USDA grant supports local food focus for Maine culinary arts students
Courtesy / Maine Region 2 CTE
Students in Maine Career and Technical Education culinary arts courses, like these ones seen in a Region 2 (Southern Aroostook) video, will get more training on how to incorporate locally produced foods into their work with support from a USDA grant that will pay for instructor training.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded the University of Maine Cooperative Extension a $300,000 grant to bring more of a focus on local food products into the classrooms of Maine’s Career and Technical Education culinary arts programs, a move expected to strengthen the state's local food economy as well as its hospitality workforce.
The aim of the program is to give immersive training to culinary arts instructors, encouraging the use of Maine grown, processed and produced foods in courses, as well as in the eventual careers of those who attend CTEs.
Better training instructors to bring classroom focus to using local products will help develop "a skilled culinary workforce with a deep connection to Maine’s farming traditions and enhancing opportunities for Maine’s local farmers and food businesses," said U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st district, in a news release announcing the grant.
The grant funding is provided by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with UMaine Cooperative Extension and Maine Ag in the Classroom partnerhing on the program.
With the funding, CTE Culinary Arts Instructors will attend a week-long Immersive Culinary Arts Summer Institute that will include hands-on experience in local food procurement practices, demonstrations of food system lessons, educational field trips, financial support for experiential activities through their existing school restaurants, participation in a University of Maine Local Foods Competition and coaching during the school year.
There are 27 CTE centers in Maine, providing skills training to high school students. Most of the centers offer culinary arts programs, which prepare students for careers as professional chefs and related cooking services in restaurants and other commercial food establishments. Many of the students earn certificates and go on to careers directly from high school, rather than secondary education.
“Maine is nationally lauded for the quality of our food and restaurant sector: almost 64,000 Mainers work in restaurants,” Pingree said. “This federal investment will encourage agricultural literacy for culinary teachers and instructors and bridge the gap between agriculture and food service. As a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, I’ll use this example to continue my advocacy for these key funds."
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