Serving Locally Sourced Foods to Students

Serving fish and locally harvested foods for school lunches

At school districts across Alaska, students can sit down for school lunch and be served locally harvested, Alaska-grown ingredients. That includes locally caught salmon and other types of fish in Sitka schools and Alaska blueberries in the North Slope.

Serving locally caught wild fish at school lunch

Sitka School District —Sitka, an island community of about 9,000 in Southeast Alaska, is known for its local wild salmon. Now, that fish is being served to children at school. Every Wednesday in Sitka, students in all schools can eat locally caught fish during school lunch. 

Every year, Sitka hosted a health summit. Community members picked goals to improve the health of their residents. Serving locally caught wild salmon and fish in schools became the goal at the 2010 summit. This program, called Fish-to-Schools, relies on several partnerships with the Sitka Conservation Society and local fishermen.

Fish like wild salmon have health benefits for children.

"It's just really good for you, while tasting so good," said Eric Jordan, a Sitka fisherman who donates some of his catch to the program.

The fish provide lean protein, as well as omega-3 fatty acids that are healthy for the heart and brain development. Sitka's program organizers and local fishermen said the Fish-to-Schools program nourished their children and gave them more opportunities to eat locally caught fish.

Many local commercial fishermen legally donated their catch to the Sitka school district's lunch program. All fish provided to school children had to be processed in a facility that meets state guidelines. The Sitka School District also bought fish needed for lunches, and a grant helped fund the program.

Watch this video and  see how the Fish-to-Schools program worked for the Sitka School District..

Serving halibut and Alaska-grown ingredients at school

North Slope Borough School District — Geno Ceccarelli made many healthy changes after arriving as food service manager of the North Slope Borough School District. He served as much fresh, whole food as possible. He even found a way to serve fresh halibut in school lunches through an Alaska Grown grant.

Ceccarelli first visited Utqiaġvik, formerly called Barrow, as a volunteer for a camp. He was surprised by the amount of processed food he found in the freezer. That included processed fish sticks. From 2015-2017, Ceccarelli put fresh fish on the menu. He prepared and served fresh halibut from Norton Sound. The fish was well received and, he said, highly missed when the grant ended.

Ceccarelli incorporated other Alaska-grown ingredients into his food service program. He mixed Alaska blueberries and honey into a healthy snack  baked with lentils, oatmeal, sunbutter and cinnamon. "The kiddos love them," he said. Ceccarelli makes his foods low in added sugar and salt.

How to support change

This is what Alaska communities are doing to help kids grow up healthy. What can your community do?

For ideas on how to provide healthy foods, drinks, and physical activity for kids, return to: