For over five years, RSU 12 has prioritized incorporating local produce in its schools by pledging to the Harvest of the Month campaign.
Harvest of the Month promotes using seasonally available, local products in the lunchrooms and supports the efforts of the Farm and Sea to School Network, a group dedicated to building a communication and coordination infrastructure throughout schools and communities to support farm-to-school programs around the state. The program is available nationwide and to Maine schools who participate in the National School Lunch Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program, a federal program dedicated to providing reimbursements for nutritious foods to those who are enrolled in participating child care centers, day care homes, and adult day care centers.
RSU 12 is the only participating district in Lincoln County, Farm and Sea to School coordinator Katie Knowles said, and has been for five years.
“Harvest of the Month is ideal,” said RSU 12 Director of Student Nutrition Services Mike Flynn.
Every month, a local product is highlighted. For March, the focus will be Maine protein. Sponsored schools pledge to serve the product as well as promote it through educational activities and materials. The Maine Department of Education sends participating schools items to share with the students such as posters, stickers and even recipe ideas that they can take home with them to share with their families.
Flynn said focusing on one ingredient allows him and his staff to get good at mastering it in a variety of ways as well as exposing it to the children. Too many ingredients at once might not only overwhelm the students but cooks as well, Flynn said.
“Folks can kind of focus on that item and celebrate it because it’s locally grown,” he said. “We can celebrate the farmer along with the ingredients and introduce it to the students.”
To highlight Maine root vegetables such as radishes, beets, and carrots, Flynn worked on attacking meals with a vegetarian and vegan approach, which teaches students the wellness benefits of plant-based foods, he said. Some of the recommended recipes to bring home include a curried carrot soup and parsnip biscuits.
For March, Flynn has 200 pounds of haddock stocked up, provided by the Maine Fishermen’s Association. Flynn said that they also are working on buying poultry from a new company that has halalcertified air-chilled poultry that is Maine raised and harvested. For the non-meat eaters, Flynn is also working on incorporating plantbased proteins, such as beans and rice.
When it comes to buying protein, Flynn said the Department of Education’s Local Foods Fund promotes public schools buying from harvesters and farmers that are local to the state. Flynn and others can submit 50% of the invoice for reimbursement for local food purchased up to $10,000. In 2025, RSU 12 spent 100% of its Local Foods Fund dollars, which at the time was $5,500. The amount of reimbursement also increased since last year from 33% to 50%.
So far in 2026, Maine schools have spent $700,000 on local food purchases, which means that amount has been reinvested into local food systems and economies.
“They’re supporting Maine agriculture by encouraging us and helping us pay for things that may be challenging to buy at a price the farmer or grower needs,” Flynn said.
Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association’s Director of Strategic Partnerships Susan Olcott said most of her time over the past year and a half has been working on getting more seafood into schools.
The organization coordinates with Harvest of the Month by working with local food coordinators in the participating regions to help promote whatever product the month’s focus is, such as the haddock for protein month. Because of the Local Foods Fund, they are also able to receive 50% reimbursement for the seafood that is bought locally.
Even when it is not protein month, Olcott said that the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association highlights ingredients that might align with another month. This is done through partnerships with different seafood companies, such as Graffam Bros. Seafood in Rockport, where they worked together to make fish cakes and tots for the schools that coincided with the month focused on potatoes. They have also partnered with chefs from around the state to figure out how to pair seafood with the month’s focus, such as squash.
“Trying to put those pieces together to really elevate local food as a whole, not just seafood, but hoping that those two things will, you know, together, we can kind of create some momentum that includes seafood,” Olcott said.
Before their involvement with Harvest of the Month, Olcott said she had been working with valueadded seafood, which is seafood that has been processed or enhanced to better its market value and shelf life. After developing a monkfish stew through the organization’s Fishermen Feeding Mainer’s program and the product selling in retail markets, it was brought into some schools, where it was a hit. Olcott said it was a major push toward the association’s involvement with schools across the state.
Beyond donating to schools, Olcott said that the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association hosts samplings accompanied by educational materials. These include what the fish they are eating looks like and posters of the fishermen that describe what they catch, how they catch it and where they’re from. In partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institution, Olcott said that they also have a sustainable seafood curriculum for middle school students to introduce different types of seafood and explain the benefits health wise, climate wise and industry wise.
Farm and Sea to School as a whole is a network that is made up of multiple entities and is housed within the nonprofit foundation Healthy Communities of the Capital Area, which partners with community members across the state to improve health and quality of life through local efforts.
Knowles said her job is to get more locally grown and caught food onto school meal trays. In broader terms, the network is all about relationships, specifically the ones between schools, farmers, fishermen, and food producers. She said that the goal is to incorporate Maine’s food systems into the student’s everyday lives.
Knowles called the work being done by programs like Farm and Sea to School and Harvest of the Month a win for three different groups: the students, the farmers, and the communities. The students benefit from having local food on their plates and connecting with their food system; communities win because they are seeing their tax dollars being reinvested locally; and the farmers win by having a hyperlocal food economy.
“Having that financial support really levels the playing field to create affordability with local foods, along with our Harvest of the Month Program, has really just been so successful in having schools be involved in sourcing locally,” Knowles said.
Other resources related to Harvest of the Month includes the pilot program, the Regional Local Foods Project. Knowles said that all of these food nutrition programs are connected, this specific one offering hands on support by having a local foods coordinator for every superintendents region in Maine. Coordinators go into schools to host culinary trainings and taste tests. Knowles said the pilot has been successful in leveraging resources and reaching schools that are further away.
“So being able to have Harvest of the Month to promote these ingredient and these products, but then having the Local Foods Fund to be able to create the affordability, and then having the Regional Foods Project being able to connect the schools with farmers and provide that culinary technical assistance. It really kind of just stacks together and really creates and strengthens theses efforts,” Knowles said.
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