Otter Orchard

The History, Benefits and Future of Otter Orchard

I don't mean for the title to be scary....like you have to read a report or anything....but really wanted to put some info out for the whole school community, as we start to wind down the year, and think about the future of Otter Orchard. Unfortunately, our future is in jeopardy.....and we're going to need the support of the whole school community if we want to continue Otter Orchard.


History


The idea came from a parent...."how about a produce stand to help defray costs for the Gold Country field trip that parents are required to pay for as part of the 5th grade curriculum? I'll go down to the wholesale produce market, buy some produce, and we can sell on campus." Sounds great! Multiple (mega-multiple?) planning and volunteer hours later, it began.

A core team of people divvied up the responsibilities, and gravitated to doing what they liked (always key in volunteer recruitment!). Amazingly to me, the most people stepped up to volunteer to go down to the produce market at a ridiculous hour in the morning....and they fought over the chance to do it! Uh, just to be clear - I wasn't one of those people.

But I can see why....it's an exciting environment, a beehive of activity at an unreasonably early hour.

Eventually, we streamlined our process even further and set up a delivery system for our produce - so now our early birds can just receive the produce in the morning at Montclair. Heck, if so inclined, they could just roll out of bed in their jammies, sign for the order, and roll on home to catch a couple more hours of nod time.

We also evolved into all organic all the time, based on customer feedback. Here's my thoroughly professional continuum of how to decide what we stock:

As you can see, we are currently purchasing smack in the middle of the continuum.


We decided Wednesdays were a great day for a produce stand for several reasons. It seemed like a natural - hump day, between the weekends when folks can procure their fruits and veggies at the local farmer's markets. And not of little importance, it's the day that one of our core team members doesn't work, and the day that one of the portables is vacant before and after school in order to stage the produce for sale.


Our produce stand is a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to buy fruits and veggies after school, but we also needed to address the parents who can't be at school until sometimes 6pm to pick up their children. So, to serve these needs, as well as for customers who are super-excited by the prospect of lots and lots of produce, we created the weekly farm box program. Not surprisingly, this is where most of our revenue comes from, and as anyone in retail can tell you, being able to plan your profit margins more accurately from pre-sales makes for a successful business. But ya gotta have the bricks n' mortar for presence, marketing, customer service, and most importantly, community involvement.

Okay....I think we're up-to-speed on the history. Next up:



Benefits


Ahh...so, so many benefits. 

• It's a weekly profitable enterprise. 
• It's an opportunity for students to experience running a business firsthand.
• The produce table has the ability to create community. 
• The healthy eating component is a huge benefit for our children.

We've all seen the media out there-childhood obesity is such a hot-button topic that President Obama created a Childhood Obesity Task Force in February. From that came Michelle Obama creating Let’s Move, an initiative whose goal is "to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation." Chef Jamie Oliver is attacking school lunch programs in American school districts with his program Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, after doing the same in the U.K. On a local basis, most people are aware of Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady who engineered the revitalization of the food in the Berkeley school district with the help of Alice Waters and many others. These are all flashy, media-driven bandwagons. 


However, there are many more grass-roots movements going on, which I like to believe we can be a part of.  

Future

Oakland Unified is involved with creating a Farms-to-Schools Network to specifically provide fresh farm produce for sale to parents at schools who don't normally have easy access to it.  These markets have become so valued to the communities they serve that when solicited two months ago to volunteer at the markets, more people signed up than there were available volunteer shifts. The average weekly sales of School Markets have increased over 30% since their inception in October 2006. Today, each School Market sells an average of $600.00 of fresh organic produce each week. In May 2008, 117 parents were surveyed and 99% reported that their families have been eating MORE fresh fruits and vegetables since they have been shopping at the School Market, and 91% reported that their children ask them to buy produce at the School Market.

Two very different models of farms stands also exist in fairly close proximity. One is at Glenview Elementary and the other is at Windrush, a private school in El Cerrito. 

Montclair is now in the position of needing to decide how to proceed with Otter Orchard. As we 5th grade parents wind down our final weeks, we are left to wonder what the future holds. What should the primary goal be for Otter Orchard? Is it profits? Is it community building? Is it promoting and modeling healthy eating? Or is it a blend? What we definitely do know:

1. Otter Orchard will always take a core, passionate group to drive it;
2. It needs the support of the larger school community, including the PTA and Administration; and
3. The students need to be involved to the very greatest extent possible

With that, I think you're up-to-date. Please leave a comment or e-mail me with any thoughts or ideas - how you've felt about Otter Orchard, what you've liked, didn't like, or how you might see it's future. We've thoroughly enjoyed this experience but relish the idea that others may be able to create the next level. Have a great week!


otterorchard@gmail.com