The Direct Farm Impact of Richland Bean Blossom School Food Purchasing

School food procurement is one of the most consistent and high-volume food purchasing relationships in any community. For rural Indiana districts like Richland-Bean Blossom, local sourcing decisions made inside one food service office can have immense impact on nearby farms. Every dollar spent on Indiana products creates a ripple, supporting independent producers, reinvesting in the community, reducing supply-chain distances, and giving students a direct relationship with the land that feeds them.

Where they are

Vickie Coffey sharing the new Edgewood High School Cafeteria and Kitchen to FARMWISE Staff

Food Service Director Vickie Coffey has led purchasing for RBBCSC's five schools since 2001. After being exposed to the farm-to-school movement at national conferences, she began in 2010 to really focus on local. Over the 15+ years since, Coffey has assembled a network spanning six distributors, dozens of local farms, grant funders, and community partners. To calculate her impact on the local economy, we applied the National Farm to Institution metrics to quantify the RBB Indiana Farm and Food Business Impact (INFFBI) for the 2024-25 fiscal year (FY25).

Where they are going

Coffey's vision is a standing weekly call from farmers sharing available inventory and pricing, routed through distributor infrastructure for efficiency. But, for now, she is proud to work with what they have. And her advice for others starting on a similar journey is simple: "Do it. Build relationships and partner with others. Start with a broadline distributor. Let people help you."

How we can help

FARMWISE Indiana can help with the relationships and connections between farmers, buyers, and distributors that make local sourcing possible. It isn’t usually the easy path, but institutions can make local food choices, and those purchases impact farmers, students, and the local food economies throughout Indiana.

Apples sourced from nearby Slaughter Orchard