Growing for our Local School Systems
As an organic vegetable farmer and mother of two kids who attend public schools, I am proud to share that Moon Valley Farm grows for two school systems, Frederick and Montgomery County Schools.
Moon Valley Farm, located in Frederick County, MD, primarily sells to a year-round Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, an online farmers market for home delivery and to the best restaurants (over 100!) in Washington, DC, Northern VA, Baltimore and Maryland. Since 2021, we’ve added sales to the school systems as well to help balance our sales channels as well as to feed the children in our communities!
Growing for the school systems has been our newest sales channel for several reasons – the schools require lots of volume of product, consistent product size and quality, high food safety standards, and perhaps most importantly, all of that in the WINTER months.
In our 13th year of business, we have invested in massive walk-in coolers to store crops such as carrots, beets, onions, butternut squash and cabbage that we harvest in the fall and are able to keep all winter long. Additionally, we have invested in 9 (soon to be 10!) greenhouses and high tunnels to enable us to grow fresh greens all winter long, and get an extended growing season for summer favorites including cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Lastly, we aggregate from several dozen local farmers that we know and trust to ensure our ability to follow through on the harvests requested by the school systems.
Working with the schools requires navigating through some red tape to get your foot in the door, but on an ongoing basis one major challenge is how far in advance the school meals are planned out. In fact, the schools right now are planning for their Fall and Winter menus for 2024-2025! Another major challenge is that most of the schools do not have enough cold storage, staffing, and/or kitchen equipment to process and cook raw produce, so we have to work to avoid the sales of crops that require a lot of processing or cooking such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, butternut squashes or sweet corn.
Crops that we’re providing for the schools include spinach, salad, carrots, apples, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, hakurei (or salad) turnips, radishes, pea shoots, peaches, pears and cucumbers.
Moon Valley Farm is a certified organic farm that participates in the Soil Benchmark Study and the Healthy Soils fund. Owner and farmer Emma Jagoz is the Organic Seat for the Governor’s Agricultural Commission, sits on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Board of Soil Stewards, is a trainer for intermediate farmers in a regional Beginner Farmer Training Program and was named Farmer of the Foodshed by Future Harvest in 2024. Moon Valley Farm works to strengthen the region's food security and mitigate climate change challenges through regenerative land stewardship and agriculture.