all kinds.
• Whidbey Island Farm Map and Guide is a brochure highlighting farms and farmers markets on Whidbey Island.

Harvest Schedules

Find out when products are in season in your area.

• Puget Sound Fresh
• Washington Grown Fruits, Legume, and Herbs Seasonality Chart
• Washington Grown Vegetable Seasonality Chart

Food Procurement

• A School’s Guide to Purchasing Washington-Grown Food is designed for school food service personnel to help clarify the rules about applying a geographic preference in procurement of Washington-grown foods for school meal programs.
• Food from Farms: Toolkit for Direct Purchasing of Local Food, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, 2017, provides adaptable tools and examples and templates to start farmer-direct local purchasing.
• The Good Food Purchasing Program provides tools and technical support to establish institutional food purchasing practices based on five core values: local economies, health, valued workforce, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability.
• Ingredient Guide for Better School Food Purchasing, School Food Focus, 2017, highlights a list of unwanted ingredients in school food.
• Local Food for Little Eaters: A Purchasing toolbox for the Child and Adult Care Food Program – Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems. The tools included provide step-by-step instructions for purchasing from a variety of local food sources and provide highlights from successful early childhood local purchasing initiatives throughout the country.
• WSDA Farm to School Toolkit – Procurement and Geographic Preference – This webpage includes the templates schools can use for making quote requests and samples of other useful documents for procuring local produce.
• USDA Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables – Washington is one of eight states participating in this USDA Pilot Project which enables school districts to use their USDA entitlement funds to purchase locally grown, minimally processed products from USDA-approved vendors. The WSDA’s farm to school team and OSPI’s Food Distribution Program can help schools determine how much entitlement they would like to set aside, connect with vendors, and navigate procurement procedures.
• The USDA webpage on Procuring Local Foods offers a wealth of documents, toolkits, and resources to facilitate purchasing local foods including this guide to Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition Programs.

“Fifth Season”

“Fifth Season” refers to processing and freezing bountiful local foods in season for use during the school year. For example, The Orcas Island Farm to Cafeteria Program arranges for several Island farms to deliver organic fruits, vegetables and herbs to the school kitchen in late summer. Volunteers then slice, dice, peel, process and freeze the produce to be used in school meals during the school year.   

• Orcas Island Farm to Cafeteria Program – Fifth Season – Site includes a video and information about implementing a fifth season program.
• Farm to Cafeteria: Implementing a Fifth Season at Your School, WSU Ext. Skagit County, 2017, guidance for starting fifth season food processing in schools.

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