Connections made through work group members help improve child nutrition

Erin Primer moved to San Luis Obispo County in 2016 to take a job at San Luis Coastal Unified School DIstrict  (SLCUSD) where she is the Director of Food & Nutrition Services. With a background in the culinary and high quality ingredient world of catering, Erin was adamant that students should be getting the highest quality food she could find. She was determined to improve the nutrition in her department, so she began researching how she could get local farm-fresh food into her kitchens.

Meanwhile, a work group of the Food System Coalition (FSC) was conducting farmer outreach and data gathering in order to explore the idea of setting up a Food Hub in San Luis Obispo County. In doing that research, the group found that small local farmers often needed more sales outlets for their crops and so, they started to work to connect farmers to institutional buyers.

Jeff Wade, Found and Executive Director of Slow Money San Luis Obispo, was a leader in that work group and, given this nonprofit’s focus on supporting local farmers, he began networking to organize farmer-to-buyer-mixers in collaboration with other work group members, including Central Coast Grown (now City Farm SLO), and The Farmers’ Guild. The first mixer was held at The Guild Hall in August 2016 to connect farmers to restaurants, grocers, distributors, and co-ops.

In January 2017, a second mixer was held at Farm Supply SLO which Erin Primer attended after being invited by organizers who expanded their buyers pool to include school districts. That’s where Erin met Jeff who was interested in learning more about her Farm to School ideas. The two began the conversation on how they could collaborate to get high quality, nutritious, and local food to students.

I was excited to share my Farm to School focus and ideas with the attendees, and even more excited that I met advocates and collaborators!” - Erin Primer, San Luis Coastal Unified School District

Later that year, Erin was invited to a meeting of the Food System Coalition (FSC) that was focused on Farm to School initiatives. She and two other food service directors met with the group and presented how their food service departments operated, and what they were looking for from local farmers. Erin was thrilled to be at a meeting where so many sectors of the food system were represented! She had never been a part of such a group and knew right away that she was in good company with like-minded, nutrition-focused folks.

Erin Primer and two other directors address a FSC crowd.

I couldn’t believe such a group existed! To have a group of people who were assessing the food system as a whole blew my mind. I knew I was in the right place!” - Erin Primer, San Luis Coastal Unified School District

Erin has kept up with the FSC over the years, and is ever supportive of its efforts to make our food system more sustainable. Additionally, thanks to the activity of those past work groups, and the persistence of members, Jeff and Erin have been collaborating closely ever since that 2017 mixer and have grown the Farm to School effort in the county exponentially, reaching not only SLCUSD, but other school districts in the county as well. Erin is grateful for the convening space that Slow Money SLO and the FSC offered, and for the continued work both groups do in education and outreach.

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The FSC is happy to play the connector role in stories like these! It is our pleasure to bring diverse sectors of the food system together because we know, as shown here, that the amazing agencies, individuals, nonprofits, and businesses in our county will always carry out great projects that move us all toward a more sustainable food system!