By: Sharonda Chiangong & Yaza Sarieh
Sharonda Chiangong is an Emory Rollins School of Public Health Masters Candidate, studying Global Health. Yaza Sarieh is the Community Collaborations Coordinator at Georgia Organics.
The ACRE Collective: Advancing Agriculture, Community, Resilience & Equity through Values-Based Procurement is a collaborative partnership aimed at enhancing the availability of nutritious, locally sourced foods, to the advantage of every participant within the food network. Through value-based procurement (VBP), the ACRE Collective aims to create sustainable, long-term buying relationships between local food producers and large institutions, such as schools, universities and hospitals. The Common Market Southeast leads the ACRE Collective with support from organizations such as Georgia Organics, Health Care Without Harm, and the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University to help ensure the longevity of values-based food procurement practices in Atlanta-area schools.
One of the ACRE Collective’s first projects was to launch a values-based local food incentive pilot program with Marietta City Schools and Rockdale County Public Schools. This pilot demonstrates how local food incentive dollars support a shift toward local procurement, catalyze economic opportunity for diverse farmers in our region, and increase student access to fresh, healthy foods. The ACRE Collective provided a $60,000 grant to these districts with the goal of increasing the amount of local, culturally significant foods included in school meals and encouraging statewide adoption of a local food incentive program for all schools in Georgia.
With the support of Georgia Organics, the ACRE Collective also empowers school nutrition staff by sharing knowledge on best practices for fresh food prep, information on where fresh ingredients are sourced from, and structure for how to plan nutrition education activities to engage student leadership in school nutrition. Students give their insights and feedback during taste tests, which ultimately shape the food purchased and the meals served in the cafeteria.
Nutrition Workshop for school nutrition staff at Marietta City Schools, pc: Marietta City Schools
In April, Georgia Organics supported the “Feed My School” event at the Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, during which the ACRE Collective hosted multiple taste tests. The purpose of this event was to showcase Georgia Grown foods and get students’ input on the foods they would like to see in their school meals. The event took place during the students’ lunch period, and lunch featured Georgia Grown foods. The cafeteria was set up so that students could walk around to different tables and try various locally grown produce items.
In addition to tasting the produce item, students participated in fun activities and trivia and voted on whether they liked it and wanted to see it incorporated into cafeteria meals.
The Georgia Organics table highlighted pecans! Students learned that Georgia is the nation’s largest supplier of pecans, with an average annual harvest that could make nearly 150 million pecan pies! They also learned fun facts about this staple product, like:
Georgia has been the nation's leading pecan-producing state since the late 1800s.
There are approximately 78 pecans used in every pecan pie!
Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the United States.
Pecan Trees have a lifespan of up to 300 years!
July 12th is National Pecan Pie Day!
Pecan taste test at Marietta City Schools pc: Sharonda Chiangong
The ACRE Collective is an opportunity for school cafeterias to build demand among our next generation of consumers for delicious, fresh, and sustainably produced local food while offering tremendous financial support to a local food system that nurtures the land and our communities.
For more information about the ACRE Collective, visit their website or check out The Common Market Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) pages.
Order farm-fresh pecans right to your doorstep by visiting the Rolling Branch Farms website!
To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit georgiaorganics.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.