Walter Hilty, an Amish farmer, and Alex Burgess, district food service director for Huntington County Community School Corp., both spend a lot of time thinking about food.
Hilty grows it, cultivating his family farm in northeast Indiana’s Adams County. Burgess procures it, feeding more than 4,000 schoolchildren daily in Huntington schools.
Through FARMWISE Indiana — an Indiana University program focused on strengthening regional food systems across the state by “bringing local food to local plates” — Hilty’s snack peppers, tomatoes and onions made it onto Huntington schoolchildren’s plates for the first time this school year.
“My number one priority in menu planning is to provide our students with as much fresh, healthy produce on a daily basis as possible,” Burgess said. “The amount of time and energy that FARMWISE Indiana has saved our district in coordinating local food orders is a gift greater than gold and has improved the nutritional quality of our school lunches.”
